第十二章 昭昭天命

Source / 原文：https://www.americanyawp.com/text/12-manifest-destiny/

I. Introduction

一、引言

John Louis O’Sullivan, a popular editor and columnist, articulated the long-standing American belief in the God-given mission of the United States to lead the world in the peaceful transition to democracy. In a little-read essay printed in The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, O’Sullivan outlined the importance of annexing Texas to the United States:

约翰·路易斯·奥沙利文（John Louis O'Sullivan）是一位受欢迎的编辑和专栏作家，他阐述了美国长期以来的信念，即美国肩负着上帝赋予的使命，领导世界实现民主的和平过渡。在一篇刊登于《美国杂志与民主评论》（The United States Magazine and Democratic Review）的鲜为人知的文章中，奥沙利文概述了将德克萨斯并入美国的重要性：

Why, were other reasoning wanting, in favor of now elevating this question of the reception of Texas into the Union, out of the lower region of our past party dissensions, up to its proper level of a high and broad nationality, it surely is to be found, found abundantly, in the manner in which other nations have undertaken to intrude themselves into it, between us and the proper parties to the case, in a spirit of hostile interference against us, for the avowed object of thwarting our policy and hampering our power, limiting our greatness and checking the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.
为什么，若没有其他理由，单凭将德克萨斯问题从我们过去党派纷争的低层次提至应有的高远广阔的国家层面来讨论，它显然可以在其他国家试图干涉的方式中找到充足的理由。它是出于敌对的干预精神，目的是阻挠我们的政策、制约我们的力量、限制我们的伟大，并阻止我们完成上帝赋予我们扩展整个大陆的显然命运——一个为我们每年不断增多的数百万人民自由发展的大陆。

O’Sullivan and many others viewed expansion as necessary to achieve America’s destiny and to protect American interests. The quasi-religious call to spread democracy coupled with the reality of thousands of settlers pressing westward. Manifest destiny was grounded in the belief that a democratic, agrarian republic would save the world.

奥沙利文和许多人认为，扩张是实现美国命运并保护美国利益的必要手段。将扩展民主的几乎宗教性质的号召与成千上万向西迁徙的定居者现实结合起来。显然，"Manifest Destiny"（昭昭天命）这一概念的根基是在相信一个民主的、农业为主的共和国能够拯救世界。

Although called into name in 1845, manifest destiny was a widely held but vaguely defined belief that dated back to the founding of the nation. First, many Americans believed that the strength of American values and institutions justified moral claims to hemispheric leadership. Second, the lands on the North American continent west of the Mississippi River (and later into the Caribbean) were destined for American-led political and agricultural improvement. Third, God and the Constitution ordained an irrepressible destiny to accomplish redemption and democratization throughout the world. All three of these claims pushed many Americans, whether they uttered the words manifest destiny or not, to actively seek the expansion of democracy. These beliefs and the resulting actions were often disastrous to anyone in the way of American expansion. The new religion of American democracy spread on the feet and in the wagons of those who moved west, imbued with the hope that their success would be the nation’s success.

尽管这一名称在1845年才被正式提出，昭昭天命是一个广泛持有但定义模糊的信念，早在美国建国时就已存在。首先，许多美国人相信，美国的价值观和制度的力量证明了其对半球领导的道义权利。其次，密西西比河以西的北美大陆（后来延伸至加勒比地区）土地注定要由美国主导，进行政治和农业上的改善。第三，上帝和宪法赋予了美国不可抗拒的使命，使其能够完成全球的救赎和民主化。上述三个理由促使许多美国人，无论他们是否直接说出“昭昭天命”这一词汇，都积极寻求扩展民主。这些信仰和随之而来的行动常常对任何阻碍美国扩张的地方产生灾难性的后果。美国民主的新宗教伴随着西进的步伐，带着希望，相信他们的成功就是整个国家的成功。

The Young America movement, strongest among members of the Democratic Party but spanning the political spectrum, downplayed divisions over slavery and ethnicity by embracing national unity and emphasizing American exceptionalism, territorial expansion, democratic participation, and economic interdependence. Poet Ralph Waldo Emerson captured the political outlook of this new generation in a speech he delivered in 1844 titled “The Young American”:

“青年美国”运动，主要在民主党内盛行，但它跨越了整个政治谱系，减少了关于奴隶制和种族的分歧，强调国家统一，强化美国例外主义、领土扩张、民主参与和经济相互依存。诗人拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生（Ralph Waldo Emerson）在1844年发表的《青年美国》一文中总结了这一代人的政治观点：

In every age of the world, there has been a leading nation, one of a more generous sentiment, whose eminent citizens were willing to stand for the interests of general justice and humanity, at the risk of being called, by the men of the moment, chimerical and fantastic. Which should be that nation but these States? Which should lead that movement, if not New England? Who should lead the leaders, but the Young American?
在世界的每个时代，都有一个引领的国家，一个更具广泛情怀的国家，其杰出的公民愿意为普遍公正和人道的利益挺身而出，哪怕冒着被当时的人称为空想和荒谬的风险。哪个国家应该是那个国家？当然是这些州！哪个国家应该领导这个运动，若不是新英格兰？谁应该领导领导者，若不是青年美国？

However, many Americans, including Emerson, disapproved of aggressive expansion. For opponents of manifest destiny, the lofty rhetoric of the Young Americans was nothing other than a kind of imperialism that the American Revolution was supposed to have repudiated. Many members of the Whig Party (and later the Republican Party) argued that the United States’ mission was to lead by example, not by conquest. Abraham Lincoln summed up this criticism with a fair amount of sarcasm during a speech in 1859:

然而，包括爱默生在内的许多美国人并不赞成积极的扩张。反对昭昭天命的人认为，青年美国人空洞的言辞不过是一种帝国主义，而这种帝国主义正是美国革命所应当否定的。许多辉格党（Whig Party）成员（后来成为共和党）认为，美国的使命是通过榜样引领，而不是通过征服。亚伯拉罕·林肯（Abraham Lincoln）在1859年的一次演讲中以讽刺的口吻总结了这种批评：

He (the Young American) owns a large part of the world, by right of possessing it; and all the rest by right of wanting it, and intending to have it. . . . Young America had “a pleasing hope—a fond desire—a longing after” territory. He has a great passion—a perfect rage—for the “new”; particularly new men for office, and the new earth mentioned in the revelations, in which, being no more sea, there must be about three times as much land as in the present. He is a great friend of humanity; and his desire for land is not selfish, but merely an impulse to extend the area of freedom. He is very anxious to fight for the liberation of enslaved nations and colonies, provided, always, they have land. . . . As to those who have no land, and would be glad of help from any quarter, he considers they can afford to wait a few hundred years longer. In knowledge he is particularly rich. He knows all that can possibly be known; inclines to believe in spiritual trappings, and is the unquestioned inventor of “Manifest Destiny.”
他（青年美国人）凭借占有土地的权利拥有世界的一大部分，其他部分则凭借渴望并打算拥有它的权利……青年美国人有着一个令人愉快的希望——一个渴望——一个对“新”土地的强烈欲望；他对“新”有着强烈的热情——尤其是对担任新职位的人，对《启示录》所提到的“新地球”有着无比的热忱，其中没有海洋，土地要比现在多三倍。他是人类的伟大朋友；他对土地的欲望并非自私，而仅仅是一种扩展自由领域的冲动。他极其渴望为解放被奴役的民族和殖民地而战，前提是它们拥有土地……至于那些没有土地的、希望得到任何援助的人，他认为他们可以再等几百年。他的知识丰富得无可匹敌，他知道一切；倾向于相信神秘事物，是“昭昭天命”这一理念的无可争议的发明者。

But Lincoln and other anti-expansionists would struggle to win popular opinion. The nation, fueled by the principles of manifest destiny, would continue westward. Along the way, Americans battled both native peoples and foreign nations, claiming territory to the very edges of the continent. But westward expansion did not come without a cost. It exacerbated the slavery question, pushed Americans toward civil war, and, ultimately, threatened the very mission of American democracy it was designed to aid.

然而，林肯和其他反对扩张的人将很难赢得民众支持。这个国家，受到昭昭天命原则的推动，将继续向西扩张。在此过程中，美国人同土著人民和外来国家展开了激烈斗争，争夺领土，直到大陆的边缘。然而，西进扩张并非没有代价。它加剧了奴隶制问题，推动美国走向内战，最终威胁到美国民主使命本身的实现。

II. Antebellum Western Migration and Indian Removal

二、南北战争前的西部迁徙与印第安人迁移

After the War of 1812, Americans settled the Great Lakes region rapidly thanks in part to aggressive land sales by the federal government. Missouri’s admission as a slave state presented the first major crisis over westward migration and American expansion in the antebellum period. Farther north, lead and iron ore mining spurred development in Wisconsin. By the 1830s and 1840s, increasing numbers of German and Scandinavian immigrants joined easterners in settling the Upper Mississippi watershed. Little settlement occurred west of Missouri as migrants viewed the Great Plains as a barrier to farming. Farther west, the Rocky Mountains loomed as undesirable to all but fur traders, and all Native Americans west of the Mississippi appeared too powerful to allow for white expansion.

