Map Of The United States Including Oregon, Texas And The Californias, showing the Boundary claimed by the United States, Boundary offered as Compromise, Boundary Proposed by Great Britain ...
- Title:
- Map Of The United States Including Oregon, Texas And The Californias, showing the Boundary claimed by the United States, Boundary offered as Compromise, Boundary Proposed by Great Britain ...
- Alternate Title:
- Map of the United States Including Oregon, Texas and the Californias
- Collection:
- Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection
- Creator:
- Haven, John
- Other Creators:
- Haven & Emmerson, publishers
- Date:
- 1846
- Posted Date:
- 2017-04-14
- ID Number:
- 2091.01
- Collection Number:
- 8548
- File Name:
- PJM_2091_01.jpg
- Style/Period:
- 1800 - 1869
- Subject:
- Imperialism
Politics & Government
Unusual Graphics/Text - Measurement:
- 27 v 39, on sheet 60 x 46 (centimeters, height x width)
- Notes:
- The exact phrase “Manifest Destiny” does not appear in the text of this map broadside, but the concept pervades it. It first appeared just months before this map in an editorial by John L. O’Sullivan proclaiming that - as against England - “our claim to Oregon” was the “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.” The True Title, New York Morning News, December 27, 1845, quoted in Merk 1963, 32.
Like O’Sullivan, this broadside focuses on the issue of the day, urging the U.S. to hold to its most aggressive claim for territory in the ongoing Oregon boundary dispute. The map shows three horizontal green lines dividing the coast "into three grand divisions - that below the forty-second parallel being claimed by Mexico; the section lying between 42 degrees and 54 degrees 40 minutes belonging to the United States; and all above the last named northern limit being assumed by the Russian crown - thus shutting out Great Britain from any inch of western seaboard territory.”
Urging the building of a transcontinental railroad (shown as a red line on the map), Haven argues that "By the superior facilities conferred upon us by our position and control of the route, we should become the common carrier of the world for the India trade. 'Britannia rules the waves' would soon dwindle to an empty boast, and England would have to descend from her arrogant assumption of empire o'er the sea, to the level of a suppliant's tone." He predicts for the U.S., within 50 years, “a government holding the preponderance of power, owning a population of a hundred millions . . . commanding . . . over three millions of square miles.”
Haven concludes with a call to arms, quoting from George Wilkes, The History of Oregon, Geographical and Political, 1845 (invoking “Destiny” albeit not “Manifest”): "Arouse then, America, and obey the mandate which Destiny has imposed upon you for the redemption of a world! Send forth upon its mighty errand, the spirit of enfranchised man; nor let it pause until it bears down every barrier of unrighteous power; till it enlarges the boundaries of freedom to the last meridian, and spreads its generous influence from pole to pole!”
The broadside includes (without explanation) an inset map of the “Seat of War” with Mexico, just beginning. It also provides a vast amount of other textual material on Battles of the American Revolution, Battles of the Texan Revolution, United States' Militia Force, Vessels of War of the U.S. Navy, Texas, Population of the Principal Cities and Towns in the United States, Specie of the World, Mexico, British North American Provinces, and the Army & Navy of Great Britain.
There are only about a dozen place names in “New California,” including “Suter’s Colony” on the Sacramento River, one of the earliest references to the California Gold Rush. Wheat 1942, no. 26.
This is the first state of the broadside, Streeter Sale 3865. There is a later state showing all of Mexico, the broadside surrounded by a border of the 30 state seals. Streeter 3866.
For further information on the Collector’s Notes and a Feedback/Contact Link, see https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/about-collection-personal-statement and https://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/content/feedback-and-contact - Cite As:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography, #8548. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.
- Repository:
- Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library
- Archival Collection:
- P.J. Mode collection of persuasive cartography
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- For important information about copyright and use, see http://persuasivemaps.library.cornell.edu/copyright.