Annotated Bibliography: Manifest Destiny

O'Sullivan, John. "Editorial on Manifest Destiny, Excerpted from "Annexation"" The United States Magazine and Democratic Review 17 July 1845: n. pag. Print.

In this editorial written by John L. O'Sullivan, he speaks on his commendation of the addition of Texas to the Union and to hopefully look further west to California as a site of future expansion. He believes that there is no notion to say annexation is a great pro-slavery measure, it is not calculated to increase and perpetuate slavery. Although O'Sullivan denied claims that Texas had anything to do with the expansion of slavery, the westward expansion fueled those sectional tensions that led to the civil war.

Thoreau, Henry David. ""On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,"" Aesthetic Papers 2 May 1849: n. pag. Print.

Henry David Thoreau wrote a doctrine of "civil disobedience" which was the non violent refusal obey to unjust laws, that had inspired leaders around the world such as Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  His ideas had sprung up during his stay at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts; it was there where he spent a night in jail in his refusal to pay taxes. His withheld payment was formed because he did not feel like he could support the government which endorsed slavery and was waging an unjust war against Mexico. Thoreau questions the existing unjust laws: would we obey until we succeed or would we amend those laws and immediately transgress them? Until the day comes where any subject denies allegiance and when any public officer resigns from office, then the revolution has finally been accomplished.

The two sources contest each other, as O'Sullivan describes the advantages of adding Texas to the Union, Thoreau explains how civil disobedience could eventually stop such unjust governmental actions. The annexation of Texas included an unjust war which the United States had waged against Mexico. O'Sullivan is a supporter of the idea of Manifest Destiny which is a phrase used by leaders and politicians in the 1840s to explain expansionism and is another term used to support Nationalism. Although Thoreau is a deep believer of civil disobedience (after all he created the ideal), there is some notion where you could say he opposed the Manifest Destiny. He thought the expansion of Texas was unjust based on the fact that the country which is overrun is not our own, Mexico had been conquered by a foreign army and is subjected to military law, and that foreign army is our own.

These documents could be used in our study of the Manifest Destiny because they both provide opinions on the annexation of Texas. We could use the doctrine of civil disobedience to see how the opposing side of the country felt about that annexation and how their beliefs could be used to stop the unjust laws of the government. And we would use O'Sullivan's editorial to explain how the supporters of the annexation felt and how they look to future expansion to California. But in order to fully understand the concept we would need breadth, in another number of sources with other opinions.