The three authors describing Manifest Destiny have very different beliefs but they all use one person with very different opinions on Manifest Destiny and his beliefs about the term. The person who first used the term in any form of writing was John O'Sullivan and is credited with coining the phrase, but for much of the time he was a strong believer in the expansion of US territory and states. Their opinions on this term differed because some believed that the United States should expand from the Pacific to the Atlantic or to the entire North American continent or to the entire hemisphere. The common thing that everyone believed in was the annexation of Texas into the Union and was the main driving point behind the term and the movement. As Stephanson says, the main driving force behind expansionism and the politics behind it were driven by the media and media. press. O'Sullivan particularly followed Jackson's ideology of democracy and wanted territorial expansion and integration of territories into the Union over time. They believed that God and Christianity were behind them to expand the United States into the vast territories of the continent. As Stephanson explains, O' Sullivan was even willing to wait many years for these territories such as Mexico and other neighboring nations to join the Union which he believed naturally belonged to the United States due to their connection to various rivers and oceans. one gets the idea that manifest destiny was a short-term manifestation of a long-term ideology and temporary messianic impulse. While he states that the term existed before it was used heavily in the 1840s to explain the reason behind the United States' need for expansion...... middle of paper ......t helped spread the news faster it was with telegraph lines that were widened due to expansion. “Gaps in the lines were filled through the use of railroads, packet steamships, pony expresses, and carrier pigeons” (Merk 56). This shows how technology connected these new territories with the old ones and how things spread between the two. All other nationalities would need time to blend their cultures and people with the culture and way of life of the United States. Works Cited Merk, Frederick. "Chapter 2 Manifest Destiny." Manifest destiny and mission in American history: A reinterpretation. [1st ed. New York: Knopf, 1963. 24-60. Print.Merrill, Dennis, Thomas Hietala, and Anders Stephanson. “Manifest Destiny, Texas, and the War with Mexico.” Major Issues in American Foreign Relations: Papers and Essays. 7th ed. Boston [ua: Houghton Mifflin, 2009. 206-213. Press