Problems with The Manifest Destiny

America after the 1840s was close to disunity and maybe even secession of the South from the Union. During the 1840s, over a million square miles of land was added to the United States of America, and with the addition of this came the loss of something much more precious. Much of purchases or conquests for land were in lands known as the Mexican cession, and Texan lands. The Mexican cession caused disunity because it created a sectional debate by producing so much more land for America it became improbable the South and the North would agree on the organization of the states. This caused the South to retaliate with the North when they felt the North attained to many political unfair advantages, and vise versa. Examples of retaliations from both sides in order to gain political supremacy would be the Wilmot Proviso, suggested by David Wilmot, stating all slavery should be prohibited from all lands obtained by the Mexican cession. Calhoun, in response argued there were many injustices in the American government in which the North obtained too many advantages. Disunion was a very likely result of these conflicts, but was “resolved” by the Compromise of 1850. The Compromise of 1850 consisted of several acts, in which none directly solved the issue of slavery. Ultimately, the land conquests influenced by the idea of Manifest Destiny would pose the challenge of disunion.

Conclusively, the territorial expansions promoted by Manifest Destiny initially positively influenced national unity for the United States of America. However, through time it transitioned into a negative effect on the national unity. It created a sense of national unity in the beginning because the land allowed for resources that would help the country flourish and slavery had not developed into much of an issue yet. Then slavery became a much more prominent issue and sectionalism was on the rise. Finally, political issues, strongly encouraged by the acquisition of land, lead to the weakening of national unity and the possible threat of disunion or secession. America between the periods of 1800 and 1850 experienced many changes in nationalism.