1812年战争结束后，美国人迅速在五大湖地区定居，这在一定程度上得益于联邦政府的积极土地销售。密苏里作为一个奴隶州的加入，成为南北战争前期关于西部迁徙和美国扩张的首次重大危机。更北方的威斯康星州，由于铅和铁矿的开采，也促进了当地的发展。到了1830年代和1840年代，越来越多的德国和斯堪的纳维亚移民加入了来自东部的定居者，在上密西西比流域定居。密苏里以西的定居活动则较少，因为移民认为大平原不适合农业。再往西，落基山脉显得不适宜定居，除了毛皮商人外，没有人愿意在那里定居，而密西西比河以西的所有印第安人似乎都太强大，无法让白人进行扩张。

“Do not lounge in the cities!” commanded publisher Horace Greeley in 1841, “There is room and health in the country, away from the crowds of idlers and imbeciles. Go west, before you are fitted for no life but that of the factory.” The New York Tribune often argued that American exceptionalism required the United States to benevolently conquer the continent as the prime means of spreading American capitalism and American democracy. However, the vast West was not empty. Native Americans controlled much of the land east of the Mississippi River and almost all of the West. Expansion hinged on a federal policy of Indian removal.

1841年，出版商霍勒斯·格里利（Horace Greeley）命令道：“不要在城市里闲逛！乡村有空间，也有健康，远离那些懒人和弱智。去西部吧，趁你还没有变成只能过工厂生活的人。”《纽约论坛报》经常主张，美国的例外主义要求美国通过仁慈的方式征服整个大陆，这是传播美国资本主义和美国民主的最佳方式。然而，广袤的西部并不空旷。印第安人控制着密西西比河以东的大片土地，几乎所有西部的土地也都被印第安人控制。扩张的关键在于联邦政府的印第安人迁移政策。

The harassment and dispossession of Native Americans—whether driven by official U.S. government policy or the actions of individual Americans and their communities—depended on the belief in manifest destiny. Of course, a fair bit of racism was part of the equation as well. The political and legal processes of expansion always hinged on the belief that white Americans could best use new lands and opportunities. This belief rested on the idea that only Americans embodied the democratic ideals of yeoman agriculturalism extolled by Thomas Jefferson and expanded under Jacksonian democracy.

对印第安人的骚扰和土地掠夺，无论是由美国政府的政策驱动，还是由个别美国人及其社区的行为所推动，都依赖于昭昭天命的信念。当然，种族主义在其中也占有一定地位。扩张的政治和法律过程总是基于这样一种信念，即白人美国人最能够利用新土地和新机会。这种信念建立在这样一个观点上：只有美国人才具备托马斯·杰斐逊推崇的自耕农理想，且在杰克逊主义民主下得到扩展。

Florida was an early test case for the Americanization of new lands. The territory held strategic value for the young nation’s growing economic and military interests in the Caribbean. The most important factors that led to the annexation of Florida included anxieties over runaway enslaved people, Spanish neglect of the region, and the desired defeat of Native American tribes who controlled large portions of lucrative farm territory.

佛罗里达成为了美国化新土地的一个早期试验场。这个地区对年轻的美国国家在加勒比地区不断增长的经济和军事利益具有战略意义。导致佛罗里达并入美国的最重要因素包括对逃跑的奴隶的担忧、西班牙对该地区的忽视，以及希望打败控制大片肥沃农田的印第安部落。

During the early nineteenth century, Spain wanted to increase productivity in Florida and encouraged migration of mostly southern enslavers. By the second decade of the 1800s, Anglo settlers occupied plantations along the St. Johns River, from the border with Georgia to Lake George a hundred miles upstream. Spain began to lose control as the area quickly became a haven for slave smugglers bringing illicit human cargo into the United States for lucrative sale to Georgia planters. Plantation owners grew apprehensive about the growing numbers of enslaved laborers running to the swamps and Native American-controlled areas of Florida. American enslavers pressured the U.S. government to confront the Spanish authorities. Southern enslavers refused to quietly accept the continued presence of armed Black men in Florida. During the War of 1812, a ragtag assortment of Georgia enslavers joined by a plethora of armed opportunists raided Spanish and British-owned plantations along the St. Johns River. These private citizens received U.S. government help on July 27, 1816, when U.S. army regulars attacked the Negro Fort (established as an armed outpost during the war by the British and located about sixty miles south of the Georgia border). The raid killed 270 of the fort’s inhabitants as a result of a direct hit on the fort’s gunpowder stores. This conflict set the stage for General Andrew Jackson’s invasion of Florida in 1817 and the beginning of the First Seminole War.

19世纪初，西班牙希望提高佛罗里达的生产力，并鼓励大多数来自南方的奴隶主迁移。到了1800年代第二个十年，英国殖民者开始在圣约翰河沿岸的种植园上定居，从乔治亚州边界到湖乔治（Lake George）约一百英里处。随着该地区成为奴隶走私的温床，西班牙失去了控制，成为美国奴隶主走私奴隶的温床。种植园主对越来越多的逃奴躲藏在沼泽地和印第安控制区表示担忧。美国奴隶主施压政府迫使西班牙当局做出回应。南方奴隶主拒绝接受西班牙继续存在的武装黑人。1812年战争期间，由乔治亚奴隶主组成的一支临时军队联合大量武装机会主义者袭击了圣约翰河沿岸的西班牙和英国拥有的种植园。美国政府在1816年7月27日给予支持，驻军袭击了由英国建立的黑人堡垒（位于乔治亚边界南约六十英里）。此次袭击摧毁了堡垒的火药库，造成270人死亡。这场冲突为安德鲁·杰克逊将军于1817年入侵佛罗里达并开始第一次塞米诺尔战争铺平了道路。

Americans also held that Creek and Seminole people, occupying the area from the Apalachicola River to the wet prairies and hammock islands of central Florida, were dangers in their own right. These tribes, known to the Americans collectively as Seminoles, migrated into the region over the course of the eighteenth century and established settlements, tilled fields, and tended herds of cattle in the rich floodplains and grasslands that dominated the northern third of the Florida peninsula. Envious eyes looked upon these lands. After bitter conflict that often pitted Americans against a collection of Native Americans and formerly enslaved people, Spain eventually agreed to transfer the territory to the United States. The resulting Adams-Onís Treaty exchanged Florida for $5 million and other territorial concessions elsewhere.

美国人还认为，克里克族和塞米诺尔族（生活在阿帕拉契科拉河至佛罗里达中部湿草原和岛屿地区）本身就是危险的。这些部落，统称为塞米诺尔人，迁入该地区并在18世纪建立定居点、耕地并饲养牛羊，形成了丰富的农业和草原经济。其他人渴望这些土地。经过一系列激烈冲突，最终美国与西班牙达成协议，将佛罗里达割让给美国。根据《亚当斯-奥尼斯条约》，美国支付500万美元，并获得其他领土的割让。

After the purchase, planters from the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia entered Florida. However, the influx of settlers into the Florida territory was temporarily halted in the mid-1830s by the outbreak of the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). Free Black men and women and escaped enslaved laborers also occupied the Seminole district, a situation that deeply troubled enslavers. Indeed, General Thomas Sidney Jesup, U.S. commander during the early stages of the Second Seminole War, labeled that conflict “a negro, not an Indian War,” fearful as he was that if the revolt “was not speedily put down, the South will feel the effect of it on their slave population before the end of the next season.” Florida became a state in 1845 and white settlement expanded.

购买后，来自卡罗来纳州、乔治亚州和弗吉尼亚州的种植园主进入佛罗里达。然而，进入佛罗里达的移民潮在1830年代中期遭遇暂时停滞，原因是第二次塞米诺尔战争（1835-1842）的爆发。自由黑人及逃跑奴隶也在塞米诺尔地区定居，这让奴隶主深感忧虑。事实上，美国陆军指挥官托马斯·悉尼·杰萨普将军在第二次塞米诺尔战争初期称这场战争为“一场黑人，而非印第安战争”，他担心如果叛乱“不迅速被镇压，南方奴隶的情况将会受到严重影响”。佛罗里达在1845年成为一个州，白人定居者继续扩张。

American action in Florida seized Indigenous people’s eastern lands, reduced lands available for freedom-seeking enslaved people, and killed entirely or removed Native American peoples farther west. This became the template for future action. Presidents, since at least Thomas Jefferson, had long discussed removal, but President Andrew Jackson took the most dramatic action. Jackson believed, “It [speedy removal] will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters.” Desires to remove Native Americans from valuable farmland motivated state and federal governments to cease trying to assimilate Native Americans and instead plan for forced removal.

美国在佛罗里达的行动掠夺了印第安人东部的土地，减少了寻求自由的奴隶获得的土地，并彻底消灭或迫使印第安人迁往西部。这成为未来行动的模板。自托马斯·杰斐逊以来，美国总统长期讨论印第安人迁移问题，但安德鲁·杰克逊采取了最为激烈的行动。杰克逊认为：“这将把一个密集且文明的族群安置在现有的大片土地上，这些土地现在由一些野蛮的猎人占据。”迫切希望将印第安人从宝贵的农田上迁走的动机促使州政府和联邦政府放弃了试图同化印第安人，转而为强制迁移做准备。

Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, thereby granting the president authority to begin treaty negotiations that would give Native Americans land in the West in exchange for their lands east of the Mississippi. Many advocates of removal, including President Jackson, paternalistically claimed that it would protect Native American communities from outside influences that jeopardized their chances of becoming “civilized” farmers. Jackson emphasized this paternalism—the belief that the government was acting in the best interest of Native peoples—in his 1830 State of the Union Address. “It [removal] will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites . . . and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community.”

1830年，国会通过了《印第安人迁移法案》，赋予总统开始与印第安部落谈判的权力，协议内容是将印第安人从密西西比河以东的土地迁移到西部。包括杰克逊在内的许多迁移支持者以保护印第安人免受外来干扰为名，宣称迁移能够帮助印第安部落成为“文明”的农民。杰克逊在1830年国情咨文中强调了这一父权主义的观点——即政府是为印第安人利益着想的：“它将使印第安人脱离与白人定居者的直接接触……并且可能在政府保护下，通过良好建议的影响，逐渐抛弃他们野蛮的习惯，成为一个有趣的、文明的和基督教的社群。”

The experience of the Cherokee was particularly brutal. Despite many tribal members adopting some Euro-American ways, including intensified agriculture, slaving, and Christianity, state and federal governments pressured the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee Nations to sign treaties and surrender land. Many of these tribal nations used the law in hopes of protecting their lands. Most notable among these efforts was the Cherokee Nation’s attempt to sue the state of Georgia.

