Did Lincoln believe in "Manifest Destiny?"

[JMadonna]

(12-09-2013 07:20 PM)L Verge Wrote:  Didn't the expansion plan into Canada exist even before the CW had ended?

Yes it did.

At the start of the Civil War, British North America consisted of two colonies on the far pacific coast, five provinces stretching from Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean and a vast area of unsettled territory in-between. Canada-West (now Ontario) was settled primarily by Anglophones and Canada-East (now Quebec) settled primarily by Francophones

As a candidate for president Seward supported expansion into Canada as well as such luminaries as Senators Sumner and Chandler. When Jacob Thompson and the boys started raiding the U.S. from Canada there was a great deal of support for invading and annexing Canada.

Knowing the British would not fight for them Canadian authorities decided to form their own country and defend themselves. The Civil War was actually the catalyst for the independence of Canada.