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93-702: The State Fair Arena and Exposition Building covers a combined total of 110,000 square feet (10,000 m). The 117-acre (0.47 km) fairgrounds were acquired by the City of Birmingham in 1947. For many years, the grounds were home to the Alabama State Fair. State fairs in Alabama date back to the days of the Antebellum South . The statue of Vulcan , was originally displayed at the fairgrounds, either whole or in pieces during its construction; it

186-531: A Hill " sermon of 1630, in which he called for the establishment of a virtuous community that would be a shining example to the Old World . In his influential 1776 pamphlet Common Sense , Thomas Paine echoed this notion, arguing that the American Revolution provided an opportunity to create a new, better society: We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to

279-685: A closely related nexus of principles: historian Walter McDougall calls manifest destiny a corollary of the Monroe Doctrine, because while the Monroe Doctrine did not specify expansion, expansion was necessary in order to enforce the doctrine. Concerns in the United States that European powers were seeking to acquire colonies or greater influence in North America led to calls for expansion in order to prevent this. In his influential 1935 study of manifest destiny, done in conjunction with

372-406: A defended concept, with proponents arguing for its positive merits , while simultaneously vehemently opposing the burgeoning abolitionist movement . Society was stratified, inegalitarian, and perceived by immigrants as lacking in opportunities. Consequently, the manufacturing base lagged behind that of the non-slave states. Wealth inequality grew as the larger landholders took the greater share of

465-597: A shortage of liquid capital, which, when aggravated by the need to concentrate on a few staples, the pervasive anti-industrial and anti-urban ideology, and the reduction of Southern banking, led to a South dependent on export trade. This was in contrast to the economies of the Northern and Western U.S., which relied primarily on their own domestic markets. Since the Southern domestic market consisted primarily of plantations, Southern states imported sustenance commodities from

558-440: A source of labor for the harvesting of crops. There were almost 700,000 enslaved persons in the U.S. in 1790, which equated to approximately 18 percent of the total population or roughly one in every six people. This would persist through the 17th and 18th centuries, but it was not until the invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney in the 1790s that slavery grew very profitable and that the large plantation system developed. In

651-464: Is an accepted version of this page " Manifest destiny " was a phrase that represented the belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand westward across North America , and that this belief was both obvious ("manifest") and certain ("destiny"). The belief was rooted in American exceptionalism and Romantic nationalism , implying the inevitable spread of

744-697: Is indispensable that they should be associated in one federal Union. Adams did much to further this idea. He orchestrated the Treaty of 1818 , which established the border between British North America and the United States as far west as the Rocky Mountains, and provided for the joint occupation of the region known in American history as the Oregon Country and in British and Canadian history as

837-491: Is now a Birmingham landmark atop Red Mountain. During the civil rights demonstrations of the 1960s , the fairgrounds were used by Police Commissioner Bull Connor to imprison arrested demonstrators when the city's jails were full. The fairgrounds have also been used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for a disaster outreach event. "Kiddieland," a small amusement park located at

930-555: The American Civil War as a struggle to determine if any nation with democratic ideals could survive; this has been called by historian Robert Johannsen "the most enduring statement of America's Manifest Destiny and mission". The third theme can be viewed as a natural outgrowth of the belief that God had a direct influence in the foundation and further actions of the United States. Political scientist and historian Clinton Rossiter described this view as summing "that God, at

1023-558: The Democratic Review , in which he first used the phrase manifest destiny . In this article he urged the U.S. to annex the Republic of Texas , not only because Texas desired this, but because it was "our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions". Overcoming Whig opposition, Democrats annexed Texas in 1845. O'Sullivan's first usage of

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1116-587: The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and the Polk administration in the 1840s. In 1811, Adams wrote to his father : The whole continent of North America appears to be destined by Divine Providence to be peopled by one nation , speaking one language, professing one general system of religious and political principles, and accustomed to one general tenor of social usages and customs. For the common happiness of them all, for their peace and prosperity, I believe it

