Manifest Destiny and Empire: American Antebellum Expansion

Manifest Destiny and Empire American Antebellum Expansionism BY

Robert W. Johannsen John M. Belohlavek Thomas R. Hietala Samuel J. Watson Sam W. Haynes Robert E. May EDITED BY

Sam W. Haynes and Christopher Morris

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Published for the University of Texas at Arlington by Texas A&M University Press C O L L E G E STAT I O N

Copyright

© 1997 by the University of Texas at Arlington

Manufactured in the United States of America All rights reserved First edition 0 4 03 02 01 00 99 98 97

5

4 3 2 1

The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, Z39. 48-198 4. Binding materials have been chosen for durability.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Manifest destiny and empire: American antebellum expansionism

/ by

Robert W. Johannsen . . . let al. l ; edited by Sam W. Haynes and Christopher Morris. - 1st ed. p.

cm. - (The Walter Prescott Webb memorial lectures ; 31)

ISBN 0-89096-756-3 1. United States -Territorial expansion. Walter,1925-

.

III. Morris, Christopher, 1958E179.SM32 973-dc21

1. Johannsen, Robert

II. Haynes, Sam W. (Sam Walter), 1956IV. Series.

1997 97-25072 CIP

To Virginia Garrett

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I,

CONTENTS

Preface xi Introduction 3 Robert W Johannsen The Meaning of Manifest Destiny Robert W Johannsen

7

Race, Progress, and Destiny: Caleb Cushing and the Quest for American Empire John M. Belohlavek "This Splendid Juggernaut": Westward a Nation and Its People Thomas R. Hietala

48

The Uncertain Road to Manifest Destiny: Army Officers and the Course of American Territorial Expansionism, 1815-1846 68 Samuel]. Watson Anglophobia and the Annexation of Texas: The Quest for National Security 115 Sam W Haynes Manifest Destiny's Filibusters Robert E. May

146

21

PREFACE

The essays in this volume were presented in March, 1996, for the Thirtieth Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lectures, held annually at the University of Texas at Arlington. These lectures, all devoted to the theme of early u.s. expansionism, seek to bring into sharper focus the territorial ambitions of Americans-both policy makers and private citizens-in the decades prior to the Civil War. While approaching this subject from different perspectives and lines of inquiry, these essays underscore a peculiarly American paradox, for it was during the nineteenth century that the United States emerged as a hemispheric power, even as it grew increasingly unsure of its very identity as a nation. This year's Webb Lecturers have written and researched widely on the subject of Manifest Destiny and American empire. Robert W. Johannsen is J. G. Randall Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His many books include Stephen A. Douglas (1973) and To The Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagina­ tion (1985) . Thomas R. Hietala is an associate professor at Grinnell College and the author of Manifest Design: Anxious Aggrandizement in Late Jackso­ nian America (1985) . Sam W. Haynes is an associate professor at the Univer­ sity of Texas at Arlington. He is the author of Soldiers of Misfortune: The Somervell and Mier Expeditions (1990) , and James K. Polk and the Expansion­ ist Impulse (1996). John M. Belohlavek is a professor at the University of South Florida. He has written George Mifflin Dallas: Jacksonian Patrician (1977) and Let the Eagle Soar! The Foreign Policy of Andrew Jackson (1985) . Samuel J . Watson received his Ph.D. from Rice University i n 1996 and is an adjunct professor at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. His contribu­ tion to this volume won the 1996 Webb-Smith Essay Competition. Robert E. May is a professor at Purdue University. His books include The Southern

Dream of a Caribbean Empire, Crusader (1985).

1854-1861,

and John A. Quitman, Old South

On behalf of the UTA department of history, we would like to acknowl­ edge several benefactors and friends of the Webb Lectures. C. B. Smith, Sr., an Austin businessman and former student of Walter Prescott Webb, gener­ ously provided the endowment that makes possible the annual presentation and publication of the lectures. Additional support came from the Rudolf Hermanns Endowment for the Liberal Arts. The loyal support of Jenkins and Virginia Garrett of Fort Worth is long and ongoing. Once again, we thank them. President Robert Witt supported our efforts by generously providing a reception in honor of the lecturers. Thanks also go to Stanley Palmer, interim department chair, for his many helpful suggestions as we planned this year's lectures, and to Steven Reinhardt, tireless chair of the Webb Lectures. We dedicate this volume to Virginia Garrett. Her interest in the history of U.S. expansion into the Southwest led her to collect hundreds of items that document it. Her generosity led her to place those documents among the UTA Special Collections, where they may be used by others who share her interests.

Sam W Haynes Christopher Morris

XII

P R E FACE

Manifest Destiny and Empire

Introduction Robert W. Johannsen

Although destiny and mission have a pedigree that predates the nation itself, it was not until the early nineteenth century that profound changes in Amer­ ican life were combined with the idealism of the nation's revolutionary be­ ginnings and with currents of European Romanticism to produce a popular romantic nationalism that gave new meaning to the idea of progress. ����� mental to the feelings of national superiority generated by romantic natipI1allSftiwiis-t· ne:-t-Onvi