切诺基部落的经历尤其残酷。尽管许多部落成员采纳了部分欧美的方式，包括强化农业、奴隶制和基督教化，州政府和联邦政府仍然施压，要求克里克族、奇克萨族、乔克托族和切诺基族签署条约并放弃土地。许多部落利用法律保护自己的土地，其中最著名的是切诺基部落起诉乔治亚州一案。

Beginning in 1826, Georgian officials asked the federal government to negotiate with the Cherokee to secure lucrative lands. The Adams administration resisted the state’s request, but harassment from local settlers against the Cherokee forced the Adams and Jackson administrations to begin serious negotiations with the Cherokee. Georgia grew impatient with the process of negotiation and abolished existing state agreements with the Cherokee that had guaranteed rights of movement and jurisdiction of tribal law. Andrew Jackson penned a letter soon after taking office that encouraged the Cherokee, among others, to voluntarily relocate to the West. The discovery of gold in Georgia in the fall of 1829 further antagonized the situation.

从1826年开始，乔治亚州官员请求联邦政府与切诺基进行谈判，确保有利的土地。亚当斯政府最初拒绝了这一请求，但由于地方定居者对切诺基的骚扰，亚当斯政府和杰克逊政府开始与切诺基进行谈判。乔治亚州对谈判进程不满，废除了与切诺基签订的保证其迁移权利和部落法管辖权的现有协议。杰克逊上任后不久写信鼓励切诺基等部落自愿迁往西部。1829年秋天，乔治亚州发现了金矿，进一步加剧了局势。

The Cherokee defended themselves against Georgia’s laws by citing treaties signed with the United States that guaranteed the Cherokee Nation both their land and independence. The Cherokee appealed to the Supreme Court against Georgia to prevent dispossession. The Court, while sympathizing with the Cherokee’s plight, ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the case (Cherokee Nation v. Georgia [1831]). In an associated case, Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the Supreme Court ruled that Georgia laws did not apply within Cherokee territory. Regardless of these rulings, the state government ignored the Supreme Court and did little to prevent conflict between settlers and the Cherokee.

切诺基通过引用与美国签订的条约来捍卫自己免受乔治亚州法律的侵犯，确保切诺基的土地和独立。然而，尽管法院同情切诺基的困境，依然裁定其无权审理此案（切诺基民族诉乔治亚州 [1831]）。在相关案件中，沃斯特诉乔治亚州（1832）裁定，乔治亚州的法律不适用于切诺基领土。然而，不论这些裁决如何，乔治亚州政府无视最高法院的判决，并未有效阻止定居者与切诺基的冲突。

Jackson wanted a solution that might preserve peace and his reputation. He sent secretary of war Lewis Cass to offer title to western lands and the promise of tribal governance in exchange for relinquishing of the Cherokee’s eastern lands. These negotiations opened a rift within the Cherokee Nation. Cherokee leader John Ridge believed removal was inevitable and pushed for a treaty that would give the best terms. Others, called nationalists and led by John Ross, refused to consider removal in negotiations. The Jackson administration refused any deal that fell short of large-scale removal of the Cherokee from Georgia, thereby fueling a devastating and violent intratribal battle between the two factions. Eventually tensions grew to the point that several treaty advocates were assassinated by members of the national faction.

杰克逊希望找到一种既能维持和平又能保护自己声誉的解决办法。他派遣战争部长路易斯·卡斯提供西部土地的所有权，并承诺在西部建立部落治理，以换取切诺基放弃东部土地。这一谈判在切诺基内部激化了分歧。切诺基领导人约翰·里奇认为迁移是不可避免的，因此推动签署一份能够获得最佳条件的条约。而由约翰·罗斯领导的民族主义者则拒绝在谈判中考虑迁移。杰克逊政府拒绝接受任何不涉及大规模迁移切诺基的协议，这导致部落内部发生了严重的暴力冲突。最终，几位支持条约的领导人在民族主义者的暗杀下死亡。

In 1835, a portion of the Cherokee Nation led by John Ridge, hoping to prevent further tribal bloodshed, signed the Treaty of New Echota. This treaty ceded lands in Georgia for $5 million and, the signatories hoped, would limit future conflicts between the Cherokee and white settlers. However, most of the tribe refused to adhere to the terms, viewing the treaty as illegitimately negotiated. In response, John Ross pointed out the U.S. government’s hypocrisy. “You asked us to throw off the hunter and warrior state: We did so—you asked us to form a republican government: We did so. Adopting your own as our model. You asked us to cultivate the earth, and learn the mechanic arts. We did so. You asked us to learn to read. We did so. You asked us to cast away our idols and worship your god. We did so. Now you demand we cede to you our lands. That we will not do.”

1835年，由约翰·里奇领导的一部分切诺基部落签署了《新厄契塔条约》。该条约以500万美元交换乔治亚州的土地，条约签署者希望能够减少切诺基与白人定居者之间的冲突。然而，部落中的大多数成员拒绝遵守条约，认为该条约是非法谈判的。对此，约翰·罗斯指出美国政府的虚伪：“你们要求我们抛弃猎人与战士的身份：我们做到了——你们要求我们建立共和政府：我们做到了。采用你们的模式。你们要求我们耕种土地，学习手工业：我们做到了。你们要求我们学习阅读：我们做到了。你们要求我们抛弃偶像，崇拜你们的神：我们做到了。现在你们要求我们将土地交给你们。我们不会同意。”

President Martin van Buren, in 1838, decided to press the issue beyond negotiation and court rulings and used the New Echota Treaty provisions to order the army to forcibly remove those Cherokee not obeying the treaty’s cession of territory. Harsh weather, poor planning, and difficult travel compounded the tragedy of what became known as the Trail of Tears. Sixteen thousand Cherokee embarked on the journey; only ten thousand completed it. Not every instance of removal was as treacherous or demographically disastrous as the Cherokee example. Furthermore, tribes responded in a variety of ways. Some tribes violently resisted removal. Ultimately, over sixty-thousand Native Americans were forced west prior to the Civil War.

1838年，马丁·范布伦总统决定超越谈判和法院判决的束缚，利用《新厄契塔条约》的条款命令军队强行将不愿意遵守条约的切诺基人迁移。恶劣的天气、糟糕的规划和艰难的旅行使得这场名为“眼泪之路”的悲剧愈加沉重。16,000名切诺基人踏上了旅程，最终只有10,000人完成了迁徙。并非每次迁移都像切诺基的遭遇那样艰难，印第安部落也以不同的方式作出回应。一些部落进行了激烈的反抗。最终，超过6万名印第安人被迫迁徙至西部。

The allure of manifest destiny encouraged expansion regardless of terrain or locale, and Indian removal also took place, to a lesser degree, in northern lands. In the Old Northwest, Odawa and Ojibwe communities in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota resisted removal as many lived on land north of desirable farming land. Moreover, some Ojibwe and Odawa individuals purchased land independently. They formed successful alliances with missionaries to help advocate against removal, as well as with some traders and merchants who depended on trade with Native peoples. Yet Indian removal occurred in the North as well—the Black Hawk War in 1832, for instance, led to the removal of many Sauk to Kansas.

昭昭天命的诱惑鼓励着扩张，不论其地形和位置如何，而印第安人的迁移也在北方土地上发生。北方的老西北地区，密歇根、威斯康星和明尼苏达的奥达瓦和奥吉布瓦人也曾抵抗迁移，因为他们居住的土地并不符合理想的农业土地要求。更有甚者，一些奥吉布瓦人和奥达瓦人独立购买土地。他们与传教士建立了成功的联盟，帮助反对迁移，还与一些依赖与印第安人贸易的商人合作。然而，印第安人迁移在北方也发生过——例如1832年的黑鹰战争导致了许多萨克人迁往堪萨斯州。

Despite the disaster of removal, tribal nations slowly rebuilt their cultures and in some cases even achieved prosperity in new territories. Tribal nations blended traditional cultural practices, including common land systems, with western practices including constitutional governments, common school systems, and creating an elite enslaving class.

尽管迁移的灾难性后果，许多部落仍然在新领土上重新建立了自己的文化，并在某些情况下取得了繁荣。这些部落融合了传统的文化习惯，包括共同的土地制度，结合西方的政治制度，例如宪法政府、公共学校系统，并且创造了一个精英的奴隶阶层。

Some Native American groups remained too powerful to remove. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, the Comanche rose to power in the Southern Plains region of what is now the southwestern United States. By quickly adapting to the horse culture first introduced by the Spanish, the Comanche transitioned from a foraging economy into a mixed hunting and pastoral society. After 1821, the new Mexican nation-state claimed the region as part of the northern Mexican frontier, but they had little control. Instead, the Comanche remained in power and controlled the economy of the Southern Plains. A flexible political structure allowed the Comanche to dominate other Native American groups as well as Mexican and American settlers.

