WESTWARD EXPANSION: The Manifest Destiny of Americans

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WESTWARD EXPANSION The Manifest Destiny of
Americans?
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Manifest Destiny a phrase used by leaders and
politicians in the 1840s to explain continental
expansion by the United States revitalized a
sense of "mission" or national destiny for
Americans.
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The people of the United States felt it was
their mission to extend the "boundaries of
freedom" to others by imparting their idealism
and belief in democratic institutions to those
who were capable of self-government.
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But there were other forces and political agendas
at work as well. As the population of the
original thirteen Colonies grew and the economy
developed, the desire and attempts to expand
into new land increased.
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After the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory,
ample land seemed available for the takingFor
many colonists, land represented potential
income, wealth, self-sufficiency and freedom.
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Even before Lewis and Clark finished their epic
journey to the Pacific, mountain men were
traveling up and down the Missouri River in
search of fur.
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They were a rough-hewn bunch of adventurous
entrepreneurs--that came to be called "Mountain
Men."
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These solitary fur-trappers lived thousands of
miles from civilization. Most had no home, no
money and no possessionsexcept what they
could carry on their backs. They lived
completely off the land
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In 1806, Albert Pike was sent west to explore the
great plains and Rocky Mountains.
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Unfortunately, in his reports Pike referred to
the plains as "the Great American Desert," a
name that stuck. Even though much of the region
is nothing like a desert, people back east
conjured up images of sand dunes and cactus.
No emigrant in their right mind would try to
cross a severe wasteland--and so the big move
west was delayed.
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Pike's opinion that the west was a vast desert
was confirmed by Maj. Steven Long, who led an
expedition west in 1819.
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Long and his men passed through what is now
Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas and
Oklahoma. He concluded that the entire region was
unfit for human habitation.
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The second major westward expedition was was
backed by the world's richest man--John Jacob
Astor. Astor had read about Lewis and Clark's
journey and by 1810 he saw an opportunity to make
money.
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His plan was to set up a fur-trading enterprise
at the mouth of the Columbia River. Just one
problem--how to get his men across the uncharted
American West.
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Robert Stuart led the Astor expedition.Along
the way, Stuart made an incredible discovery--he
found a 20-mile wide gap in the Rocky
Mountains--the one passage where wagons could get
through. Named South Pass, this find would become
the key to western migration.
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Explorer John Fremont became one of America's
biggest heroes because of his journeys west.
(He got the job largely because his wife's
father was the powerful Missouri senator
Thomas Hart Benton.)
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Benton believed America had an innate right to
all the lands of the west, an idea that came to
be called "Manifest Destiny." And so Fremont was
under strict orders to make the west seem
attractive--worth settling
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Even though the reports bear his name, Fremont
didn't write them. He gave up and left the work
to his wife--the intelligent and articulate Jesse
Benton Fremont. It was sheas much as
anyonewho lit the spark of America's big move
west.
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In addition, Horace Greeley, founding editor of
the New York Tribune, one of the first "penny
daily" newspapers, influenced his nearly one
million readers throughout the United States with
his ideas about the lure and value of westward
expansion
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In the 1840s, he urged an entire generation to
"Go West, young man!" Do not lounge in the
cities! There is room and health in the
country, away from the crowds of idlers and
imbeciles. Go west, before you are fitted for
no life but that of the factory. (New York
Tribune, 1841)
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In 1845, California appeared on the map as a
northern province of Mexico. Already there was
a small but prosperous community of
Spanish-speaking cattle ranches.
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The Oregon country was a huge tract of wilderness
that extended north from California to the
Alaska border. No one knew for certain to
whom the land really belonged
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It was claimed by both the United States and
Great Britain who had signed an unusual treaty
of joint occupation. The American pioneers
were really emigrants leaving their own country
to a foreign land
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The influx of Americans into Oregon in the 1840s
ignited a dispute that eventually led to demands
by both countries for war.
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The dispute originated in the fact that the
boundaries of Oregon had ever been clearly
fixed. The southern boundary of Russia extended
to the 54 degree, 40 minute parallel of
latitude.
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The Democratic Party even made the phrase, Fifty
Four, Forty, or Fight their 1844 campaign
sloganThe dispute was quietly settled with
the boundary set at 49 degrees the original
proposal by the United States.
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When Oregon itself became an official section of
the United States in 1846, the 2,000 miles of
the Oregon Trail made it the longest thoroughfare
in the republic.
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The first emigrants to Oregon came by ship before
atrail was established. Ships continued to to
travel to Oregon even after the overland
migrations began, but they were not popular
among the pioneers.
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First, the fare for a sea journey to Oregon was
quite expensivefew pioneer families could
afford it. Second, most Oregon-bound pioneers
came from the central statesfar from any sea
port. Lastly, the sea journey often took up to
full yearversus 4-6 months by wagon.
