Manifest Destiny And American Exceptionalism - 879 Words

I believe that Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism conflict with American values established by the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. Manifest Destiny is the idea that America is destined to expand from coast to coast with everything in between and American Exceptionalism is the idea that America is far more superior and unique when compared to the rest of the world. While the American values can vary from person to person most think of the right to freedom, speech, liberty, justice, unity, individualism, and that all men were created equally. During the 1840’s when James K. Polk became the president he was able to expand the United States territory. During one of his annual messages to Congress, Polk spoke about a†¦show more content†¦Mexico had declined an offer that would reduce it size so much which led to them being attacked and still losing this huge part of their territory. American Exceptionalism was a term first used by Alexis de Tocqueville when speaking of the United States. According to de Tocqueville the United States was made of people from many different backgrounds and that he did not believe the rest of the world could match. De Tocqueville thought America was amazing because of this so called American Exceptionalism. He thought that since this country was made of many different backgrounds it meant it was an amazing place but I think de Tocqueville only understood the half of it. The United States was paving a path to the New World and people wanted to join in because it was a place made up of mostly people seeking to explore and leave their old lives behind. American Exceptionalism is this idea that America is better than the rest of world but it really was not. I think that the United States was built off of an ideology that was unrealistic in some ways. All of their ideas were valid but to them the values and standards became sort of unrealistic and impossible because they said that they could be their own country where they held each other up and that â€Å"all men were created equally†. In reality we can see that the start of our country was based of want and it was a good enough to kill the people who were native to the land. TheShow MoreRelatedManifest Destiny Essay1346 Words   |  6 Pagesthat would evolve into the American ideology known today as Manifest Destiny. Still, it was not until 1834 that the newspaper editor, John L. OSullivan, is believed to have first coined the phrase â€Å"Manifest Destiny† when he said in his article Annexation, ...our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions (OSullivan 2). 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