Manifest Destiny was the idea that white Americans were divinely ordained to settle the entire continent of North America. US President James K. Polk (1845-1849) is the leader most associated with Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny inflamed sectional tensions over slavery, which ultimately led to the Civil War.
Manifest Destiny, a phrase coined in 1845, is the idea that the United States is destined—by God, its advocates believed—to expand its dominion and spread democracy and capitalism across the entire North American continent.
Congress passed 4 laws known as Alien and Sedition Acts. The federalist policies was disloyal and feared that aliens living in the United States would sympathize with the French during a war.