某些印第安部落依然强大到无法迁移。自18世纪末以来，科曼奇人迅速崛起，控制了如今美国西南部的南方平原地区。科曼奇人在西班牙人引入马匹文化后迅速适应，将自己的经济从采集转型为以狩猎和畜牧为基础的混合经济。1821年后，新的墨西哥国家宣称该地区为墨西哥北部的边疆，但墨西哥对此几乎没有控制权。相反，科曼奇人依然控制着该地区，并主导了南方平原的经济。灵活的政治结构使科曼奇人能够支配其他印第安部落，以及墨西哥和美国的定居者。

In the 1830s, the Comanche launched raids into northern Mexico, ending what had been an unprofitable but peaceful diplomatic relationship with Mexico. At the same time, they forged new trading relationships with Anglo-American traders in Texas. Throughout this period, the Comanche and several other independent Native groups, particularly the Kiowa, Apache, and Navajo, engaged in thousands of violent encounters with northern Mexicans. Collectively, these encounters comprised an ongoing war during the 1830s and 1840s as tribal nations vied for power and wealth. By the 1840s, Comanche power peaked with an empire that controlled a vast territory in the trans-Mississippi west known as Comancheria. By trading in Texas and raiding in northern Mexico, the Comanche controlled the flow of commodities, including captives, livestock, and trade goods. They practiced a fluid system of captivity and captive trading, rather than a rigid chattel system. The Comanche used captives for economic exploitation but also adopted captives into kinship networks. This allowed for the assimilation of diverse peoples in the region into the empire. The ongoing conflict in the region had sweeping consequences on both Mexican and American politics. The U.S.-Mexican War, beginning in 1846, can be seen as a culmination of this violence.

到1830年代，科曼奇人对墨西哥北部发动袭击，结束了本来不太富裕但和平的外交关系。与此同时，他们与德州的盎格鲁-美国商人建立了新的贸易关系。在此期间，科曼奇人和其他独立的印第安部落，特别是基奥瓦、阿帕奇和纳瓦霍，和北墨西哥人发生了数千次暴力冲突。总体而言，这些冲突构成了1830年代和1840年代的一场持久战，因为各部落争夺权力和财富。到1840年代，科曼奇帝国达到了鼎盛时期，控制了横跨密西西比河以西的广阔区域，被称为“科曼奇地区”。通过在德州的贸易和在北墨西哥的袭击，科曼奇人控制了商品流通，包括俘虏、家畜和贸易物品。他们采用了灵活的俘虏制度，而非僵化的奴隶制。科曼奇人利用俘虏进行经济剥削，但也将俘虏纳入亲属网络。这使得该地区的不同族群可以融入帝国。此地区的持续冲突对墨西哥和美国政治产生了深远影响。1846年爆发的美墨战争可以看作是这种暴力的高潮。

In the Great Basin region, Mexican independence also escalated patterns of violence. This region, on the periphery of the Spanish empire, was nonetheless integrated in the vast commercial trading network of the West. Mexican officials and Anglo-American traders entered the region with their own imperial designs. New forms of violence spread into the homelands of the Paiute and Western Shoshone. Traders, settlers, and Mormon religious refugees, aided by U.S. officials and soldiers, committed daily acts of violence and laid the groundwork for violent conquest. This expansion of the American state into the Great Basin meant groups such as the Ute, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe had to compete over land, resources, captives, and trade relations with Anglo-Americans. Eventually, white incursion and ongoing wars against Native Americans resulted in traumatic dispossession of land and the struggle for subsistence.

在大盆地地区，墨西哥独立也加剧了暴力模式。这一地区位于西班牙帝国的边缘，尽管如此，它仍然融入了西部广泛的商业贸易网络。墨西哥官员和盎格鲁-美国商人带着他们自己的帝国主义野心进入这一地区。新的暴力形式迅速蔓延至帕尤特（Paiute）和西部肖松尼（Western Shoshone）人们的家园。商人、定居者和摩门教宗教难民在美国官员和军队的帮助下，进行着日常的暴力行为，为暴力征服铺平了道路。美国国家的扩张进入大盆地地区，意味着尤特人、切yenne人和阿拉波霍人等部落不得不在土地、资源、俘虏和与盎格鲁-美国人的贸易关系上展开竞争。最终，白人入侵和对印第安人的持续战争导致了土地的剧烈剥夺，以及为生存而进行的挣扎。

The federal government attempted more than relocation of Native Americans. Policies to “civilize” Native Americans coexisted along with forced removal and served an important “Americanizing” vision of expansion that brought an ever-increasing population under the American flag and sought to balance aggression with the uplift of paternal care. Thomas L. McKenney, superintendent of Indian trade from 1816 to 1822 and the Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1824 to 1830, served as the main architect of the civilization policy. He asserted that Native Americans were morally and intellectually equal to whites. He sought to establish a national Indian school system.

联邦政府采取的措施不仅仅是印第安人迁移。旨在“文明化”印第安人的政策与强制迁移并行，并服务于扩张主义的“美国化”愿景，这一愿景使得越来越多的人口归于美国旗帜之下，并试图通过父权式关怀的方式平衡侵略。托马斯·L·麦肯尼（Thomas L. McKenney），曾在1816至1822年间担任印第安贸易总监督，并在1824至1830年间担任印第安事务总监督，是这一文明化政策的主要设计者。麦肯尼坚持认为，印第安人在道德和智力上与白人平等。他希望建立一个全国性的印第安学校系统。

Congress rejected McKenney’s plan but instead passed the Civilization Fund Act in 1819. This act offered $10,000 annually to be allocated toward societies that funded missionaries to establish schools among Native American tribes. However, providing schooling for Native Americans under the auspices of the civilization program also allowed the federal government to justify taking more land. Treaties, such as the 1820 Treaty of Doak’s Stand made with the Choctaw nation, often included land cessions as requirements for education provisions. Removal and Americanization reinforced Americans’ sense of cultural dominance.

然而，国会拒绝了麦肯尼的计划，而是通过了1819年的《文明基金法案》。该法案每年提供10,000美元，用于资助支持传教士在印第安部落中建立学校的社会组织。然而，在文明化项目的名义下为印第安人提供教育，也为联邦政府提供了更多土地的正当化理由。像1820年与乔克托（Choctaw）部落签订的《道克斯站条约》这样的条约，通常将土地割让作为提供教育条件的要求。迁移与美国化共同强化了美国人对文化优势的认知。

After removal in the 1830s, the Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw began to collaborate with missionaries to build school systems of their own. Leaders hoped education would help ensuing generations to protect political sovereignty. In 1841, the Cherokee Nation opened a public school system that within two years included eighteen schools. By 1852, the system expanded to twenty-one schools with a national enrollment of 1,100 pupils. Many of the students educated in these tribally controlled schools later served their nations as teachers, lawyers, physicians, bureaucrats, and politicians.

迁移后的切诺基、乔克托和奇克萨等部落开始与传教士合作，建立自己的学校系统。部落领导人希望教育能帮助未来的几代人保护政治主权。1841年，切诺基民族开设了公共学校系统，在两年内就有了十八所学校。到1852年，系统扩展到了二十一所学校，国家注册学生人数达到1,100人。许多在这些部落控制的学校接受教育的学生，后来成为部落的教师、律师、医生、官僚和政治家。

III. Life and Culture in the West

三、西部的生活与文化

The dream of creating a democratic utopia in the West ultimately rested on those who picked up their possessions and their families and moved west. Western settlers usually migrated as families and settled along navigable and potable rivers. Settlements often coalesced around local traditions, especially religion, carried from eastern settlements. These shared understandings encouraged a strong sense of cooperation among western settlers that forged communities on the frontier.

创建一个民主乌托邦的梦想最终依赖于那些带着财物和家人向西迁徙的人。西部定居者通常是以家庭为单位迁移，并定居在可航行且有饮用水的河流沿岸。定居点通常围绕当地传统而形成，尤其是从东部定居地带来的宗教。这些共同的认知促进了西部定居者之间强烈的合作感，锻造了边疆上的社区。

Before the Mexican War, the West for most Americans still referred to the fertile area between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River with a slight amount of overspill beyond its banks. With soil exhaustion and land competition increasing in the East, most early western migrants sought a greater measure of stability and self-sufficiency by engaging in small-scale farming. Boosters of these new agricultural areas along with the U.S. government encouraged perceptions of the West as a land of hard-built opportunity that promised personal and national bounty.

在墨西哥战争之前，对大多数美国人来说，西部仍然指的是介于阿巴拉契亚山脉和密西西比河之间的肥沃地区，稍微溢出河岸的部分。随着东部土地逐渐耗竭和土地竞争的加剧，大多数早期的西部迁移者寻求通过从事小规模农业来获得更多的稳定性和自给自足。新农业地区的支持者以及美国政府鼓励人们认为西部是一个通过艰苦努力建设的机会之地，承诺带来个人和国家的财富。

Women migrants bore the unique double burden of travel while also being expected to conform to restrictive gender norms. The key virtues of femininity, according to the “cult of true womanhood,” included piety, purity, domesticity, and submissiveness. The concept of “separate spheres” expected women to remain in the home. These values accompanied men and women as they traveled west to begin their new lives.

女性迁移者承受着独特的双重负担，她们不仅要经历长途旅行，还被期望遵守严格的性别规范。根据“真女人主义”的理念，女性的核心美德包括虔诚、纯洁、家庭责任和顺从。所谓的“分离领域”概念要求女性留在家庭中。这些价值观伴随男女共同前往西部，开始他们的新生活。

While many of these societal standards endured, there often existed an openness of frontier society that resulted in modestly more opportunities for women. Husbands needed partners in setting up a homestead and working in the field to provide food for the family. Suitable wives were often in short supply, enabling some to informally negotiate more power in their households.

