The New Media Lab Experience Student Press Volume I Spring 2023

Research Question: Many settlers involved in westward expansion felt justified to take land and resources from the Native Americans and forced them to assimilate and relocate to designated government plots. This research paper will investigate the following questions: What was the basis for their beliefs? How did they justify killing the Native Americans and stealing their properties?

Historical Overview – Humanity’s Moral Compass

This paper will evaluate and reflect on the history of morality in regard to Westward Expansion. In order to comprehend the intricacies of the early American’s moral ideals we need to first understand the history of morality itself. According to Oliver Scott Curry in “Mapping Morality with a compass: Testing the Theory of Morality as cooperation, “Morality-as-Cooperation (MAC) is the theory that morality is a collection of biological and cultural solutions to the problems of cooperation recurrent in human social life” (1). Opinions differ as to when morality was first shown in humans. Some say it began when humans evolved into humans and some say it is when they were created. Either way we cannot ignore the innate moral values we have as humans when we were born, nor can we ignore the fact that it has been around for as long as we can remember. This concept of morality is not simply an idea we can push aside now that social norms have changed. Morality has weight showcased in our actions, thoughts, ideas, and even dreams. These expressions all seem to revolve around some kind of moral compass. Curry articulated, “In recent years, the study of morality has become the focus of a thriving interdisciplinary endeavors, encompassing research not only in psychology, but also in evolutionary theory, genetics, biology, animal behavior, anthropology, neuroscience and economics” (2). This understanding of morality also helps us to see the patterns of morality in all humans. There seems to be an overarching theme in the moral patterns of humanity. Curry et., al continues, “With regard to content, an analysis of the historical ethnographic records of 60 societies found that the moral valence of these seven cooperative behaviors was uniformly positive, and that there is evidence for the majority of these cooperative moral values in the majority of cultures, in all regions of the world”

(1). Meaning that our morality as a species is more than relevant, it is necessary. Curry stated that “Together, these biological and cultural mechanisms provide the motivation for social, cooperative and altruistic behavior and they provide the criteria by which individuals evaluate the behavior of others. According to MAC, it is precisely these solutions to problems of cooperation – this collection of instincts, intuitions, inventions and institutions – that constitute human morality” (1). This background information can help us in discovering and understanding the moral choices made by the first English settlers. If humans can understand the past and the root of morality, the motives of those who were pushing westward expansion can better uncovered.

Historical Overview – Defining Terms

Another angle of understanding is how it can measured and defined. López-Ibor states: “If the principal instrument of psychiatric knowledge is not the array of signs detectable in clinical practice then it must be another one, namely, language. Psychiatry is ‘medicine (including neurology) with words. For the Stoics, a philosopher was a physician of the soul who, employing the healing word (Iatroi Logoi), offered guidance to people confounded by problems in living” (2) In the study of psychology, words are often all humans have to attempt to describe what is seen or felt. The following excerpts highlight the use of various words to diagnose the signs and symptoms seen in humans. López-Ibor continues, “Consequently, the study of the uses and of the origin of the relevant terms used in psychiatry is not a useless attempt. The Elsevier B.V. article deals with the word anxiety and others related to it following the perspective of historical linguistics, already used by other authors and applied by Dalby in 1993 to the synonyms of madness (from berserk to psychosis)” (2). The background of these words is important in how it can be understand and applied in other situations. López-Ibor goes into detail about the history of these terms, “For Heidegger, Angst is the expression of the authentic existence of the Dasein, confronting the fact of being thrown into the World. For Kurt Schneider delusions in depressed patients are the manifestation of the primordial anxieties (Ur-ängste) of humankind: 1) the loss of health as a threat to physical integrity and survival (hypochondriac delusions); 2) economic losses as the menace to subsistence (delusions of poverty) and 3) the loss of the opportunity to access to paradise due to a sinful existence (delusions of guilt)” (2). Perhaps this study of early linguistics can shed some light on how the words humans use are dependent on the

cultural and the historical circumstances present at the time. Similarly, the following reference shows several other attempts by López-Ibor to define the actions of humans as a whole. “The philosopher Zubiri similarly has put the emphasis on the concept of expectancy. López Ibor has associated the words sobrecogimiento and sobresalto to two primitive defense reflexes when faced with danger: the Totstellung reflex (death feigning reflex, death feint) manifested in the mimetic behaviour of the animal which tries to disappear to the eyes of the predator and the Bewegungssturm (movement, storm or tempest) e.g., instinct flurry of the poultry in the henhouse when they fly madly, frightened by some danger. Both were described by Kretschmer in 1958 and 1960 as reflexes underlying hysterical symptoms and López Ibor extended the metaphor to all neurotic manifestations” (3). All humans have been observed to have similar phycological characteristics. From a person’s flight or fight response to their stress or anxiety manifestations, understanding the history and the meaning of these words is key to analyzing them in any situation.