1209-765: The New Caledonia and Columbia Districts . He negotiated the Transcontinental Treaty in 1819, transferring Florida from Spain to the United States and extending the U.S. border with Spanish Mexico all the way to the Pacific Ocean. And he formulated the Monroe Doctrine of 1823, which warned Europe that the Western Hemisphere was no longer open for European colonization. The Monroe Doctrine and "manifest destiny" formed

1302-439: The Polk administration . Whigs denounced manifest destiny, arguing, "that the designers and supporters of schemes of conquest, to be carried on by this government, are engaged in treason to our Constitution and Declaration of Rights, giving aid and comfort to the enemies of republicanism, in that they are advocating and preaching the doctrine of the right of conquest ". On January 3, 1846, Representative Robert Winthrop ridiculed

1395-467: The Republican form of governance . It was one of the earliest expressions of American imperialism in the United States of America. According to historian William Earl Weeks, there were three basic tenets behind the concept: Manifest destiny remained heavily divisive in politics, causing constant conflict with regards to slavery in these new states and territories . It is also associated with

1488-592: The Treaty of Ghent in 1814 with Britain. They rejected the British plan to set up an Indian state in U.S. territory south of the Great Lakes. They explained the American policy toward acquisition of Indian lands: The United States, while intending never to acquire lands from the Indians otherwise than peaceably, and with their free consent, are fully determined, in that manner, progressively, and in proportion as their growing population may require, to reclaim from

1581-669: The Walter Hines Page School of International Relations , Albert Weinberg wrote: "the expansionism of the [1830s] arose as a defensive effort to forestall the encroachment of Europe in North America". Manifest destiny played an important role in the development of the transcontinental railroad . The transcontinental railroad system is often used in manifest destiny imagery like John Gast's painting, American Progress where multiple locomotives are seen traveling west. According to academic Dina Gilio-Whitaker , "the transcontinental railroads not only enabled [U.S. control over

1674-466: The settler-colonial displacement of Indigenous Americans and the annexation of lands to the west of the United States borders at the time on the continent. The concept became one of several major campaign issues during the 1844 presidential election , where the Democratic Party won and the phrase "Manifest Destiny" was coined within a year. The concept was used by Democrats to justify

1767-513: The 15 years between the invention of the cotton gin and the passage of the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves , an increase in the slave trade occurred, furthering the slave system in the United States. The Antebellum South saw large expansions in agriculture, while manufacturing growth remained relatively slow. The Southern economy was characterized by a low level of capital accumulation (largely slave-labor-based) and

1860-407: The 1846 Oregon boundary dispute and the 1845 annexation of Texas as a slave state , culminating in the 1846 Mexican–American War . In contrast, the large majority of Whigs and prominent Republicans (such as Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant ) rejected the concept and campaigned against these actions. By 1843, former U.S. President John Quincy Adams , originally a major supporter of

1953-472: The American South in large numbers to support European demand. By 1670, more than half of all tobacco shipped to England was being re-exported to other countries throughout Europe at a premium. In similar ways Britain was able to profit from other American staple crops, such as cotton, rice, and indigo. As Russell Menard puts it, Britain's capitalizing on increased European demand for these crops "fueled

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2046-478: The American colonies for economic gain was tobacco . When tobacco was first discovered as a recreational substance, there was a widespread social backlash in England, spearheaded by King James I himself. By the middle of the 17th century, however, Parliament had realized the revenue potential of tobacco and quickly changed its official moral stance towards its use. As a result, tobacco plantations sprung up across

2139-415: The British refused the offer, American expansionists responded with slogans such as "The whole of Oregon or none" and "Fifty-four forty or fight", referring to the northern border of the region. (The latter slogan is often mistakenly described as having been a part of the 1844 presidential campaign.) When Polk moved to terminate the joint occupation agreement, the British finally agreed in early 1846 to divide

2232-514: The Fairgrounds, was a popular attraction for many years but closed in the early 1990s. A "Mikado" steam locomotive, #4018 , which once worked on the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway was displayed on the grounds from 1952 to 2009. It has since been relocated to Sloss Furnaces . Former fairgrounds manager Tom Drilias resigned in 1999 following a dispute over unpaid bills at another festival he ran, and