尽管许多社会规范依然存在，但边疆社会的开放性往往带来了更多女性的机会。丈夫们需要伴侣来建立家园并在田地里工作，以为家庭提供食物。适合的妻子常常很难找到，这使得一些女性能够非正式地争取到家庭中的更多话语权。

Americans debated the role of government in westward expansion. This debate centered on the proper role of the U.S. government in paying for the internal improvements that soon became necessary to encourage and support economic development. Some saw frontier development as a self-driven undertaking that necessitated private risk and investment devoid of government interference. Others saw the federal government’s role as providing the infrastructural development needed to give migrants the push toward engagement with the larger national economy. In the end, federal aid proved essential for the conquest and settlement of the region.

美国人曾就政府在西部扩张中的角色展开激烈辩论。这场辩论的焦点是美国政府在支付那些后来成为支持经济发展的必要的内部改进费用时应当扮演什么样的角色。有些人认为，边疆的发展应该是一项自我驱动的事业，必须依赖私人的风险投资而不干预政府。而另一些人则认为，联邦政府应提供必要的基础设施建设，以帮助移民融入更广泛的国家经济。最终，联邦援助证明对于征服和定居西部至关重要。

Economic busts constantly threatened western farmers and communities. The economy worsened after the Panic of 1819. Falling prices and depleted soil meant farmers were unable to make their loan payments. The dream of subsistence and stability abruptly ended as many migrants lost their land and felt the hand of the distant market economy forcing them even farther west to escape debt. As a result, the federal government consistently sought to increase access to land in the West, including efforts to lower the amount of land required for purchase. Smaller lots made it easier for more farmers to clear land and begin farming faster.

经济危机不断威胁着西部农民和社区。在1819年的经济恐慌之后，经济状况恶化。价格下降和土壤贫瘠使得农民无法按时偿还贷款。生计和稳定的梦想被突如其来的打击所终结，许多移民失去了他们的土地，感受到了遥远市场经济的压力，这迫使他们向更远的西部迁移以逃避债务。因此，联邦政府不断寻求扩大西部的土地获取，包括降低土地购买的最低要求。较小的土地块使更多的农民能够更快地开垦土地并开始耕作。

More than anything else, new roads and canals provided conduits for migration and settlement. Improvements in travel and exchange fueled economic growth in the 1820s and 1830s. Canal improvements expanded in the East, while road building prevailed in the West. Congress continued to allocate funds for internal improvements. Federal money pushed the National Road, begun in 1811, farther west every year. Laborers needed to construct these improvements increased employment opportunities and encouraged nonfarmers to move to the West. Wealth promised by engagement with the new economy was hard to reject. However, roads were expensive to build and maintain, and some Americans strongly opposed spending money on these improvements.

最重要的是，新建的道路和运河为迁徙和定居提供了通道。旅行和交流的改善促进了1820年代和1830年代的经济增长。东部地区的运河建设得到了扩展，而西部的道路建设则占据主导地位。国会继续拨款用于内部改进。联邦资金推动了自1811年开始的国家公路每年向西延伸。为了建设这些设施所需的劳动力增加了就业机会，并鼓励非农民向西部迁移。参与新经济带来的财富几乎难以拒绝。然而，修建和维护道路的费用高昂，一些美国人强烈反对将资金用于这些改进。

The use of steamboats grew quickly throughout the 1810s and into the 1820s. As water trade and travel grew in popularity, local, state, and federal funds helped connect rivers and streams. Hundreds of miles of new canals cut through the eastern landscape. The most notable of these early projects was the Erie Canal. That project, completed in 1825, linked the Great Lakes to New York City. The profitability of the canal helped New York outpace its East Coast rivals to become the center for commercial import and export in the United States.

蒸汽船的使用在1810年代和1820年代迅速增长。随着水上贸易和旅行的流行，地方、州和联邦资金帮助连接了河流和小溪。成百上千英里的新运河贯穿了东部地区。最著名的这些早期项目是纽约州的厄尔尼运河。这个项目在1825年完成，将五大湖与纽约市连接起来。运河的盈利性帮助纽约州超越了其东海岸的竞争对手，成为美国商业进出口的中心。

Early railroads like the Baltimore and Ohio line hoped to link mid-Atlantic cities with lucrative western trade routes. Railroad boosters encouraged the rapid growth of towns and cities along their routes. Not only did rail lines promise to move commerce faster, but the rails also encouraged the spreading of towns farther away from traditional waterway locations. Technological limitations, constant repairs, conflicts with Native Americans, and political disagreements all hampered railroading and kept canals and steamboats as integral parts of the transportation system. Nonetheless, this early establishment of railroads enabled a rapid expansion after the Civil War.

早期的铁路如巴尔的摩和俄亥俄铁路希望将中大西洋地区的城市与西部有利可图的贸易路线连接起来。铁路的支持者鼓励沿着铁路路线快速发展的城镇和城市。铁路不仅承诺能更快地运送商品，而且铁路还鼓励城镇远离传统的水路位置扩展。技术限制、不断的修理、与印第安人的冲突和政治分歧都阻碍了铁路的发展，使得运河和蒸汽船仍然是运输系统的重要组成部分。尽管如此，铁路的早期建设为内战后的迅速扩张铺平了道路。

Economic chains of interdependence stretched over hundreds of miles of land and through thousands of contracts and remittances. America’s manifest destiny became wedded not only to territorial expansion but also to economic development.

经济上的相互依赖链条延伸至数百英里的土地和成千上万的合同与汇款。美国的“昭昭天命”不仅与领土扩张密切相关，还与经济发展紧密相连。

IV. Texas, Mexico and the United States

四、德克萨斯、墨西哥与美国

The debate over slavery became one of the prime forces behind the Texas Revolution and the resulting republic’s annexation to the United States. After gaining its independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico hoped to attract new settlers to its northern areas to create a buffer between it and the powerful Comanche. New immigrants, mostly from the southern United States, poured into Mexican Texas. Over the next twenty-five years, concerns over growing Anglo influence and possible American designs on the area produced great friction between Mexicans and the former Americans in the area. In 1829, Mexico, hoping to quell both anger and immigration, outlawed slavery and required all new immigrants to convert to Catholicism. American immigrants, eager to expand their agricultural fortunes, largely ignored these requirements. In response, Mexican authorities closed their territory to any new immigration in 1830—a prohibition ignored by Americans who often squatted on public lands.

关于奴隶制的争论成为德克萨斯革命及其后与美国合并的重要推动因素之一。1821年，墨西哥摆脱西班牙统治独立后，希望吸引新的移民到其北部地区，以在自己与强大的科曼奇人之间建立缓冲地带。大量新移民涌入墨西哥的德克萨斯地区，其中大多数来自美国南部。在接下来的二十五年里，随着盎格鲁移民影响力的增长以及美国可能吞并该地区的担忧日益加剧，墨西哥人与这些原籍美国的移民之间的矛盾愈演愈烈。1829年，墨西哥政府试图平息愤怒并控制移民潮，宣布废除奴隶制，并要求所有新移民皈依天主教。然而，美国移民一心想要拓展自己的农业利益，大多无视这些规定。对此，墨西哥政府于1830年关闭了德克萨斯边境，禁止新的移民进入——然而，美国人仍然无视这一禁令，继续在公共土地上非法定居。

In 1834, an internal conflict between federalists and centralists in the Mexican government led to the political ascendency of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Santa Anna, governing as a dictator, repudiated the federalist Constitution of 1824, pursued a policy of authoritarian central control, and crushed several revolts throughout Mexico. Anglo settlers in Mexican Texas, or Texians as they called themselves, opposed Santa Anna’s centralizing policies and met in November. They issued a statement of purpose that emphasized their commitment to the Constitution of 1824 and declared Texas to be a separate state within Mexico. After the Mexican government angrily rejected the offer, Texian leaders soon abandoned their fight for the Constitution of 1824 and declared independence on March 2, 1836. The Texas Revolution of 1835–1836 was a successful secessionist movement in the northern district of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas that resulted in an independent Republic of Texas.

1834年，墨西哥政府内部联邦派与中央集权派之间的冲突使安东尼奥·洛佩斯·德·圣安娜将军掌权。圣安娜以独裁者身份执政，废除了联邦主义的《1824年宪法》，推行中央集权政策，并镇压了墨西哥境内的多次起义。定居在墨西哥德克萨斯的盎格鲁移民（自称为“德克萨斯人”）反对圣安娜的集权政策，并于当年11月举行会议，发表声明强调他们对《1824年宪法》的忠诚，并宣布德克萨斯为墨西哥的一个独立州。然而，墨西哥政府愤怒地拒绝了这一请求，于是，德克萨斯领导人很快放弃了对《1824年宪法》的维护，并于1836年3月2日正式宣布独立。1835年至1836年的德克萨斯革命是一场成功的分离运动，最终使墨西哥北部的科阿韦拉-德克萨斯州的一部分独立，建立了德克萨斯共和国。

At the Alamo and Goliad, Santa Anna crushed smaller rebel forces and massacred hundreds of Texian prisoners. The Mexican army pursued the retreating Texian army deep into East Texas, spurring a mass panic and evacuation by American civilians known as the Runaway Scrape. The confident Santa Anna consistently failed to make adequate defensive preparations, an oversight that eventually led to a surprise attack from the outnumbered Texian army led by Sam Houston on April 21, 1836. The battle of San Jacinto lasted only eighteen minutes and resulted in a decisive victory for the Texians, who retaliated for previous Mexican atrocities by killing fleeing and surrendering Mexican soldiers for hours after the initial assault. Santa Anna was captured in the aftermath and compelled to sign the Treaty of Velasco on May 14, 1836, by which he agreed to withdraw his army from Texas and acknowledged Texas independence. Although a new Mexican government never recognized the Republic of Texas, the United States and several other nations gave the new country diplomatic recognition.