Facts and Data

In a speech in the House of Representatives on January 3, I846, Representative Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts used the following words: “I mean that new revelation of right which has been designated as the right of our manifest destiny to spread over this whole continent. It has been openly avowed in a leading Administration journal that this, after all, is our best and strongest title one so clear, so pre-eminent and so indisputable that if Great Britain had all our other titles in addition to her own, they would weigh nothing against it. The right of our manifest destiny! There is a right for a new chapter in the law of nations; or rather in the special laws of our own country; for I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the universal Yankee nation” (795). As one can observe by this excerpt, the

C. Winthrop of Massachusetts used the following words: “I mean that new revelation of right which has been designated as the right of our manifest destiny to spread over this whole continent. It has been openly avowed in a leading Administration journal that this, after all, is our best and strongest title one so clear, so pre-eminent and so indisputable that if Great Britain had all our other titles in addition to her own, they would weigh nothing against it. The right of our manifest destiny! There is a right for a new chapter in the law of nations; or rather in the special laws of our own country; for I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the universal Yankee nation” (795). As one can observe by this excerpt, the

expansionists were obsessed with this idea that conquering is their destiny, that much is certain. They were so caught up with their “rights” there was never mention of anything in papers, journals, or other news sources about any kind of repercussions. Never did they stop to consider whether their feelings aligned with the truth. Their basis for these ideas was the Bible. However, nowhere in the entire book, does it suggest some humans are less valuable than others or that stealing, killing, or cheating others is okay. Nor does it give way to the notion they had some sort of right to do the things they where doing.

In fact, there are stories, parables, and teachings illustrating the exact opposite. In contrast, kindness, equal worth for all humans, and stories warning against things like pride and arrogance are located in the Bible. Humans across time have been taking the Bible out of context, lying about the Bible, and contorting words so they can back up their individual selfish agenda. The following excerpts elaborate on the expansionist’s world view further. Pratt continues discussing ideals of the time, “Away, away with all these cobweb tissues of rights of discovery, exploration, settlement, continuity, etc. To state the truth that once in its neglected simplicity, we are free to say that were the respective cases and arguments of the two parties, as to all these points of history and law, reversed-had England all ours, and we nothing but hers-our claim to Oregon would still be best and strongest. And that claim is by the right of our manifest destiny to overspread and to possess the whole of the continent which Providence has given us for the development of the great experiment of liberty and federated self-government entrusted to us. The God of nature and of nations has marked it for our own; and with His blessing we will firmly maintain the incontestable rights He has given, and fearlessly perform the high duties He has imposed” (796). Once again one can see here the Bible being used out of context to seemingly justify the killing, relocating, and stealing they

were doing in regard to westward expansion. Pratt explains the origins of the phrase and its practices, “April, I859, contains the boast that The Review has from its birth until the present moment, advocated the ‘manifest destiny’ of the American Republic. The claim seems to be in part substantiated by an editorial article in the issue for November,1839, on ‘The Great Nation of Futurity’. The writer dwells upon the mission of American democracy to ‘smite unto death the tyranny of kings, hierarchs, and oligarchs, and carry the glad tidings of peace and good will where my riads now endure an existence scarcely more enviable than the beasts of the field’, and pictures thus the future of the United States: The far-reaching the boundless future will be the era of American greatness. In its magnificent domain of space and time, the nation of many nations is destined to manifest mankind the excellence of divine principle to establish on earth the noblest temple ever dedicated to the worship of the Most High-the Sacred and the True. It’s floor shall be a hemisphere-its roof the firmament of the star-studded heavens, and its congregation an Union of many Republics, comprising hundreds of happy millions calling, owning no man master, but governed by God's natural and moral law of equality the law of brotherhood-of peace and goodwill amongst men”(796). This section written in 1859 is a classic and ironic example of a severe double standard. They discuss matters such as “equality” and “goodwill amongst men” but it is clear these expansionists didn’t understand the most basic definitions of the words they articulated. Pratt states: “All parties should now unite, urged the writer, especially since other nations have tried to intrude themselves 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 fulfilment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly

multiplying millions”(797). This section was demonstrating the desire to unite, but unite under who’s banner? The expansionist’s god who is inconsistent and flippant? Or the God of the Bible they cling so tightly to?

