John L. O'Sullivan
O'Sullivan as he appeared on the cover ofHarper's Weekly in November 1874. He was then attending a conference inGeneva that sought to create a process of international arbitration in order to prevent wars.
United States Minister to Portugal
In office June 16, 1854 – July 15, 1858
President	Franklin Pierce James Buchanan
Preceded by	Charles Brickett Haddock
Succeeded by	George W. Morgan
Personal details
Born	November 15, 1813 At sea (coast ofGibraltar)
Died	March 24, 1895 (1895-03-25) (aged 81) New York City, New York, US
Nationality	American
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Susan Kearny Rodgers
Education	Columbia College
Known for	Coining the phrase "Manifest destiny" in 1845

John Louis O'Sullivan (November 15, 1813 – March 24, 1895) was an American columnist, editor, and diplomat who is known for coining the iconic phrase "manifest destiny" in 1845, in order to promote theannexation of Texas and theOregon Country into the United States. O'Sullivan was an influential political writer and advocate for theDemocratic Party at the time, who also served asU.S. minister to Portugal during the administration of PresidentFranklin Pierce (1853–1857) and PresidentJames Buchanan (1857-1861).^[1]

John Louis O'Sullivan, born on November 15, 1813, was the son of Irishman John Thomas O'Sullivan, an American diplomat and sea captain, and Mary Rowly, a genteel Englishwoman. According to legend, he was born at sea on a British warship off the coast ofGibraltar.^[2] O'Sullivan's father was a naturalized US citizen and had served as USConsul to theBarbary States.^[3][4]

O'Sullivan enrolled atColumbia College in New York city at the age of 14. He graduated in 1831. In 1834, he received a Masters of Arts and became a lawyer.^[2]

In 1837, he founded and editedThe United States Magazine and Democratic Review, based in Washington. It espoused the more radical forms ofJacksonian Democracy and the cause of a democratic, American literature. It published some of the most prominent American writers, includingNathaniel Hawthorne,Ralph Waldo Emerson,Henry David Thoreau,John Greenleaf Whittier,William Cullen Bryant, andWalt Whitman. O'Sullivan was an aggressive reformer in the New York State Legislature, where he led the unsuccessful movement to abolish capital punishment. By 1846, investors were dissatisfied with his poor management, and he lost control of his magazine.^[5]

O'Sullivan opposed the coming of theAmerican Civil War, hoping that a peaceful solution, or a peaceful separation of North and South, could be resolved. In Europe when the war began, O'Sullivan became an active supporter of theConfederate States of America; he may have been on the Confederate payroll at some point. O'Sullivan wrote a number of pamphlets promoting the Confederate cause, arguing that the presidency had become too powerful and thatstates' rights needed to be protected against encroachment by the central government. Although he had earlier supported the "free soil" movement, he now defended the institution of slavery, writing that blacks and whites could not live together in harmony. His activities greatly disappointed some of his old friends, including Hawthorne. Towards the end of theCivil War, O'Sullivan appealed to his southern "comrades in arms" to burnRichmond, stating "let every man set fire to his own house".^[6]

• Young America Movement

• Sampson, Robert D. "O'Sullivan, John Louis"American National Biography Online Feb. 2000. Access Oct 12 2015
• Sampson, Robert D.John L. O'Sullivan and His Times. (Kent State University Press, 2003)online
• Scholnick, Robert J, "Extermination and Democracy: O'Sullivan, the Democratic Review, and Empire, 1837—1840."American Periodicals (2005) 15#2: 123–141.online
• Widmer, Edward L.Young America: The Flowering of Democracy in New York City. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.(excerpt)
• Letters and Literary Memorials of Samuel J. Tilden – Volume 1 – Edited by John Bigelow

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John Louis O'Sullivan

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The Great Nation of Futurity

• "The Democratic Principle"Archived February 17, 2006, at theWayback Machine, mission statement from the first issue (1837) of theDemocratic Review, called by Robert D. Sampson "a classic statement of romantic Jacksonian Democracy"
• "The Great Nation of Futurity":The United States Magazine and Democratic Review, November 1839, Volume VI, No. XXIII, pp. 426–430, editorial in which O'Sullivan touched upon many themes of manifest destiny.
• "Annexation"Archived November 25, 2005, at theWayback Machine: The July–August 1845 editorial in which the phrase "Manifest Destiny" first appeared
• John L. O'Sullivan atFind a Grave

• 1813 births
• 1895 deaths
• People born at sea
• American columnists
• American newspaper editors
• Columbia College, Columbia University alumni
• American people of Irish descent
• Democratic Party members of the New York State Assembly
• 19th-century American diplomats
• Deaths from influenza in the United States
• 19th-century American journalists
• American male journalists
• 19th-century American male writers
• Naturalized citizens of the United States
• Ambassadors of the United States to Portugal
• 19th-century members of the New York State Legislature

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