Manifest Destiny

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Manifest Destiny expressed the belief that the United States was meant—by providence, history, and its own republican mission—to expand across the North American continent. To many Americans, this vision appeared optimistic and democratic: it promised land, opportunity, and the spread of self-government. Yet the same idea was viewed by others as justifying conquest and displacement of native populations. Its power lay not in being a formal policy, but in giving moral language to expansionist ambitions.

Political Debates

The phrase “Manifest Destiny” became politically prominent in the 1840s, especially in debates over Texas, Oregon, and the Pacific Coast. Its appeal drew from older traditions of American exceptionalism: the belief that the United States had a special role in history because of its republican institutions, religious and moral culture, and expanding market economy. For farmers, migrants, politicians, and newspaper editors, westward expansion could be imagined as both personal advancement and a national mission.

The ideology of Manifest Destiny helped frame major events, such as the annexation of Texas, the Oregon boundary settlement, and the Mexican-American War. By 1848 the United States had gained vast western lands, including California and much of the Southwest. Supporters celebrated this as proof of national progress, but critics warned that expansion by force contradicted our nation’s republican principles. The war with Mexico, in particular, raised moral questions about whether the United States was defending liberty or exercising imperial power.

Forced Removal

For Native American nations, Manifest Destiny was catastrophic. The language of progress often treated the sovereignty and culture of Native American peoples as obstacles to be overcome rather than political realities to be respected. Forced removal, broken treaties, military conflict, and occupation by settlers transformed Native American homelands into territories claimed by the United States. Many Native American tribal groups east of the Mississippi River were relocated to what became known as the Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma beginning in the early decades of the 19th century.

Against this backdrop, it is perhaps not surprising to see a large number of bank notes illustrating the concept of Manifest Destiny as it related to the country’s indigenous inhabitants. In most cases, Native Americans are portrayed as passively viewing the encroachment of “civilization” on land they occupied. Civilization is represented by bustling towns or modern marvels of technology, such as steam engines, busy factories, and steamboats. The Native Americans are usually portrayed as being resigned to the fact that they cannot stop this encroachment. Trains were a popular symbol of the inexorable advance of civilization, as illustrated on several examples.

Symbols of Progress

Other notes cast bustling towns and cities with bridges, churches, and factories as the symbol of Manifest Destiny. Again, the vignettes usually portray Native Americans as resigned to the fact that they could do little to delay or impede the westward expansion driven by Manifest Destiny. They were simply witnesses to the encroachment of settlers as they watched their home territories being changed forever.

Even agriculture played a role in Manifest Destiny and found its way into the depiction of progress. When land was put under cultivation, it was effectively removed from age-old uses, such as hunting.

At present, no accurate count has been made of how many different notes have Manifest Destiny-related vignettes, although I theorize that it certainly exceeds 100. Notes embodying this theme make up an interesting, but, for many, bittersweet segment of the diverse field of obsolete paper money.

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A version of this article appears in the October 2026 issue of The Numismatist (money.org)