2325-413: The Indians' land: Till I came here, I had no idea of the fixed determination which there is in the heart of every American to extirpate the Indians and appropriate their territory. The 19th-century belief that the United States would eventually encompass all of North America is known as "continentalism". An early proponent of this idea, John Quincy Adams became a leading figure in U.S. expansion between

2418-588: The North, which more eagerly embraced women and child labor in its factories to push forward industrialization due to their relative value to Northern agriculture being lesser than in Southern agriculture. While the South still attracted immigrants from Europe, the North attracted far more during the early-to-mid 1800s, such that by the time of the American Civil War, the population of the North far exceeded

2511-545: The Oregon Treaty was popular in the United States and was easily ratified by the Senate. The most fervent advocates of manifest destiny had not prevailed along the northern border because, according to Reginald Stuart , "the compass of manifest destiny pointed west and southwest, not north, despite the use of the term 'continentalism ' ". In 1869, American historian Frances Fuller Victor published Manifest Destiny in

2604-522: The Pacific as less unruly and dominated by Old World conflicts than the Atlantic and therefore a more inviting area for the new nation to expand its influence in. With the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, which doubled the size of the United States, Thomas Jefferson set the stage for the continental expansion of the United States. Many began to see this as the beginning of a new providential mission: If

2697-493: The Pacific, others saw the term as a call to example. Without an agreed-upon interpretation, much less an elaborated political philosophy, these conflicting views of America's destiny were never resolved. This variety of possible meanings was summed up by Ernest Lee Tuveson: "A vast complex of ideas, policies, and actions is comprehended under the phrase 'Manifest Destiny'. They are not, as we should expect, all compatible, nor do they come from any one source." Most historians credit

2790-630: The Plantation System (1910), he argued that slavery was an unprofitable relic that persisted because it produced social status, honor, and political power . "Most farmers in the South had small-to-medium-sized farms with few slaves, but the large plantation owner's wealth, often reflected in the number of slaves they owned, afforded them considerable prestige and political power." Phillips contended that masters treated enslaved persons relatively well; his views on that issue were later sharply rejected by Kenneth M. Stampp . His conclusions about

2883-510: The South in a precarious economic situation. This was the subject of the highly influential 1857 book The Impending Crisis of the South : How to Meet It , by Hinton Rowan Helper . Following the end of the Civil War and into Reconstruction era (1865–1877), the South experienced economic devastation. Some states that relied less heavily on the plantation system managed to fare better following its downfall. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips contends that

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2976-479: The South included land- and slave-owners and slaves, various strata of social classes existed within and between the two. In examining class relations and the banking system in the South, the economic exploitation of slave labor can be seen to arise from a need to maintain certain conditions for the existence of slavery and from a need for each of the remaining social strata to remain in status quo. In order to meet conditions where slavery may continue to exist, members of

3069-464: The Southern agricultural economy were cotton, grain, tobacco, sugar, and rice, with cotton the leading cash crop . These commodities were concentrated in the Deep South (Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana). The leading historian of the era was Ulrich Bonnell Phillips , who studied slavery not so much as a political issue between North and South, but as a social and economic system. He focused on

3162-464: The United States was successful as a " shining city upon a hill ", people in other countries would seek to establish their own democratic republics. Not all Americans or their political leaders believed that the United States was a divinely favored nation, or thought that it ought to expand. For example, many Whigs opposed territorial expansion based on the Democratic claim that the United States

3255-484: The United States, as Texas had done. In 1845, O'Sullivan predicted that California would follow this pattern next, and that even Canada would eventually request annexation as well. He was critical of the Mexican–American War in 1846, although he came to believe that the outcome would be beneficial to both countries. Ironically, O'Sullivan's term became popular only after it was criticized by Whig opponents of

