Manifest Destiny And The American Nation - 2335 Words

Manifest Destiny is the term used by early Americans to describe the belief of the God given opportunity to spread and expand westward towards the pacific ocean. Many settlers believed that God himself blessed the expansion of the American nation. Beginning with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Manifest Destiny brought with it not only territorial acquisitions, but also conflicts over the spread of slavery. Southerners wanting to find more land for cultivation, were led to the desire of acquiring new territories. Many citizens (Especially in the North) were deeply concerned about adding any more slave states. Manifest Destiny introduced a heated issue of the addition of slave or free states which provoked war with Mexico in†¦show more content†¦Soon after, the Dred Scott case was introduced into society. The Dred Scott case was a chance to settle once and for all the question of slavery in the territories. Dred Scott was a slave who, after his owner died, sued for his f reedom in the Wisconsin Territory, where slavery had been outlawed by the Missouri Compromise. According to the textbook Liberty, Equality, Power: A History of the American People by John M. Murrin, Paul E. Johnson, James M. Mcpherson, Alicea Fahs, Gary Gerstle, Emily S. Rosenberg, and Norman L. Rosenberg, â€Å"The Southern Supreme Court justices decided to declare that the Missouri Compromise ban on slavery in the territories was unconstitutional...Chief Justice Taney issued that the Court’s ruling stating that congress lacked the power to keep slavery out of a territory, because slaves were property and the Constitution protects the right of property...Taney also wrote that the circuit court shouldn t have accepted the Scott case because black men were not citizens of the US and had no standing in its courts.† (John et al., 2012). The Supreme Court seemed bias when they went against the government in the sense that they proved a law unconstitutional simply becaus e a black man questioned if it applied to him. The Supreme Court generally said that Negroes were not citizens, even if they were free, and had no rights. This denied the rights of a man, but after all,