1. Supporting Question #2: What are the arguments in FAVOR of westward expansion?

2. Document #1
America is destined for better deeds. It is our unparalleled glory that we have no reminisces of battlefields, but in defense of humanity, of the oppressed of all nations, of the rights of conscience, the rights of personal enfranchisement…The expansive future is our arena, and for our history…We are the nation of human progress, and who will, what can, set limits to our onward march? Providence is with us, and no earthly power can. We point to the everlasting truth on the first page of our national declaration, and we proclaim and we proclaim to the millions of other lands, that “the gates of hell”—the powers of aristocracy and monarchy—“shall not prevail against it”…Yes we are the nation of progress, of individual freedom, of universal enfranchisement…freedom of conscience, freedom of person, freedom of trade…This is our highest destiny, and in nature’s eternal, inevitable decree of cause and effect we must accomplish it…our country is destined to be the great nation of futurity…
Source: John L. O’Sullivan on Manifest Destiny, 1839.

3. Document #2
Image: American Progress, painted by George A. Crofutt in From the Library of Congress

4. Document #3

5. Document #4
. . . With the secession of Southern states from the Union and therefore removal of the slavery
issue, finally, in 1862, the Homestead Act was passed and signed into law. The new law
established a three-fold homestead acquisition process: filing an application, improving the land,
and filing for deed of title. Any U.S. citizen, or intended citizen, who had never borne arms
against the U.S. Government could file an application, improving the land and lay claim to 160
acres of surveyed Government land. For the next 5 years, the homesteader had to live on the
land and improve it by building a 12-by-14 dwelling and growing crops. After 5 years, the
homesteader could file for his patent (or deed of title) by submitting proof of residency and the
required improvements to a local land office.
Local land offices forwarded the paperwork to the General Land Office in Washington, DC,
along with a final certificate of eligibility. The case file was examined, and valid claims were
granted patent to the land free and clear, except for a small registration fee. Title could also be
acquired after a 6-month residency and trivial improvements, provided the claimant paid the
government $1.25 per acre. After the Civil War, Union soldiers could deduct the time they
served from the residency requirements
— National Archives and Records Administration, Teaching with Documents: The Homestead Act of 1862

6. Document #5
“I was a terrible sight. I had a hole in my forehead and my face was dripping blood. My hands were cut because I’d left off my gloves. All the way to Kansas I was picking cactus thorns out of my knees.”
Longhorn steers were lean, had long legs, and were mean. Their horns measured six feet tip to tip. That’s how they got their name.
What was the reason for these dangerous longhorn drives? At the end of the Civil War, Texas ranchers had a lot of cattle. People in the East were willing to pay for good meat. A steer worth $5 in Texas might bring in $40-50 in Chicago. The trick was to get the cattle to the railroads north of Texas. Then they would be shipped east. So the cowboys opened up trails to the railroads.
A favorite trail was the Chisholm Trail. It ran from the Mexican border to Abilene, Kansas. Another was the Western Trail. It led to Dodge City, Kansas. Other trails went as far north as Montana. In some years, 500,000 longhorns were herded to the railroad centers.

7. Land Poster Not Available for
Document #6
Land Poster Not Available for
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