在阿拉莫战役和戈利亚德战役中，圣安娜粉碎了规模较小的叛军，并屠杀了数百名德克萨斯战俘。墨西哥军队一路追击撤退中的德克萨斯军队，深入东德克萨斯，导致大批美国平民恐慌性撤离，这一事件被称为“逃亡混乱”（Runaway Scrape）。然而，骄傲自负的圣安娜忽视了必要的防御准备，这一失误最终导致1836年4月21日的突袭。当天，在萨姆·休斯顿的率领下，人数劣势的德克萨斯军队在圣哈辛托战役中发动突然袭击，仅用了十八分钟便决定性地击败墨西哥军队。作为对墨西哥军队此前残忍行径的报复，德克萨斯士兵在战斗结束后几个小时内继续追杀逃跑和投降的墨西哥士兵。圣安娜本人在战斗后被俘，并被迫在1836年5月14日签署《贝拉斯科条约》，同意撤军并承认德克萨斯独立。尽管墨西哥新政府从未正式承认德克萨斯共和国，但美国及其他几个国家给予了这个新生国家外交承认。

Texas annexation had remained a political landmine since the Republic declared independence from Mexico in 1836. American politicians feared that adding Texas to the Union would provoke a war with Mexico and reignite sectional tensions by throwing off the balance between free and slave states. However, after his expulsion from the Whig party, President John Tyler saw Texas statehood as the key to saving his political career. In 1842, he began work on opening annexation to national debate. Harnessing public outcry over the issue, Democrat James K. Polk rose from virtual obscurity to win the presidential election of 1844. Polk and his party campaigned on promises of westward expansion, with eyes toward Texas, Oregon, and California. In the final days of his presidency, Tyler at last extended an official offer to Texas on March 3, 1845. The republic accepted on July 4, becoming the twenty-eighth state.

德克萨斯的合并问题自其1836年独立以来便成为美国政坛的敏感议题。美国政治家担心，吞并德克萨斯不仅会引发与墨西哥的战争，还会打破自由州与蓄奴州之间的平衡，重新点燃南北分裂的紧张局势。然而，在被辉格党驱逐后，总统约翰·泰勒将德克萨斯的州身份视为挽救其政治生涯的关键。1842年，他推动将德克萨斯的吞并问题纳入国家议题。借助公众对扩张的强烈支持，民主党人詹姆斯·K·波尔克从政坛默默无闻之人跃升为1844年总统大选的获胜者。波尔克及其党派以西进扩张为竞选纲领，目标不仅包括德克萨斯，还包括俄勒冈和加利福尼亚。在其总统任期的最后几天，泰勒终于在1845年3月3日向德克萨斯正式提出加入美国的提议。德克萨斯共和国于7月4日接受提案，成为美国第28个州。

Mexico denounced annexation as “an act of aggression, the most unjust which can be found recorded in the annals of modern history.” Beyond the anger produced by annexation, the two nations both laid claim over a narrow strip of land between two rivers. Mexico drew the southwestern border of Texas at the Nueces River, but Texans claimed that the border lay roughly 150 miles farther west at the Rio Grande. Neither claim was realistic since the sparsely populated area, known as the Nueces strip, was in fact controlled by Native Americans.

墨西哥谴责吞并德克萨斯是“现代史上最不公正的侵略行径”。除了对吞并的愤怒，两国还围绕着一片狭长的土地展开争执。墨西哥认为德克萨斯的西南边界应划定在努埃塞斯河，而德克萨斯则宣称边界应向西推进约150英里至格兰德河。然而，这两个主张都并不现实，因为这一地带——被称为“努埃塞斯地带”——实际上由美洲原住民控制。

In November 1845, President Polk secretly dispatched John Slidell to Mexico City to purchase the Nueces strip along with large sections of New Mexico and California. The mission was an empty gesture, designed largely to pacify those in Washington who insisted on diplomacy before war. Predictably, officials in Mexico City refused to receive Slidell. In preparation for the assumed failure of the negotiations, Polk preemptively sent a four-thousand-man army under General Zachary Taylor to Corpus Christi, Texas, just northeast of the Nueces River. Upon word of Slidell’s rebuff in January 1846, Polk ordered Taylor to cross into the disputed territory. The president hoped that this show of force would push the lands of California onto the bargaining table as well. Unfortunately, he badly misread the situation. After losing Texas, the Mexican public strongly opposed surrendering any more ground to the United States. Popular opinion left the shaky government in Mexico City without room to negotiate. On April 24, Mexican cavalrymen attacked a detachment of Taylor’s troops in the disputed territory just north of the Rio Grande, killing eleven U.S. soldiers.

1845年11月，波尔克总统秘密派遣约翰·斯莱德尔前往墨西哥城，希望以购买方式获得努埃塞斯地带及新墨西哥和加利福尼亚的大部分地区。然而，这一外交任务更多是为了安抚华盛顿内部的温和派，因为波尔克早已做好开战准备。正如预料的那样，墨西哥政府拒绝接见斯莱德尔。波尔克预见到谈判失败的可能性，于是派遣扎卡里·泰勒将军率领4000名美军驻扎在德克萨斯东北部的科珀斯克里斯蒂，紧邻努埃塞斯河。1846年1月，斯莱德尔返回美国，波尔克随即命令泰勒率军进入争议领土，希望以武力威胁让墨西哥在加利福尼亚问题上让步。然而，波尔克严重误判了形势。墨西哥已经失去了德克萨斯，国内舆论强烈反对再度割让领土。由于民意压力，墨西哥政府别无选择，只能拒绝谈判。1846年4月24日，墨西哥骑兵在格兰德河以北的争议地区袭击了美军分遣队，造成11名美国士兵死亡。

It took two weeks for the news to reach Washington. Polk sent a message to Congress on May 11 that summed up the assumptions and intentions of the United States.

这一消息用了两周才传到华盛顿。5月11日，波尔克向国会提交了一份声明，其中概述了美国的立场和意图：

Instead of this, however, we have been exerting our best efforts to propitiate her good will. Upon the pretext that Texas, a nation as independent as herself, thought proper to unite its destinies with our own, she has affected to believe that we have severed her rightful territory, and in official proclamations and manifestoes has repeatedly threatened to make war upon us for the purpose of reconquering Texas. In the meantime we have tried every effort at reconciliation. The cup of forbearance had been exhausted even before the recent information from the frontier of the Del Norte. But now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are now at war.
我们一直在尽最大努力安抚墨西哥，试图赢得她的善意。然而，她却声称，我们吞并德克萨斯是对她领土的非法占领，并多次在官方声明中威胁要发动战争以重新征服德克萨斯。在我们忍耐已尽的情况下，墨西哥竟然跨越美国边界，入侵我国领土，在我们的土地上流下了美国公民的鲜血。她已宣布战争开始，现在两国已进入战争状态。

The cagey Polk knew that since hostilities already existed, political dissent would be dangerous—a vote against war became a vote against supporting American soldiers under fire. Congress passed a declaration of war on May 13. Only a few members of both parties, notably John Quincy Adams and John C. Calhoun, opposed the measure. Upon declaring war in 1846, Congress issued a call for fifty thousand volunteer soldiers. Spurred by promises of adventure and conquest abroad, thousands of eager men flocked to assembly points across the country. However, opposition to “Mr. Polk’s War” soon grew.

波尔克深知，既然敌对行动已然爆发，任何政治反对都会被视为对军队的不支持。国会于5月13日通过了战争宣言。尽管约翰·昆西·亚当斯和约翰·C·卡尔霍恩等少数议员反对，但大多数议员投票支持。随后，美国征召5万名志愿军，数千名渴望冒险和征服的年轻人纷纷响应号召，奔赴军营。然而，对这场“波尔克的战争”的反对也开始升温。

In the early fall of 1846, the U.S. Army invaded Mexico on multiple fronts and within a year’s time General Winfield Scott’s men took control of Mexico City. However, the city’s fall did not bring an end to the war. Scott’s men occupied Mexico’s capital for over four months while the two countries negotiated. In the United States, the war had been controversial from the beginning. Embedded journalists sent back detailed reports from the front lines, and a divided press viciously debated the news. Volunteers found that war was not as they expected. Disease killed seven times as many American soldiers as combat. Harsh discipline, conflict within the ranks, and violent clashes with civilians led soldiers to desert in huge numbers. Peace finally came on February 2, 1848 with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

1846年秋，美军在多个战线上入侵墨西哥。一年之内，温菲尔德·斯科特将军率军占领了墨西哥城。然而，攻陷首都并未立即结束战争。斯科特的军队在墨西哥城驻扎了四个多月，而美墨双方则在此期间展开谈判。在美国国内，这场战争自始至终都颇具争议。驻扎在前线的记者向国内传回详尽的战地报道，而分裂的媒体则围绕战争展开激烈辩论。志愿军士兵很快发现，战争并非他们最初设想的那般光荣。疾病造成的死亡人数是战斗伤亡人数的七倍之多，而军队内部严苛的纪律、士兵之间的矛盾以及与当地平民的冲突，都导致大量士兵开小差甚至彻底逃亡。

The United States gained lands that would become the future states of California, Utah, and Nevada; most of Arizona; and parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Mexican officials would also have to surrender their claims to Texas and recognize the Rio Grande as its southern boundary. The United States offered $15 million for all of it. With American soldiers occupying their capital, Mexican leaders had no choice but to sign.

