These past few weeks our nation has observed and celebrated its 250th anniversary! Numerous expressions of celebration have been held. Numerous events have been held. People celebrated various aspects of this nation’s history. Interestingly, certain of our current nation’s leaders have, and still are, advocating for the elimination of certain factual components of America’s history. Factual components which negate certain truths about the development of this nation, many of which are not desired to be affirmed, admitted nor remembered.
Instead, a graphic display was developed and promoted on the guise of the “Manifest Destiny of America.” In an 1872 painting by the artist John Guest, depictions were made illustrating various aspects of the United States’ westward movement from the eastern shores of our nation. That painting – six years after the Civil War – depicted the railroad expansion, stagecoach business, the telegraph and telephone expansion, the tilling of new soils, the forced transition of Native Americans and the settling and tilling of newly assumed lands.
Interestingly enough, that painting omitted any references or depictions of the enslavement and indiscriminate utilization of millions of imported African slaves who facilitated much of that expansion monetarily.
That painting was called the “Spirit of the Frontier.” And that “westward movement” painting presented an image of a woman identified as “Columbia” dressed in a Roman toga. And “Columbia” became the symbol and “protector of America’s “westward movement” from shore to shore – the spirit of Columbia!
Keep in mind that “Rome” had already affirmed its belief and efforts to conquer the world hundreds of years ago. And the “Roman” mentality of universal dominance was being reaffirmed in the “Columbia” symbolism. And it was also the Roman Catholic Church which promoted and endorsed the enslavement of African, Irish and central American people for European financial benefit.
The historian William Earl Weeks noted three basic tenets of the Manifest Destiny philosophy:
1. The assumption of the unique moral virtue of the U.S.
2. The assertion of the United States’ mission to redeem the world by the spread of republican government, and more generally the “American way of life.”
3. The belief that the nation was “divinely ordained” to succeed in doing such.
The term Manifest Destiny was “coined” in 1845 by the journalist and magazine editor John L. O’Sullivan, who promoted the idea that “America’s Destiny was to overspread and possess the entire American Continent by Divine Providence.”
Key to that “American Destiny” concept was the belief that “white people” (Europeans) were the ones to fulfil and accomplish that perceived “destiny!” That concept has “manifested” itself, not only in the depictions in John Guest’s painting of the westward movement, but also in the mentality of various national and state governmental leaders.
Even the movie industry promoted the concept of “white supremacy.” Heaven only knows how many Columbia Pictures movies were made depicting “white” dominance and control over persons of a darker hue. Tarzan and the African movies. The white man versus the Indians. The concept of “white dominance” has been deeply engrained in the mindset of America.
How conflictive then is that concept when the truth reveals so many examples of “white dependence” upon “Black” and other ethnic individuals and groups contributing to the development, growth and prominence of this nation.
In spite of any unsubstantiated opposition, the destiny of this nation is not based on the “dominance” of any ethnic group, political group, military group, but rather on the individual and collective efforts of “we the people!”
Keep in mind that a primary purpose for people coming to this country was to escape personal and religious “dominance” of one group over another. Religious freedom! Not some “roman goddess” depiction of personal, political nor economic principles and practices of one group dominating another.
How true and important Jesus’ declaration to the Jewish leaders to “render unto caesar that things that are caesar’s, and the things of God to God.”
IF America is to bea nation under God – not “Columbia” – then America, these United States, cannot afford to focus on, nor submit to, the priorities of godless men! The Manifest Destiny of this nation is and must be in harmony with and in submission to the principles of God, and not man – individually, not collectively.
Two hundred and fifty years is truly a great accomplishment for this nation. But the Manifest Destiny of a “nation under God” must be based on and operating under the word, will, and ways of God! Not the selfishly perceived notions and aspirations of godless people seeking self-focused and self-purposed goals which defy the word, will and way of God.
God will not only judge a nation, but God will also judge a people – every individual person. Including you.
The true “Manifest Destiny” of these United States, and every living being, is reaffirmed in God’s divine affirmation recorded in 2 Chronicles 7:14:
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Whatever others do, or have done, what shall be your personal guide and destiny? When you sing, “My country ’tis of Thee,” who is the “thee” that you really surrender yourself to?
Pastor Samuel W. Hale, Jr. is the former pastor of Zion Missionary Baptist Church and president of J.L. Powell Mission Ministries.
This article appears in July 16-22, 2026.
