Question

“[America] has grown into a resistless wave; and having overspread the great Mississippi valley, is now flowing up to the snowcapped summits of the Rocky Mountains, from thence to spread over the immense valley of the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean. Nor will it stop there; dividing its force, it will extend along the shores of the Pacific until it includes the entire American continent, from Behring’s Straits to Cape Horn. This, sir, is our great and glorious destiny! It is written on the map of the world, by the finger of God. If we prove true to ourselves, the tree of liberty, planted by our fathers, and watered with their blood, will take deep root in our soil and spread until all the human family who choose to cast their destiny on this continent may repose amid peace and plenty under its ample boughs.”
—Congressman Andrew Kennedy of Indiana, February 1, 1845

What is the main idea of Kennedy’s speech?

Americans should join Texans to fight for Texan independence.

Slavery should extend into the West.

The Mexican War was unjust.

The United States had a Manifest Destiny.

Answer 1

The United States had a Manifest Destiny.

Kennedy’s language about a "resistless wave" spreading across the continent, divine right ("written on the map... by the finger of God"), and the nation’s destined expansion to the Pacific and beyond expresses the idea of Manifest Destiny.