3348-523: The West in the Overland Monthly , arguing that the efforts of early American fur traders and missionaries presaged American control of Oregon. She concluded the article as follows: It was an oversight on the part of the United States, the giving up the island of Quadra and Vancouver, on the settlement of the boundary question. Yet, "what is to be, will be", as some realist has it; and we look for

3441-437: The West and manufactured goods from England and the North. The plantation system can be seen as the factory system applied to agriculture, with a concentration of labor under skilled management. But while the industrial manufacturing-based labor economy of the North was driven by growing demand, maintenance of the plantation economic system depended upon slave labor, which was abundant and cheap. The five major commodities of

3534-557: The annexation of the entire Oregon Country up to the Alaska line ( 54°40ʹ N ). Presidential candidate Polk used this popular outcry to his advantage, and the Democrats called for the annexation of "All Oregon" in the 1844 U.S. presidential election . As president, Polk sought compromise and renewed the earlier offer to divide the territory in half along the 49th parallel, to the dismay of the most ardent advocates of manifest destiny. When

3627-493: The area of freedom", typified the conflation of America's potential greatness, the nation's budding sense of Romantic self-identity, and its expansion. Yet Jackson was not the only president to elaborate on the principles underlying manifest destiny. Owing in part to the lack of a definitive narrative outlining its rationale, proponents offered divergent or seemingly conflicting viewpoints. While many writers focused primarily upon American expansionism, be it into Mexico or across

3720-553: The borders of the continental United States as they are today. One of the goals of the War of 1812 was to threaten to annex the British colony of Lower Canada as a bargaining chip to force the British to abandon their fortifications in the Northwestern United States and support for the various Native American tribes residing there. The result of this overoptimism was a series of defeats in 1812 in part due to

3813-403: The concentration of landholding and slave holding, which were highly correlated, six percent of landowners ended up commanding one-third of the gross income and an even higher portion of the net income. The majority of landowners, who had smaller scale plantations, saw a disproportionately small portion in revenues generated by the slavery-driven plantation system. While the two largest classes in

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3906-481: The concept in Congress, saying "I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the universal Yankee nation." Winthrop was the first in a long line of critics who suggested that advocates of manifest destiny were citing "Divine Providence" for justification of actions that were motivated by chauvinism and self-interest. Despite this criticism, expansionists embraced

3999-535: The concept of manifest destiny was born out of "a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven". Merk also states that manifest destiny was a heavily contested concept within the nation: From the outset Manifest Destiny—vast in program, in its sense of continentalism —was slight in support. It lacked national, sectional, or party following commensurate with its magnitude. The reason

4092-501: The concept underlying manifest destiny, had changed his mind and repudiated expansionism because it meant the expansion of slavery in Texas. Ulysses S. Grant served in and condemned the Mexican–American War , declaring it "one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation". Historian Daniel Walker Howe summarizes that "American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within

4185-596: The conservative newspaper editor and future propagandist for the Confederacy, John O'Sullivan with coining the term manifest destiny in 1845. However, other historians suggest the unsigned editorial titled "Annexation" in which it first appeared was written by journalist and annexation advocate Jane Cazneau . O'Sullivan was an influential advocate for Jacksonian democracy , described by Julian Hawthorne as "always full of grand and world-embracing schemes". O'Sullivan wrote an article in 1839 that, while not using

4278-505: The continent] but also accelerated it exponentially." Historian Boyd Cothran says that "modern transportation development and abundant resource exploitation gave rise to an appropriation of indigenous land, [and] resources." Manifest destiny played its most important role in the Oregon boundary dispute between the United States and Britain, when the phrase "manifest destiny" originated. The Anglo-American Convention of 1818 had provided for

4371-512: The correlation between manifest destiny and Doctrine of Christian Discovery by using the statement made by Chief Justice John Marshall during the case, as he "spelled out the rights of the United states to Indigenous lands" and drew upon the Doctrine of Christian Discovery for his statement. Marshall ruled that "indigenous peoples possess 'occupancy' rights, meaning their lands could be taken by