最终，战争于1848年2月2日结束，美墨双方签署了《瓜达卢佩-伊达尔戈条约》。根据条约，美国获得了包括未来的加利福尼亚州、犹他州和内华达州的大部分地区，以及亚利桑那州、新墨西哥州、科罗拉多州和怀俄明州的部分领土。同时，墨西哥政府正式放弃对德克萨斯的所有主权要求，并承认格兰德河为德克萨斯的南部边界。作为补偿，美国向墨西哥支付了1500万美元。在美军占领墨西哥首都的情况下，墨西哥领导人别无选择，只能签署条约。

The new American Southwest attracted a diverse group of entrepreneurs and settlers to the commercial towns of New Mexico, the fertile lands of eastern Texas, the famed gold deposits of California, and the Rocky Mountains. This postwar migration built earlier paths dating back to the 1820s, when the lucrative Santa Fe trade enticed merchants to New Mexico and generous land grants brought numerous settlers to Texas. The Gadsden Purchase of 1854 further added to American gains north of Mexico.

战后，美国西南部的新领土吸引了各类移民与商人，他们纷纷前往新墨西哥的商业城镇、东德克萨斯的肥沃土地、加利福尼亚的黄金矿区以及落基山脉的拓荒地。这波战后移民潮延续了早在1820年代就已形成的拓荒路径，当时圣塔菲贸易吸引了大批商人进入新墨西哥，而大规模的土地授予政策则吸引了大量定居者来到德克萨斯。此外，1854年的“加兹登购地”进一步扩大了美国在墨西哥北部的领土。

The U.S.-Mexican War had an enormous impact on both countries. The American victory helped set the United States on the path to becoming a world power. It elevated Zachary Taylor to the presidency and served as a training ground for many of the Civil War’s future commanders. Most significantly, however, Mexico lost roughly half of its territory. Yet the United States’ victory was not without danger. Ralph Waldo Emerson, an outspoken critic, predicted ominously at the beginning of the conflict, “We will conquer Mexico, but it will be as the man who swallows the arsenic which will bring him down in turn. Mexico will poison us.” Indeed, the conflict over whether to extend slavery into the newly won territory pushed the nation ever closer to disunion and civil war.

美墨战争对两国都产生了深远影响。对美国而言，这场胜利巩固了其世界强国的地位，并帮助扎卡里·泰勒赢得总统职位。此外，这场战争还成为未来南北战争军事指挥官们的重要实战训练场。然而，对墨西哥而言，这场战争却是灾难性的——它失去了几乎一半的国土，国家元气大伤。尽管美国取得了胜利，但这场战争的后果却远非正面。著名思想家拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生在战争初期曾悲观地预言：“我们会征服墨西哥，但这就像一个人吞下了砒霜，最终会反噬自身。墨西哥将成为我们的毒药。”事实证明，他的预言不无道理。美墨战争导致的领土扩张让美国陷入关于奴隶制扩张的激烈争论，进一步加剧了南北矛盾，并最终推动国家走向分裂与内战。

V. Manifest Destiny and the Gold Rush

五、昭昭天命与淘金热

California, belonging to Mexico prior to the war, was at least three arduous months’ travel from the nearest American settlements. There was some sparse settlement in the Sacramento Valley, and missionaries made the trip occasionally. The fertile farmland of Oregon, like the black dirt lands of the Mississippi Valley, attracted more settlers than California. Dramatized stories of Native American attacks filled migrants with a sense of foreboding, although most settlers encountered no violence and often no Native Americans at all. The slow progress, disease, human and oxen starvation, poor trails, terrible geographic preparations, lack of guidebooks, threatening wildlife, vagaries of weather, and general confusion were all more formidable and frequent than attacks from Native Americans. Despite the harshness of the journey, by 1848 approximately twenty thousand Americans were living west of the Rockies, with about three fourths of that number in Oregon.

在美墨战争前，加利福尼亚仍属墨西哥领土，与最近的美国定居点相距至少三个月的艰难旅程。萨克拉门托谷地已有零星的定居点，偶尔也有传教士前往该地。然而，相较于加利福尼亚，俄勒冈的肥沃农田更吸引定居者，就如同密西西比谷地的黑土一般富饶。尽管关于印第安人袭击的夸张传闻让移民者心生恐惧，但大多数定居者既未遭遇暴力冲突，也未见到多少印第安人。与印第安人袭击相比，缓慢的行进速度、疾病流行、人畜饥饿、崎岖不平的道路、糟糕的地理准备、缺乏指南书、野生动物威胁、天气多变以及普遍的迷失方向等问题才是更频繁且更加棘手的挑战。尽管旅程充满艰辛，到1848年，已有约两万美国人定居在落基山脉以西，其中约四分之三的人居住在俄勒冈地区。

Many who moved nurtured a romantic vision of life, attracting more Americans who sought more than agricultural life and familial responsibilities. The rugged individualism and military prowess of the West, encapsulated for some by service in the Mexican war, drew a growing new breed west of the Sierra Nevada to meet with the Californians already there: a breed of migrants different from the modest agricultural communities of the near West.

许多移民怀揣着对西部生活的浪漫想象，这吸引了更多希望摆脱农业生活和家庭责任的美国人。西部以其坚韧的个人主义和军事气概吸引了一批新的移民，对他们而言，参加美墨战争便是这种精神的缩影。这些移民不同于早期西进的务农社区，他们穿越内华达山脉，与已经在那里定居的加利福尼亚人汇合，形成了一种截然不同的西部社会文化。

If the great draw of the West served as manifest destiny’s kindling, then the discovery of gold in California was the spark that set the fire ablaze. On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall, a contractor hired by John Sutter, discovered gold on Sutter’s sawmill land in the Sacramento Valley area of the California Territory. Most western settlers sought land ownership, but the lure of getting rich quick drew younger single men (with some women) to gold towns throughout the West. These adventurers and fortune-seekers then served as magnets for the arrival of others providing services associated with the gold rush. Towns and cities grew rapidly throughout the West, notably San Francisco, whose population grew from about five hundred in 1848 to almost fifty thousand by 1853. Lawlessness, predictable failure of most fortune seekers, racial conflicts, and the slavery question all threatened manifest destiny’s promises.

如果说西部的巨大吸引力是昭昭天命的引燃剂，那么加利福尼亚的淘金热则是点燃这场大火的火花。1848年1月24日，约翰·萨特雇佣的承包商詹姆斯·W·马歇尔在加利福尼亚领地萨克拉门托谷地的萨特锯木厂土地上发现了金矿。尽管大多数西部定居者的目标是获得土地，但淘金致富的诱惑吸引了大批年轻的单身男性（以及少量女性）前往西部的淘金镇。这些冒险家和淘金者成为了西部繁荣的催化剂，吸引了众多提供相关服务的人群涌入。西部各地的城镇和城市迅速发展，尤其是旧金山，其人口从1848年的约500人激增至1853年的近五万人。然而，淘金热也带来了无法无天的社会环境，大多数淘金者最终一无所获，而种族冲突和奴隶制问题更是威胁着昭昭天命所承诺的繁荣。

Throughout the 1850s, Californians beseeched Congress for a transcontinental railroad to provide service for both passengers and goods from the Midwest and the East Coast. The potential economic benefits for communities along proposed railroads made the debate over the route rancorous. Growing dissent over the slavery issue also heightened tensions.

19世纪50年代，加利福尼亚人不断向国会请愿，要求修建一条横贯大陆的铁路，以便从中西部和东海岸输送乘客和货物。由于铁路可能带来的巨大经济利益，各地围绕着铁路路线的争论异常激烈，而围绕奴隶制问题日益加剧的分歧也进一步加深了矛盾。

The great influx of diverse people clashed in a combative and aggrandizing atmosphere of individualistic pursuit of fortune. Linguistic, cultural, economic, and racial conflict roiled both urban and rural areas. By the end of the 1850s, Chinese and Mexican immigrants made up one fifth of the mining population in California. The ethnic patchwork of these frontier towns belied a clearly defined socioeconomic arrangement that saw whites on top as landowners and managers, with poor whites and ethnic minorities working the mines and assorted jobs. The competition for land, resources, and riches furthered individual and collective abuses, particularly against Native Americans and older Mexican communities. California’s towns, as well as those dotting the landscape throughout the West, struggled to balance security with economic development and the protection of civil rights and liberties.

大量来自不同背景的移民在个人主义至上的淘金环境中相互碰撞，形成了一个充满竞争与扩张的社会氛围。语言、文化、经济和种族冲突在城乡地区此起彼伏。到1850年代末，加利福尼亚的矿工中约有五分之一是华人和墨西哥移民。尽管这些边疆城镇呈现出多种族共存的景象，但社会经济结构却清晰可辨——白人处于主导地位，掌控土地和管理权，而贫困的白人和少数族裔则主要从事矿工及其他体力劳动。对土地、资源和财富的竞争加剧了个人和群体间的剥削，尤其是对印第安人和早期墨西哥裔社区的压迫。加利福尼亚各城镇，以及整个西部零星分布的城镇，都在努力在安全、经济发展与公民权利自由的保障之间寻求平衡。

VI. The Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny

六、门罗主义与昭昭天命

The expansion of influence and territory off the continent became an important corollary to westward expansion. The U.S. government sought to keep European countries out of the Western Hemisphere and applied the principles of manifest destiny to the rest of the hemisphere. As secretary of state for President James Monroe, John Quincy Adams held the responsibility for the satisfactory resolution of ongoing border disputes between the United States, England, Spain, and Russia. Adams’s view of American foreign policy was put into clearest practice in the Monroe Doctrine, which he had great influence in crafting.

大陆以外势力和领土的扩张成为西进运动的重要延伸。美国政府试图阻止欧洲国家涉足西半球，并将昭昭天命的原则应用于整个美洲。作为詹姆斯·门罗总统的国务卿，约翰·昆西·亚当斯负责解决美国与英国、西班牙和俄罗斯之间持续不断的边界争端。他对美国外交政策的理解最清晰地体现在门罗主义中，而他本人在该政策的制定过程中发挥了重要作用。

Increasingly aggressive incursions from Russians in the Northwest, ongoing border disputes with the British in Canada, the remote possibility of Spanish reconquest of South America, and British abolitionism in the Caribbean all triggered an American response. In a speech before the U.S. House of Representatives on July 4, 1821, Secretary of State Adams acknowledged the American need for a robust foreign policy that simultaneously protected and encouraged the nation’s growing and increasingly dynamic economy.

