Resistance

Topping the list of opponents to America's territorial expansion were people who stood to lose, particularly Indian people. They protested in various ways, from unification movements to armed uprisings, and from congressional petitions to speaking engagements intended to raise awareness among white people of their plight.

There was substantial resistance to Manifest Destiny within the United States. One of the era's two major political parties, the Whigs, was openly ambivalent about territorial expansion. Whigs believed that America's future greatness lay in the development of resources within the existing United States, not in the annex­ation of more territory. They lobbied for the growth of the manufacturing sector and internal improvements to transportation to bring already settled areas of the country in closer contact. They feared that western expansion would undermine the interests of New England, the seat of Whig power. And like Federalists before them, they feared that growth would lead to division by making the nation too large and unmanageable. Many people in New England, particularly middle-class women and men, opposed Indian Removal in the 1830s and the U.S.-Mexico War in the 1840s on the grounds that the civilized tribes and Mexicans deserved their lands. They argued that both Indian removal and the war were immoral.^[2347]

Although concepts of racial hierarchy promoted and legitimated Manifest Destiny, they also left some Americans uneasy about the annexation of land to the south. Southern slave holders generally supported the annexation of slave-filled Texas.

Most of the Americans who opposed Manifest Destiny and territorial ex­pansionism in the 1840s and 1850s believed wholeheartedly in American exceptionalism. They were just as convinced that the United States was a special nation, chosen by God to exert a beneficial influence abroad, as were supporters of Manifest Destiny. Many of these Americans can be described as restrained expansionists. They supported missionary work abroad and pushed for America's commercial expansion. They hoped to spread American ideology, but opposed ag­gression, both by individuals and nations. They believed American influence would best be exerted through control of trade and the spread of Protestant Christianity, not by the annexation of land. Most Whigs fell into this category.^[2348]