4464-544: The country's existing boundaries; they feared (correctly) that expansion raised a contentious issue, the extension of slavery to the territories. On the other hand, many Democrats feared industrialization the Whigs welcomed... For many Democrats, the answer to the nation's social ills was to continue to follow Thomas Jefferson's vision of establishing agriculture in the new territories to counterbalance industrialization. Two Native American writers have recently tried to link some of

4557-548: The destiny God had provided the United States. Faragher 's 1997 analysis of the political polarization between the Democratic Party and the Whig Party is that: Most Democrats were wholehearted supporters of expansion, whereas many Whigs (especially in the North) were opposed. Whigs welcomed most of the changes wrought by industrialization but advocated strong government policies that would guide growth and development within

4650-646: The economic decline of slavery were challenged in 1958 by Alfred H. Conrad and John R. Meyer in a landmark study published in the Journal of Political Economy . Their arguments were further developed by Robert Fogel and Stanley L. Engerman , who argued in their 1974 book, Time on the Cross , that slavery was both efficient and profitable, as long as the price of cotton was high enough. In turn, Fogel and Engerman came under attack from other historians of slavery. As slavery began to displace indentured servitude as

4743-476: The expansion of the American plantation colonies, transformed the Atlantic into an English inland sea, and led to the creation of the first British Empire ." Many claim that being a part of the British mercantilist system was in the best economic interest of the American colonies as well, as they would not have been able to survive as independent economic entities. Robert Haywood, in his article "Mercantilism and South Carolina Agriculture, 1700–1763", argues that "it

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4836-475: The historical records show that they were a part of expeditions, resided and worked on the frontier, founded towns, and were educators and entrepreneurs. In short, people of color were very important actors in westward expansion." The desire for trade with China and other Asian countries was another ground for expansionism, with Americans seeing prospects of westward contact with Asia as fulfilling long-held Western hopes of finding new routes to Asia, and perceiving

4929-457: The imperialism of manifest destiny as both unjust and unreasonable. He objected to the Mexican war and believed each of these disordered forms of patriotism threatened the inseparable moral and fraternal bonds of liberty and union that he sought to perpetuate through a patriotic love of country guided by wisdom and critical self-awareness. Lincoln's " Eulogy to Henry Clay ", June 6, 1852, provides

5022-633: The joint occupation of the Oregon Country , and thousands of Americans migrated there in the 1840s over the Oregon Trail . The British rejected a proposal by U.S. President John Tyler (in office 1841–1845) to divide the region along the 49th parallel , and instead proposed a boundary line farther south, along the Columbia River , which would have made most of what later became the state of Washington part of their colonies in North America . Advocates of manifest destiny protested and called for

5115-612: The large plantations that dominated the South. Phillips addressed the unprofitability of slave labor and slavery's ill effects on the Southern economy. An example of pioneering comparative work was A Jamaica Slave Plantation (1914). His methods inspired the "Phillips school" of slavery studies, between 1900 and 1950. Phillips argued that large-scale plantation slavery was inefficient and not progressive. It had reached its geographical limits by 1860 or so, and therefore eventually had to fade away (as happened in Brazil ). In The Decadence of

5208-405: The master class (e.g., white, landowning, slave-owning) had to compete with other members of the master class to maximize the surplus labor extracted from slaves. Likewise, in order to remain within the same class, members of the master class (and each subsumed class below) must expand their claim on revenues derived from the slave labor surplus. Mercantilist ideologies largely explain the rise of

5301-528: The most cogent expression of his reflective patriotism. The phrase "manifest destiny" is most often associated with the territorial expansion of the United States from 1812 to 1867. This era, from the War of 1812 to the acquisition of Alaska in 1867, has been called the "age of manifest destiny". During this time, the United States expanded to the Pacific Ocean—"from sea to shining sea"—largely defining

5394-442: The national polity". There was never a set of principles defining manifest destiny; it was always a general idea rather than a specific policy made with a motto. Ill-defined but keenly felt, manifest destiny was an expression of conviction in the morality and value of expansionism that complemented other popular ideas of the era, including American exceptionalism and Romantic nationalism . Andrew Jackson , who spoke of "extending