俄罗斯在西北地区日益咄咄逼人的扩张、与英国在加拿大的边界争端、西班牙重新征服南美的可能性，以及英国在加勒比地区推动废奴主义的努力，都促使美国做出反应。1821年7月4日，国务卿亚当斯在美国众议院发表演讲，强调美国需要一项强有力的外交政策，以同时保护和促进这个日益繁荣的国家的经济发展。

America . . . in the lapse of nearly half a century, without a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own. . . . She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. . . . She well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, were they even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom. The fundamental maxims of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force. The frontlet on her brows would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence; but in its stead would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished lustre the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world; she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit. . . . Her glory is not dominion, but liberty. Her march is the march of the mind. She has a spear and a shield: but the motto upon her shield is, Freedom, Independence, Peace. This has been her Declaration: this has been, as far as her necessary intercourse with the rest of mankind would permit, her practice.
美国……在近半个世纪的时间里，无一例外地尊重其他国家的独立，同时维护自身的独立……她希望所有国家都能获得自由和独立……她深知，一旦加入其他国家的旗帜之下，即便是为了外国的独立，她也将无法自拔地卷入各种因贪婪、嫉妒和野心而伪装成自由斗争的战争。她的政策基石将不再是自由，而是武力。她额头上的光辉不再是自由与独立的光芒，而将被取而代之的是一顶帝国王冠，在虚伪而黯淡的光辉下闪烁着权力和统治的光芒。她可能会成为世界的主宰，但她将不再是自己精神的统治者……她的荣耀不在于统治，而在于自由。她的进步是思想的进步。她手持长矛和盾牌，但她盾牌上的铭文是：自由、独立、和平。这是她的宣言，这也是她在与世界其他国家交往时所秉持的实践原则。

Adams’s great fear was not territorial loss. He had no doubt that Russian and British interests in North America could be arrested. Adams held no reason to antagonize the Russians with grand pronouncements, nor was he generally called upon to do so. He enjoyed a good relationship with the Russian ambassador and stewarded through Congress most-favored trade status for the Russians in 1824. Rather, Adams worried gravely about the ability of the United States to compete commercially with the British in Latin America and the Caribbean. This concern deepened with the valid concern that America’s chief Latin American trading partner, Cuba, dangled perilously close to outstretched British claws. Cabinet debates surrounding establishment of the Monroe Doctrine and geopolitical events in the Caribbean focused attention on that part of the world as key to the future defense of U.S. military and commercial interests, the main threat to those interests being the British. Expansion of economic opportunity and protection from foreign pressures became the overriding goals of U.S. foreign policy. But despite the philosophical confidence present in the Monroe administration’s decree, the reality of limited military power kept the Monroe Doctrine as an aspirational assertion.

亚当斯最担忧的并非领土的丧失，他深信俄罗斯和英国在北美的扩张可以被遏制。他没有理由通过激烈的声明来挑衅俄罗斯，也很少被要求这样做。事实上，他与俄罗斯大使关系良好，并在1824年成功推动国会授予俄罗斯最惠国贸易待遇。然而，亚当斯真正关心的是美国在拉丁美洲和加勒比地区能否在商业上与英国竞争。这一担忧尤其集中在美国的主要拉美贸易伙伴——古巴，因为它近在咫尺，随时可能落入英国之手。在制定门罗主义的内阁辩论中，加勒比地区被视为美国未来军事与商业利益的关键地带，而主要威胁则来自英国。美国外交政策的首要目标逐渐转向经济扩张和对外部压力的防范。然而，尽管门罗政府的声明充满信心，但由于军事力量有限，门罗主义在很大程度上仍然只是一个理想化的宣言。

Bitter disagreements over the expansion of slavery into the new lands won from Mexico began even before the war ended. Many northern businessmen and southern enslavers supported the idea of expanding slavery into the Caribbean as a useful alternative to continental expansion, since slavery already existed in these areas. Some were critical of these attempts, seeing them as evidence of a growing slave-power conspiracy. Many others supported attempts at expansion, like those previously seen in eastern Florida, even if these attempts were not exactly legal. Filibustering, as it was called, involved privately financed schemes directed at capturing and occupying foreign territory without the approval of the U.S. government.

关于在墨西哥新获领土上扩展奴隶制的激烈争论甚至在战争结束之前就已开始。许多北方商人和南方奴隶主都支持在加勒比地区扩展奴隶制，认为这是对大陆扩张的一种有益补充，因为这些地区本就存在奴隶制度。然而，一些批评者认为，这些尝试是奴隶势力阴谋扩张的明证。与此同时，许多人也支持像之前在东佛罗里达发生的那种扩张，尽管这些行动在法律上并不完全正当。所谓的“自由冒险”（filibustering）指的是一些私人资助的计划，旨在未经美国政府批准的情况下占领和控制外国领土。

Filibustering took greatest hold in the imagination of Americans as they looked toward Cuba. Fears of racialized revolution in Cuba (as in Haiti and Florida before it) as well as the presence of an aggressive British abolitionist influence in the Caribbean energized the movement to annex Cuba and encouraged filibustering as expedient alternatives to lethargic official negotiations. Despite filibustering’s seemingly chaotic planning and destabilizing repercussions, those intellectually and economically guiding the effort imagined a willing and receptive Cuban population and expected an agreeable American business class. In Cuba, manifest destiny for the first time sought territory off the continent and hoped to put a unique spin on the story of success in Mexico. Yet the annexation of Cuba, despite great popularity and some military attempts led by Narciso López, a Cuban dissident, never succeeded. 

自由冒险活动最能激发美国人的想象力，他们的目光纷纷投向古巴。人们对古巴爆发种族革命（如海地和佛罗里达曾发生的情况）的恐惧，加上英国在加勒比地区推动废奴主义的强大影响力，使吞并古巴的主张大受鼓舞。于是，自由冒险成为了一种比官方谈判更为迅速的替代方案。尽管这些行动在计划上显得混乱，且往往导致地区不稳定，但其支持者认为古巴民众会欣然接受美国的统治，同时美国商界也会对此表示欢迎。昭昭天命的理念在古巴首次扩展到北美大陆以外，并试图在墨西哥的成功经验上再创辉煌。然而，尽管吞并古巴的主张极为流行，且包括古巴流亡者纳西索·洛佩斯（Narciso López）在内的多次军事行动试图实现这一目标，但最终都未能成功。

Other filibustering expeditions were launched elsewhere, including two by William Walker, a former American soldier. Walker seized portions of the Baja peninsula in Mexico and then later took power and established a slaving regime in Nicaragua. Eventually Walker was executed in Honduras. These missions violated the laws of the United States, but wealthy Americans financed various filibusters, and less-wealthy adventurers were all too happy to sign up. Filibustering enjoyed its brief popularity into the late 1850s, at which point slavery and concerns over secession came to the fore. By the opening of the Civil War, most saw these attempts as simply territorial theft.

其他自由冒险行动也在不同地区展开，其中最著名的是前美国士兵威廉·沃克（William Walker）领导的两次远征。他先是在墨西哥的巴哈半岛占领部分地区，后来又在尼加拉瓜夺取政权，并建立了一个实行奴隶制的政权。最终，沃克在洪都拉斯被处决。这些行动虽然违反了美国法律，但却得到了富裕阶层的资助，而贫困的冒险者们则乐于加入其中。自由冒险在19世纪50年代末仍颇受欢迎，但随着奴隶制问题和分裂危机的加剧，它的光芒逐渐暗淡。到美国内战爆发之际，大多数人已将这些行动视为单纯的领土掠夺。

VII. Conclusion

七、结论

Debates over expansion, economics, diplomacy, and manifest destiny exposed some of the weaknesses of the American system. The chauvinism of policies like Native American removal, the Mexican War, and filibustering existed alongside growing anxiety. Manifest destiny attempted to make a virtue of America’s lack of history and turn it into the very basis of nationhood. To locate such origins, John O’Sullivan and other champions of manifest destiny grafted biological and territorial imperatives—common among European definitions of nationalism—onto American political culture. The United States was the embodiment of the democratic ideal, they said. Democracy had to be timeless, boundless, and portable. New methods of transportation and communication, the rapidity of the railroad and the telegraph, the rise of the international market economy, and the growth of the American frontier provided shared platforms to help Americans think across local identities and reaffirm a national character.

围绕扩张、经济、外交及昭昭天命的争论暴露了美国体系的一些弱点。美国的印第安人迁移政策、美墨战争以及自由冒险行动的霸权主义色彩，与人们对国家未来的焦虑并存。昭昭天命试图将美国缺乏悠久历史的劣势转化为其国家认同的基石。约翰·奥沙利文（John O’Sullivan）等昭昭天命的倡导者，将欧洲民族主义常见的生物学和领土扩张论调，巧妙地融入美国的政治文化。他们宣称，美国是民主理想的化身，而民主必须是永恒的、无限的，并可以被移植到任何地方。新的交通和通讯方式的出现，如铁路的快速发展和电报的广泛应用，以及国际市场经济的兴起和美国边疆的扩展，为美国人提供了共同的平台，使他们能够超越地方认同，从而巩固国家认同。然而，昭昭天命的承诺并非总能实现，它在推动美国扩张的同时，也引发了一系列争议和冲突，为后来的国家分裂和内战埋下了伏笔。