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The journey west on the Oregon Trail and
California Trail was exceptionally difficult by
today's standards. One in 10 died along the
way many walked the entire two-thousand miles.
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The overland move began in 1841 when a party of
69 hardy souls left Missouri, led by a farmer,
John Bartleson, and a schoolteacher, John
Bidwell.
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The financial collapse and depression of 1837 had
prompted people to look for opportunities in the
west, but the discovery of gold in California in
1848 sent the emigration numbers up to 55,00 per
year over the Oregon Trail !
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Over the next 25 years more than a half million
people went west on the western trails. Some went
all the way to Oregon's Willamette Valley in
search of farmlandmany more split off for
California in search of gold.
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Still other emigrants headed west because of
religious persecution in the United States. The
Mormons (members of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter Day Saints) were driven from their homes
in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1846.
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The church was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith
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but its ideas about communal economics and
plural marriage drew hostility from non-believers.
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After Joseph Smith was arrested and murdered by
an angry mob in Illinois
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the religious group resolved to move westward,
often by handcarts
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where three years later, Salt Lake City would
be built as their new home.
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The political and religious leader Brigham Young
would oversee the building of a prosperous city
and state of Utah
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ON THE TRAIL
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There was no great highway across the continent
merely a pair of parallel wheel ruts traced by
wagons across the sod of the prairies.
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The Missouri River heads due west from St. Louis
so most emigrants loaded their wagons onto
steamships for the upstream journey. It was
easy traveling, but it didn't last long.
Two-hundred miles from St. Louis, the Missouri
takes a cruel turn to the north.
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Further upstream was Westport, St. Joseph, Omaha
and Council Bluffs.The economies of these
frontier towns depended on emigrants passing
through
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Each spring these small hamlets became raucous
boomtownsas thousands of emigrants camped for
days, or weeks while getting ready to begin the
journey. (Independence was by far the most
popular point of departure in the trail's early
years.)
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Our party after leaving Independence, proceeded
up the Missouri river for four days, when it was
thought advisable to halt, and remain there a
week, there being good grass at the encampment,
and recruiting our animals, get everything in
proper readiness for the progress of our long
journey our company at this encampment all
collected together numbering about forty wagons.
Soon after our arrival at this point, we
discovered fresh signs of Indians, which caused
us to keep a pretty close guard over our animals,
and indeed ourselves. Samuel Hancock, 1845
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Huge conestoga wagons were never used by the
pioneers--they were just too unwieldy.
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Instead, the emigrants used small farm wagons.
Although they appear simplistic, farm wagons of
the 1840s were technologically-advanced vehicles
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The wagon box measured only four feet by ten
feet. Most emigrants loaded them to the brim with
food, farm implements and furniture--often over a
ton of cargo.
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A family of four would need over a thousand
pounds of food to sustain them on the 2000 mile
journey to Oregon.
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What animal would pull the emigrant's covered
wagons? That question was hotly debated among
the westward-bound pioneers.
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Sold out my land in Ioway on Monday, the 19th of
March 1852 and now for Orrigon. The first thing
for good teams. Two good waggons and 6 yoak of
oxen. All well and in good sperrets. Philemon
n Morris, 1852
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Horses were quickly rejected because they could
not live off prairie grasses along the way. As
a result, most of the emigrants decided on oxen.
They were strong could live off grass or sage
and were less-expensive.
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After a few days on the trail, the emigrants
would settle into a well-defined daily routine.
Awake before sunup yoke the oxen, cook the
breakfast and hit the trail.
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There was an hour break for lunch and at about
six p.m., they set up camp.
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There were days we toiled over the arid plains
till far into the night to reach the life-giving
water that was a necessity to us and to our
trains.  The children of the company walked many
many miles....sometimes I think I walked half of
the way to Oregon!  Some days it was very hard to
find fuel enough for our camp fires.  Many a
time our simple meals were cooked over a fire of
buffalo chips and sage brush. MARY 
ELIZABETH MUNKERS, 1851
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The emigrants did circle their wagons, but it
wasn't for protection against the Native
American tribes. Instead, the circle provided a
convenient corral for loose livestock.
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At this time encampment on the Little Blue there
were more wolves than I ever saw, or might say
ever heard of before, for they made the night
hideous with their yelling, and to persons
unaccustomed to such sounds, at least it seemed
to me as if all the wolves for a thousand miles
around had congregated at this particular place,
for our especial benefit. In the morning they
could be seen dispersing in droves, in different
directions, and we were by no means loathe to
part with these traveling musicians. Samuel
Hancock, 1845
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The first section of the Oregon Trail bisected
two major Native American tribes--the Cheyenne to
the north and the Pawnee to the south.
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The emigrants worried about both. But the
expected attacks did not come in fact, there
were many instances of Native American
kindness--helping pull out stuck wagons rescuing
drowning emigrants even rounding up lost
cattle.
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Most of the encounters with Native
Americans were simple business transactions.