5487-565: The non-enslaved population of the South per the 1860 United States census . Colin Woodard argued in his 2011 book American Nations that the South was relatively less successful in attracting immigrants due to the South's reputation as a more stratified society. Striving immigrants who sought economic advancement thus tended to favor the more egalitarian North, compared to the more aristocratic South, where there were fewer perceived opportunities for advancement. Manifest destiny This

5580-476: The northern and western states, much of the social spectrum was dominated by a wide range of different laboring classes. The conclusion that, while both the North and the South were characterized by a high degree of inequality during the plantation era, the wealth distribution was much more unequal in the South than in the North arises from studies concerned with the equality of land, slave, and wealth distribution. For example, in certain states and counties, due to

5673-507: The phrase "manifest destiny" attracted little attention. O'Sullivan's second use of the phrase became extremely influential. On December 27, 1845, in his newspaper the New York Morning News , O'Sullivan addressed the ongoing boundary dispute with Britain. O'Sullivan argued that the United States had the right to claim "the whole of Oregon": And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess

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5766-556: The phrase, which caught on so quickly that its origin was soon forgotten. The concept and the term are also used by scholars in discussing the push to into the Amazon—the west—in Brazil. According to J. P. Dickenson, "There is an implicit identification in this Brazilian geopolitical writing of a manifest destiny....Brazil's 'Marcha para oeste' is as legitimate as America's Manifest Destiny." Historian Frederick Merk wrote in 1963 that

5859-428: The plantation "sadly restricted the opportunity of such men as were of better industrial quality than was required for the field gangs." Essentially, men who would have been otherwise capable of performing other skilled jobs were nonetheless relegated to field work because of the nature of the system. A 1984 journal article by Claudia Goldin and Kenneth Sokoloff suggested that the South misallocated labor compared to

5952-455: The plantation system in the United States. In the 16th and 17th centuries under mercantilism, rulers of nations believed that the accumulation of wealth through a favorable balance of trade was the best way to ensure power. As a result, several European nations began to colonize the Americas to take advantage of rich natural resources and encourage exports. One example of England utilizing

6045-478: The plantation system, largely agricultural. With the exception of New Orleans , Charleston , and Richmond the slave states had no large cities, and the urban population of the South could not compare to that of the Northeast , or even that of the agrarian West. This led to a sharp division in class in the southern states, between the landowning "master" class, yeoman farmers, poor whites , and slaves; while in

6138-414: The possession of lands more than they can cultivate, and more than adequate to their subsistence, comfort, and enjoyment, by cultivation. If this be a spirit of aggrandizement, the undersigned are prepared to admit, in that sense, its existence; but they must deny that it affords the slightest proof of an intention not to respect the boundaries between them and European nations, or of a desire to encroach upon

6231-546: The potential loss in investment of owning slaves from death, disability, etc. was much greater for small plantation owners. Accentuated by the rise in price of slaves seen just prior to the Civil War , the overall costs associated with owning slaves to the individual plantation owner led to the concentration of slave ownership seen at the eve of the Civil War. Much of the Antebellum South was rural, and in line with

6324-530: The powers of 'discovery'". Frichner explains that "The newly formed United States needed to manufacture an American Indian political identity and concept of Indian land that would open the way for united states and westward colonial expansion." In this way, manifest destiny was inspired by the original European colonization of the Americas, and it excuses U.S. violence against Indigenous Nations. According to historian Dorceta Taylor : "Minorities are not usually chronicled as explorers or environmental activists, yet

6417-450: The present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand... Many Americans agreed with Paine, and came to believe that the United States' virtue was a result of its special experiment in freedom and democracy. Thomas Jefferson , in a letter to James Monroe , wrote, "it is impossible not to look forward to distant times when our rapid multiplication will expand itself beyond those limits, and cover

