<P> Many Americans agreed with Paine , and came to believe that the United States ' virtue was a result of its special experiment in freedom and democracy . Thomas Jefferson , in a letter to James Monroe , wrote , `` it is impossible not to look forward to distant times when our rapid multiplication will expand itself beyond those limits , and cover the whole northern , if not the southern continent . '' To Americans in the decades that followed their proclaimed freedom for mankind , embodied in the Declaration of Independence , could only be described as the inauguration of `` a new time scale '' because the world would look back and define history as events that took place before , and after , the Declaration of Independence . It followed that Americans owed to the world an obligation to expand and preserve these beliefs . </P>
<P> Many Americans agreed with Paine , and came to believe that the United States ' virtue was a result of its special experiment in freedom and democracy . Thomas Jefferson , in a letter to James Monroe , wrote , `` it is impossible not to look forward to distant times when our rapid multiplication will expand itself beyond those limits , and cover the whole northern , if not the southern continent . '' To Americans in the decades that followed their proclaimed freedom for mankind , embodied in the Declaration of Independence , could only be described as the inauguration of `` a new time scale '' because the world would look back and define history as events that took place before , and after , the Declaration of Independence . It followed that Americans owed to the world an obligation to expand and preserve these beliefs . </P>
manifest destiny was used as a justification for us expansion into
manifest destiny was used as a justification for us expansion into
the whole northern , if not the southern continent
the whole northern , if not the southern continent