The emigrants offered clothes, tobacco or
rifles, in exchange for Native American horses or
food.
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Within a few years, the emigrants had overgrazed
the prairie grasses, burned all the available
firewood, and depleted the buffalo. Soon many
tribes along the Platte were impoverished.The
emigrants worried a great deal about possible
Native American attacks, but very few were ever
actually killed by the native tribes.
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Perhaps the most important confrontation with the
native tribes occurred near Ft. Laramie. It
began innocently enougha single cow wandered
away from an emigrant wagon train. When the cow
showed up at a nearby Sioux village, the tribe
promptly ate it.
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An aggressive Lt. Grattan and 28 men then left
Fort Laramie with a single objectivepunish the
Sioux. The Sioux recognized their error and
offered a horse in return for the cow, but
Grattan ordered his men to fire on the tribe.The
Sioux chief told his warriors to withhold
retaliation. Grattan fired again and killed the
chief. Strikes and counterstrikes escalated into
all-out war--the battles continued for decades.
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The real enemies of the pioneers were poor
sanitation and--surprisinglyaccidental
gunshots.
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Traveled 16 miles, and camped on a middling,
large stream of water. this day Denton drove
Charley's wagon against a stump, and broke the
tongue, and in crossing the river, the wagon
upset, and detained us some time with little
other detriment. The boys caught some good fish
at this place. Grass good. Aunt Betty died of
the consumption. Buried her. William Porter,
1848
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River crossings were a constant source of
distress for the pioneers.Hundreds drowned
trying to cross the Kansas, North Platte and
Columbia Rivers--among others.
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We crossed the Green River at a very steep place
where the banks sloped sharply to the river's
edge. The boys unloaded two of our wagons and
fastened the two wooden beds together, and swam
across the river and anchored the rope to a tree
on the other side. The beds were loaded with
food and the dismantled wagons were pulled across
the river, where the wagons were put together
again. The cattle swam to the other
side. Sarah Sprenger, 1852
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Perhaps the biggest problem on the trail was a
mysterious and deadly disease--called cholera
for which there was no cure.
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Often, an emigrant would go from healthy to dead
in just a few hours. Sometimes they received a
proper burial, but often, the sick would be
abandoned, in their beds, on the side of the
trail. They would die alone
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The most horrifying of all stories occurred in
1846an incredibly unbelievable story of the
Donner Party, 47 out of 81 who survived being
caught in the mountains, mid-winter without
food, forced to consume their dead comrades
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THE JOURNEYS END
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Newcomers were quick to put down roots.
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New towns seemed to spring up overnightlike
San Francisco
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Who Were the Pioneers?
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They came from all walks of life, some new
immigrants from Europe, some from well-respected
families of the founding fathersHere are a
few of their faces and stories
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William T. Lieuallen and his bride, Margaret
Fuson, were married the day before they set off
from the Fuson home to get ready for the trip to
Oregon
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Gabriel Trullinger, a German emigrant, and
Elizabeth Johnson Trullinger, the niece of future
president Andrew Johnson. Like many pioneer
families, the Trullingers had been moving
steadily west for years before making the trek to
the Oregon Country. On April 6, 1848, the
Trullinger clan set out for Oregon with three
ox-drawn wagons.
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Jon Baker, first cousin to General Robert E. Lee.
His family owned a large tobacco plantation but
Jon was not the eldest son and stood to inherit
no land. So he felt that his best chance of
making his fortune in the world was to head west.
Jon was elected captain of the wagon train, and
as a result he was known as Captain Baker for the
rest of his life.
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The Jorys were a working class family with
limited prospects in England. In search of
opportunity, the family left England for Oregon
aboard the HMS Restitution.
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Richard A. Bogle and America Bogle, born in the
West Indies in 1835, moved to New York City and
to the Oregon Territory. They were among many
free African-Americans who made the journey
westward.
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Mary Jane Holmes came to Oregon as a slave of
Nathaniel Ford and his family. The wagon train
they came with also included black pioneer George
Washington Bush and was led by renowned guide
Moses "Black" Harris.
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David Lenox was born in New York to English
parents descended from the noble House of Lenox.
Orphaned at an early age, he left for Oregon,
shortly after marrying Louisa Swan, the
plantation owner for whom he worked.
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The branch of the Boone family that emigrated to
Oregon was led by Daniel's grandson, Alphonso
Boone. Moving west seems to have run in the
family. In 1841, he set up shop in Independence,
Missouri, outfitting fur traders and caravans on
the Santa Fe Trail. In 1846, Alphonso headed west
with seven of his children,
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At the age of 25, Ebenezer Ellis left his home in
Iowa, and set out for the Oregon Territory with
his pregnant wife and 18-month-old son.
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The glory years of the westward trail sfinally
ended in 1869, when the transcontinental railroad
was completed.
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Actual wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail still
exist today in many parts of the American West
and many groups are working hard to preserve this
national historic treasure.
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Westward Expansion