"...wherever they Go, This inferior native
population, as a result of amalgamation, and that great
law of contact between a higher and a lower race, by
which the latter gives way to the former, must be
gradually supplanted, and its place occupied by this
highest of races....[The United States] will occupy the
entire extent of America, the rich and fertile plains of
Asia, together with the intermediate isles of the sea, in
fulfillment of the great purpose of heaven, of the
ultimate enlightenment of the whole earth, and the
gradual elevation of man to the dignity and glory of the
promised millennial day."
Horseman, Reginald, Race and Manifest Destiny (Massachusetts,
Harvard University Press 1981) pg. 291
This sums up much of the rhetoric of the mid 19th Century
philosophy of Manifest Destiny. In re-reading the various quotes and
passages in Reginald Horseman's work, I gained a clearer understanding
of this very important, yet often "ignored" aspect of the creation of
the American psyche. Manifest Destiny is really a multi-faceted
excuse for slavery, conquest, and genocide. It is the point at which
racism, religion, and politics can meet and form a unified front and a
unified philosophy for the ignoble aim of world empire.
Manifest Destiny (a term coined in the 1840s by John O'Sullivan)
can only be understood in the context of race and the philosophy of
Anglo-Saxonism that was rampant from the mid 19th Century onward in
Europe and North America. The notions of inherent human equality
(biological and cosmological but not cultural) and the Biblical unity
of humanity that had reigned over the Age of Enlightenment had
gradually given way to theories of polygenesis and inherent human
inequality.
The process of scientific classification of nature by
Euroamericans, had by the 19th Century culminated in the
classification of humanity itself into separate races with innate
qualities of inferiority and superiority. This process is typified by
the "science" of phrenology which so revolutionized the 19th Century's
view of human relations. Phrenology was not simply the "scientific"
examination of the relationship between skull size and intelligence --
it was also the study of brain/skull size in relation to MORALITY,
both of which supposedly resided in the frontal and coronal parts of
the brain; Euroamericans having the largest coincidentally enough. So
Euroamericans were not only more intelligent than non-whites, they
were also correspondingly more moral than other types of humanity,
with more moral institutions and laws than any other type of human
beings; it, in fact, could be derived from phrenology that morality
is a unique feature of the Euroamerican stock of humanity, lacking in
the darker races. Any similarities between Euroamerican institutions
and those produced by non-Euroamericans were explained away as being
the product of white blood having been introduced at some point in
their history. Science would be the explanation for the slavery of
the Africans and the extermination of the Indians. "It is not our
fault, we are not murderers and thieves, we are merely fulfilling
scientific principles of superiority. In fact we are not killing
Indians, they simply cannot survive civilization. It is an inherent
fault within them, it has nothing to do with us."
This is what made Manifest Destiny such a powerful force in
empire building. It placed the responsibility of the destruction of
nations and peoples on the victims themselves, not on the perpetrators
of it. The power of Manifest Destiny lied in the fact that it created
a cosmological rationale for genocide, taking the responsibility out
of the hands of the individual. When you set about to dispossess a
people of their land and source of livelihood, unless you have no
conscience at all, one must find an excuse to safely hide from the
truth of the pain and suffering you are inflicting on innocent
peoples. In the era of Manifest Destiny and Anglo-Saxonism the
excuses were varied but most boiled down to the simple fact that if,
indeed, these people were human beings (which is questionable), then
they were in fact a lesser type of humanity who had no rights to life,
land, or liberty. They could not use the land like Anglos, so they
had no right to it; they had no civilizations, so they had no right
to their own political institutions; their lives were not worth that
of an Anglo, so they had no right to life. Any suffering felt by them
is of their own making, or simply a byproduct of their inferior nature
when placed in contact with the superior Euroamerican types of
humanity. The fault resided with them not the Euroamericans. The
fault was that they lived in contact with Euroamericans -- Natural Law
dictated the rest. Present conditions were used as proof that this
was indeed the divine order. Anglos were the master of the non-Anglos
therefore it was their nature to be masters. Non-Anglos were
subservient to the Anglos, therefore it was their nature to be
servants. Circular arguments were the order of the day.
The terms used to describe the genocide are also very telling is
this context -- terms such as melting, receding, shrinking, dwindling,
disappearing, vanishing. Most of these have connotations of natural
processes, like the melting of the snow or the receding tide. None of
them have any type of active component. They are all devoid of
conscious effort. They "happen" under their own auspices without any
intent. These terms are used consciously or unconsciously to, again,
lift the burden from the perpetrators of mass murder, thievery, and
genocide and place it solidly on the shoulders of the victims, or even
more pointedly, on God. They also serve to halt any type of
reflection on the realities of expansion. How can one stop the snow
from melting in the sun? How can one stop the tide from receding from
the shore? These are all processes that are beyond human design.
They are Divine processes, natural process, scientific process, that
are completely absent of human will or intent.
Another excuse to hide from genocide and global dispossession of
non-Euroamerican peoples was the myth of expansion ridding the world
of tyranny and despotism. It made it quite easy to think of expansion
in the context of spreading freedom and civilization to the rest of
the world that lived under despots and tyrants, spreading culture and
philosophy, knowledge and science, to the unlearned masses --
bettering the world with Euroamerican genius and technology. The
march of conquest was not genocide, slavery, and dispossession; it
was the Peace Corps of the 19th Century.
There are, as one might expect, inherent contradictions in the
propaganda of Anglo-Saxonism. All non-Euroamericans were savage,
brute, warlike, and ferocious -- Euroamericans, contrastingly, were
peace-loving, humane, civilized, moral, just, and bringers of freedom
giving institutions. Yet when the mood was inviting, the formally
negative attributes placed upon non-Euroamerican peoples were all of a
sudden some of the most positive aspects of the Anglo-Saxon race.
Instead of being brute, warlike, or savage, these attributes when used
in the context of Anglo-Saxons conferred upon them heroic qualities;
the heroic conqueror, the exterminator of inferior races, replenishing
the world with superior institutions and peoples.
The personification of this image of the Anglo-Saxon race was
Alexander The Great. The U.S. had a somewhat "boyish" quality, of
impetuousness, quick temper, youthful virility, yet with a golden
heart. The inherent contradictions of this dual image of the Anglo-
Saxon race are clear. Anglo-Saxon aggression and violence was virile,
manly, and heroic; violence on the part of Indians conversely was
savage and barbaric -- proof of their animalistic qualities that in
turn provided further excuse for more "manly" violence on the part of
the Anglos. Indians murdered women and children, proof of their
irredeemable savagery -- Anglo-Saxons simply expanded, women and
children "receding" before them.
Manifest Destiny is, of course, much more than what is presented
here. What I find most intriguing about it, however, is how a broad
concept can combine many others into a unifying theory. This is what
strikes me as being the power Manifest Destiny had on the American
psyche. It gave a holistic and Divine rationale for what in any other
era would have been simple conquest and empire building. It is what
also made Euroamerican expansion uniquely cruel and genocidal. With
the advent of racism and social Darwinism, extermination and
supplantation replaced simple imperial designs. This is only one
aspect of Manifest Destiny -- mostly psychological -- there is
obviously much more to it, yet I do not think one can overestimate the
power philosophy plays in human affairs. A philosophy such as
Manifest Destiny once internalized in the culture, is never really
abolished, it merely adapts to the present conditions and transforms
itself into a suitable logic for the times.
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