Manifest Destiny was the belief that God had destined the United States to extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The idea that the United States should span the North American continent was not new. The idea led President Thomas Jefferson to purchase the Louisiana Territory from France before sending Lewis and Clark and their Corps of Discovery on their famous expedition. The term Manifest Destiny was new, however. The journalist John O'Sullivan first used this term in an 1845 article in which he advocated for the annexation of Texas. We spent time analyzing the famed painting "American Progress" in an 1872 painting by John Gast.