6510-450: The principal supply of labor in the plantation systems of the South, the economic nature of the institution of slavery aided in the increased inequality of wealth seen in the antebellum South. The demand for slave labor and the U.S. ban on importing more slaves from Africa drove up prices for slaves, making it profitable for smaller farms in older settled areas such as Virginia to sell their slaves further south and west. The actuarial risk, or

6603-478: The profits generated by enslaved persons, which also helped to entrench their power as a political class. As the country expanded westward , slavery's propagation became a major issue in national politics , eventually boiling over into the Civil War . In the years that followed the Civil War, the war was romanticized by historical revisionists to protect three central assertions: that the Confederate cause

6696-607: The proper stage in the march of history, called forth certain hardy souls from the old and privilege-ridden nations ... and that in bestowing his grace He also bestowed a peculiar responsibility". Americans presupposed that they were not only divinely elected to maintain the North American continent, but also to "spread abroad the fundamental principles stated in the Bill of Rights". In many cases this meant neighboring colonial holdings and countries were seen as obstacles rather than

6789-499: The region along the 49th parallel, leaving the lower Columbia basin as part of the United States. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 formally settled the dispute; Polk's administration succeeded in selling the treaty to Congress because the United States was about to begin the Mexican–American War , and the president and others argued it would be foolish to also fight the British Empire . Despite the earlier clamor for "All Oregon",

6882-739: The state fair again in 2008 took place at the Verizon Wireless Music Center in nearby Pelham . The "Alabama National Fair", sometimes also called the "Alabama State Fair" in Montgomery is unrelated. In 2009, there was an Alabama State Fair. The old grandstand for the Alabama State Fair was later used as the Birmingham International Raceway (or BIR), it was designed initially as a home to both automobile and harness racing , as well as shows and concerts. Birmingham International Raceway (BIR)

6975-424: The state of nature, and to bring into cultivation every portion of the territory contained within their acknowledged boundaries. In thus providing for the support of millions of civilized beings, they will not violate any dictate of justice or of humanity; for they will not only give to the few thousand savages scattered over that territory an ample equivalent for any right they may surrender, but will always leave them

7068-475: The term "manifest destiny", did predict a "divine destiny" for the United States based upon values such as equality, rights of conscience, and personal enfranchisement "to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man". This destiny was not explicitly territorial, but O'Sullivan predicted that the United States would be one of a "Union of many Republics" sharing those values. Six years later, in 1845, O'Sullivan wrote another essay titled "Annexation" in

7161-416: The territories of Great Britain... They will not suppose that that Government will avow, as the basis of their policy towards the United States a system of arresting their natural growth within their own territories, for the sake of preserving a perpetual desert for savages. A shocked Henry Goulburn , one of the British negotiators at Ghent, remarked, after coming to understand the American position on taking

7254-518: The territory should be overruled. O'Sullivan believed that manifest destiny was a moral ideal (a "higher law") that superseded other considerations. O'Sullivan's original conception of manifest destiny was not a call for territorial expansion by force. He believed that the expansion of the United States would happen without the direction of the U.S. government or the involvement of the military. After Americans immigrated to new regions, they would set up new democratic governments, and then seek admission to

7347-514: The themes of manifest destiny to the original ideology of the 15th-century decree of the Doctrine of Christian Discovery. Nick Estes (a Lakota) links the 15th-century Catholic doctrine of distinguishing Christians from non-Christians in the expansion of European nations. Estes and international jurist Tonya Gonnella Frichner (of the Onondaga Nation) further link the doctrine of discovery to Johnson v. McIntosh and frame their arguments on

7440-559: The war ') was a period in the history of the Southern United States that extended from the conclusion of the War of 1812 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861 . This era was marked by the prevalent practice of slavery and the associated societal norms it cultivated. Over the course of this period, Southern leaders underwent a transformation in their perspective on slavery. Initially regarded as an awkward and temporary institution, it gradually evolved into

7533-561: The war with Mexico and later wrote: I was bitterly opposed to the measure [to annex Texas], and to this day regard the war [with Mexico] which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the bad example of European monarchies, in not considering justice in their desire to acquire additional territory. In the mid‑19th century, expansionism, especially southward toward Cuba, also faced opposition from those Americans who were trying to abolish slavery. As more territory

