Dan E. Clark

“ Last, but not least, it was during this decade that California came within the scope of practical politics and Manifest Destiny. “California,” declared Benton in 1846, “become independent of Mexico by the revolt of the Picos, and independent of them by the revolt of the American settlers, had its destiny to fulfill — which was, to be handed over to the United States. So that its incorporation with the American Republic was equally sure in any and every event.” ”

“ America was still the land of the free and the home of the brave. At the same time it is true that there were always those who denied the force of predestinarian logic; and at the close of the last century there were many critics who exposed selfish economic imperialism lurking behind finesounding phrases.
The definite formulation of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny no doubt belongs to the decade of the roaring forties. With respect to the Pacific Coast and the Pacific, however, it seems certain that the essential features of that idea were in men's minds at a considerably earlier date. ”

“ Such a country can have but one people, one interest, one government: and that people should be American—that interest ours—and that government republican. . . Accursed and infamous be the man that divides or alienates it! ”

“ For instance, in 1825 the Ohio State Journal, speaking of the Oregon country, said: “One fourth part of this territory, that part which contains the Oregon harbor, will, at a future day, enter the Republican Confederacy as Oregon State; and the City of Oregon, will arise on its banks, which shall rival New York or Philadelphia in their wealth and population. Then the busy hum of commerce and the shouts of freemen, shall re-echo from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans.” [12] Five years later the Buffalo Journal reviewed the irresistible westward march of American pioneers. ”

“ Benton became a convert to the plan and made his famous speech in which he suggested that the completed line should “be adorned with its crowning honor, the colossal statue of the great Columbus, whose design it accomplishes, hewn from the granite mass of a peak of the Rocky Mountains, overlooking the road, the mountain itself the pedestal, and the statue a part of the mountain, pointing with outstretched arm to the western horizon, and saying to the flying passenger, “There is the East! There is India!” ”

“ Sir, our natural boundary is the Pacific ocean. The swelling tide of our population must and will roll on until that mighty ocean interposes its waters, and limits our territorial empire.” Finally, to conclude these rather extended excerpts from this early apostle of Manifest Destiny, Baylies reached his climax when, in his peroration, he exclaimed : “To diffuse the arts of life, the light of science, and the blessings of the gospel over a wilderness, is no violation of the laws of God ”

“ The amazing letter from President Tyler, attributed to Webster, which he bore to the Emperor of China, breathed condescension and cited “the will of Heaven” that a treaty should be the outcome of the mission. [19]
During this decade also the pioneer promoters of a railroad to the Pacific, like John Plumbe and Asa Whitney, were painting alluring pictures of the great development of commerce with the orient that would follow the fruition of their plans. They did not neglect to call attention to the attendant opportunities for the dissemination of the light of American civilization. ”