Manifest Destiny

Henry Clay… On Expansion Into the West

henry clay headshot

“I do not think that Texas ought to be received into the Union, ad an integral part of it, in decided opposition to the wishes of a considerable and respectable portion of the confederacy.  I think it far more wise and important to compose and harmonize the present Confederacy, as it now exists, than to introduce a new element of discord and distraction into it…. If hereafter further territory should be wanted for an increased population, we need no apprehensions but that it will be acquired by means, it is to be hoped, fair, honorable, and constitutional.”

~ Henry Clay editorial on expansion in the Washington Intelligencer (April 17, 1844)