7626-469: The whole northern, if not the southern continent." To Americans in the decades that followed their proclaimed freedom for mankind, embodied in the Declaration of Independence, could only be described as the inauguration of "a new time scale" because the world would look back and define history as events that took place before, and after, the Declaration of Independence. It followed that Americans owed to

7719-466: The whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us. That is, O'Sullivan believed that Providence had given the United States a mission to spread republican democracy ("the great experiment of liberty"). Because the British government would not spread democracy, thought O'Sullivan, British claims to

7812-586: The wide use of poorly-trained state militias rather than regular troops. The American victories at the Battle of Lake Erie and the Battle of the Thames in 1813 ended the Indian raids and removed the main reason for threatening annexation. To end the War of 1812 John Quincy Adams , Henry Clay and Albert Gallatin (former treasury secretary and a leading expert on Indians) and the other American diplomats negotiated

7905-445: The world an obligation to expand and preserve these beliefs. The second theme's origination is less precise. A popular expression of America's mission was elaborated by President Abraham Lincoln's description in his December 1, 1862, message to Congress. He described the United States as "the last, best hope of Earth". The "mission" of the United States was further elaborated during Lincoln's Gettysburg Address , in which he interpreted

7998-444: The world". Author Reginald Horsman wrote in 1981, this view also held that "inferior races were doomed to subordinate status or extinction." and that this was used to justify "the enslavement of the blacks and the expulsion and possible extermination of the Indians". The origin of the first theme, later known as American exceptionalism , was often traced to America's Puritan heritage, particularly John Winthrop 's famous " City upon

8091-440: Was added to the United States in the following decades, "extending the area of freedom" in the minds of southerners also meant extending the institution of slavery. That is why slavery became one of the central issues in the continental expansion of the United States before the Civil War. Before and during the Civil War both sides claimed that America's destiny was rightfully their own. Lincoln opposed anti-immigrant nativism , and

8184-563: Was destined to serve as a virtuous example to the rest of the world, and also had a divine obligation to spread its superordinate political system and a way of life throughout North American continent. Many in the Whig party "were fearful of spreading out too widely", and they "adhered to the concentration of national authority in a limited area". In July 1848, Alexander Stephens denounced President Polk 's expansionist interpretation of America's future as "mendacious". Ulysses S. Grant served in

8277-472: Was heroic, that enslaved people were happy and satisfied, and that slavery was not the primary cause of the war. This phenomenon has continued to the present day to contribute to racism , gender roles , and religious attitudes in the South, and to a lesser extent the rest of the country. In the 18th century, the Atlantic slave trade brought enslaved Africans to the South during the colonial period as

8370-479: Was it did not reflect the national spirit. The thesis that it embodied nationalism, found in much historical writing, is backed by little real supporting evidence. A possible influence is racial predominance, namely the idea that the American Anglo-Saxon race was "separate, innately superior" and "destined to bring good government, commercial prosperity and Christianity to the American continents and

8463-464: Was later the subject of an article in the Chicago Tribune reporting a series of legal problems. The state fair discontinued regular use of the facility because of poor attendance and high crime in the adjacent neighborhood. The Alabama State Fair Authority went bankrupt, and was dissolved sometime around the year 2001. No state fair has been held on a regular basis since; an effort to revive

8556-560: Was located inside the gates of the Fairgrounds; it was demolished in January 2009, to make room for the construction of a natatorium and indoor track and field facility. 33°29′48″N 86°52′17″W  /  33.4968°N 86.8714°W  / 33.4968; -86.8714 This Alabama building or structure article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Antebellum South The Antebellum South era (from Latin : ante bellum , lit.   ' before

8649-403: Was unthinkable that any trade could prosper in the straight-jacket of regimented and restricted international trade, without the guiding hand of a powerful protecting government." The plantation system created an environment for the South to experience an economic boom in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries. However, reliance on both the plantation system and more widespread slave labor, left

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