No nation has ever existed without some sense of national destiny or purpose. Manifest Destiny, a phrase used by leaders and politicians in the 1840s to explain continental expansion by the United States, revitalized a sense of "mission" for many Americans. Manifest Destiny, meaning "obvious or undeniable fate" was a belief originally held by Democratic Republicans, specifically Warhawks during the presidency of James Madison. Without the evolutionary idea of Manifest Destiny, the United States would be a much less powerful and more corrupted nation.
             The people of the United States felt it was their mission to extend the "boundaries of freedom" to others by imparting their idealism and belief in democratic institutions to those who were capable of self-government, but what really led to Manifest Destiny? The United States was experiencing a periodic high birth rate and increases in population due to immigration. And because agriculture provided the primary economic structure, large families to work the farms were considered an asset. The U.S. population grew from more than five million in 1800 to more than 23 million by mid-century. Thus, there was a need to expand into new territories to accommodate this rapid growth. It's estimated that nearly 4,000,000 Americans moved to western territories between 1820 and 1850. The United States also suffered two economic depressions, one in 1818 and a second in 1839. These crises drove some people to seek their living in frontier areas. Besides the crises, moving to frontier areas had advantages such as being inexpensive or, in some cases, free and that expansion into frontier areas opened opportunities for new commerce and individual self-advancement.
             Manifest Destiny showed the pure desire that Americans had for the hopes of better lives. The migrating Americans gave up their homes and belongings and risked their families and lives in a journey through wilderness and the unknown for the
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