As early as the 1630’s, we read Americans like John Winthrop of Massachusetts referring to America’s divine right to the land. In his "Conclusions for the Plantation in New England," Winthrop wrote,
"’The whole earth is the Lord’s Garden and he hath given it to the sonnes of men with a generall condicon, Gen: 1.28. Increase and multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it, which was again renewed to Noah, the end is Double morall and naturall that man might injoy the fruites of the earth and god might have his due glory from the creature, why then should we stand hear striveing for places of habitation...and in ye mean tyme suffer a whole Continent, as fruitfull and convenient for the use of man to lie waste without any improvement.’"
(Albert K. Weinberg, Manifest Destiny (Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith, 1958), 74)
In the late 1700’s, American clergy began referring to the newly formed United States as the "American Israel."
In 1785, Thomas Jefferson proposed that the official U.S. seal depict the children of Israel being led out of Egypt by the pillar of fire, as recounted in Exodus 13:21. Theological poet Timothy Dwight, in 1787, called Americans "this chosen race."
Jefferson, in his second inaugural address (1805) said, "God led our forefathers, as Israel of old." Moreover, echoing Winthrop, Jefferson said,
"’We have an immensity of land courting the industry of husbandmen...Those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God, if ever He had a chosen people, whose breasts He has made His peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.’"
(Patricia Nelson Limerick, The Legacy of Conquest (New York: Norton, 1987), 58)
The first use of the phrase "manifest destiny" was by newspaperman, John L. O’Sullivan, in an editorial he wrote for the New York Morning News on December 27, 1845 about American claims to the Oregon territory. He followed up the editorial with a letter in the paper on January 5, 1846 in which he laid claim to Oregon on America’s behalf "by clear historical and legal title as well as by the manifest intentions of Providence." (Weinberg, 144) The key passage from O’Sullivan’s editorial is:
"’And yet after all, unanswerable as is the demonstration of our legal title to Oregon - and the whole of Oregon, if a rood! - we have still better title than any that can ever be constructed out of all these antiquated materials of old black-letter international law. Away, away with all these cobweb tissues of rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, continuity, etc. To state the truth at once in its neglected simplicity, we are free to say that were the respective cases and arguments of the two parties, as to all these points of history and law, reversed - had England all ours, and we nothing but hers - our claim to Oregon would still be best and strongest. And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us.’"
(Weinberg, 144-145)
The themes of "manifest destiny" and America as God's new "Chosen People" also permeated Congressional debates about the role of the United States in the Philippines at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1900, Indiana Senator Albert J. Beveridge said following the American takeover of the Philippines:
"Mr. President, the times call for candor. The Philippines are ours forever, "territory belonging to the United States," as the Constitution calls them. And just beyond the Philippines are China's illimitable markets. We will not retreat from them either. We will not repudiate our duty in the archipelago. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee, under God, of the civilization of the world. And we will move forward to our work, not howling out regrets like slaves whipped to their burdens, but with gratitude for a task worthy of our strength, and thanksgiving to Almighty God that He has marked us as His chosen people, henceforth to lead in the regeneration of the world.
Mr. President, this question is deeper than any question of party politics: deeper than any question of the isolated policy of our country even; deeper even than any question of constitutional power. It is elemental. It is racial. God has not been preparing the English-speaking and Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for nothing hut vain and idle self-contemplation and self-admiration. No! He has made us the master organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigns. He has given us the spirit of progress to overwhelm the forces of reaction throughout the earth. He has made us adepts in government that we may administer government among savage and senile peoples. Were it not for such a force as this the world would relapse into barbarism and night. And of all our race He has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world. This is the divine mission of America, and it holds for us all the profit, all the glory, all the happiness possible to man. We are trustees of the world's progress, guardians of its righteous peace. The judgment of the Master is upon us: 'Ye have been faithful over a few things; I will make you ruler over many things.'"
(From the Congressional Record (56th Cong., 1st Session) Vol XXXIII, pp.705, 711, archived at This Nation, http://www.thisnation.com/library/beveridge1900.html, June 28, 2004)
Relevant Biblical passages:
Genesis 1:28: "’Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it...’"
Genesis 9:1: "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.'"
God's promise of land and nationhood to Abraham in Genesis 12.
Exodus, especially 23:30: "Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you are increased and possess the land."
Numbers 13 (Moses sends spies to survey the promised land of Canaan) and Numbers 34 (the boundaries of Canaan are fixed).
Deuteronomy 4:21-22 (Moses will die before reaching the new land, "but you shall go over and take possession of that good land") and Deuteronomy 26:5-11 ("'A wandering Aramean was my father...'").
Psalm 89:3: "I have made a covenant with my chosen one."
Ps. 105:6: "O offspring of his servant Abraham, children of Jacob, his chosen ones."
Ps. 105:43-44: "So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing. He gave them the lands of the nations, and they took possession of the wealth of the peoples."
For contrast to the triumphalism of the above passages, try almost any of the biblical prophets. Amos 3:2 is one of the few instances in which the idea of being chosen ("you only have I known") puts the accent on the responsibility of those who govern the "promised land" to uphold justice in the that land.