Facts and Data

Roger Cushing Aikin explains in “Mapping the Nation”: “In 1862 Emanuel Leutze, whose Washington Crossing the Delaware of 1851 remains one of the most revered patriotic paintings, completed his last great project, Westward the Course of Empire Takes its Way, which hangs in the staircase of the House of Representatives. The mural study of 1861, in the Smithsonian American Art Museum (frontispiece) portrays a group of mountain men and emigrants, including a freed slave and two "prairie Madonnas," cresting a hill, preceded by a John Frémont-like figure, who, atop a nearby peak, waves his hat toward the west and prepares to hoist the American flag. Like the Old-World images of the holy miracles it emulates, the painting is completed by a predella that shows the Golden Gate of San Francisco flanked by portraits of William Clark and Daniel Boone” (1). Art imitates life and that is apparent here with these colorful depictions of westward expansion. The paintings romanticize the expansion by leaving out any representation of the bloodshed or the justification of their skewed moral compass. The author continues, “Implicit in the colonial period and explicit in the ringing rhetoric of numerous writers and politicians from the 1830s onward, manifest destiny is the belief that Americans were destined by Divine Providence to expand their

national domain to the Pacific Ocean. The editor of the Democratic Review, John L. O'Sullivan, coined the phrase in July of 1845 when he wrote that the annexation of Texas would further ‘the fulfillment of our manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions’” (2). The writings of this period clearly document the misguided belief that God had allotted for the takeover and control of all the land west to the Pacific Ocean. As one can observe, the motives of the expansionists were not only driven by their wrongful interpretation of the Bible but included political and financial gain as well. To illustrate the emotional drivers behind the westward expansion, the author uses words like inspiring their hearts and patriotic feelings, neither of which can be seen or measured. The author goes into detail about the emotional motives in the following excerpt: “The emotional impact of the West and westward migration on the American imagination is evident in numerous similar utterances. Zenas Leonard, who scouted a trail from the Rocky Mountains to California with Joseph Rutherford Walker in 1834, wrote upon reaching the West Coast, ‘The idea of being within hearing of the end of the Far West inspired the heart of every member of our company with a patriotic feeling for his country's honor.’ Western booster and visionary William Gilpin asserted in his Mission of the North American People (1873), a collection of his public addresses, that the untransacted destiny of the American People is to subdue the continent and celebrated the unparalleled enterprise now being accomplished, under our eyes, by American pioneers ... each one dependent on himself alone, yet animated by a common impulse driving him irresistibly Westward. West, said, ‘Eastward I go only by force, westward I go free mankind progresses from

east to west’” (2). Once more seen in the previous excerpt is an overarching theme of equivocating their communications to mask their selfish motives and to justify their

actions by confusing feelings with facts” (797). This same idea is carried a step further in the following expert by Aikins, “The pioneers in Leutze's Westward the Course of Empire surge across the picture from right to left. (Leutze seems to have borrowed- but reversed--the dramatic gesture and jumble of bodies in Théodore Géricault's famous Raft of the Medusa of 1819 in the Louvre.) Such a left-moving composition would not be notable in itself, but almost all pictures of the great migration employ leftward movement. Indeed, it is difficult to find any depiction of American westward expansion, or “progress,” in high art or popular illustration that does not feature strong right-to- left, or “westward”. movement. It would seem reasonable to suppose that this leftward movement in American migration pictures reflects or reinforces the westward historical, political, and psychological orientation of the nation during the era of Manifest Destiny. In other words, these paintings are intended to be read as maps, with north at the top and west at the left, thus literally pointing the way west to California and Oregon” (3).

In a speech in the House of Representatives on January3, I846, opposing the resolution for the termination of the joint occupation of Oregon, Representative Robert C. Winthrop of Massachusetts used the following words:

“There is one element in our title [to Oregon], however which I confess that I have not named, and to which I may not have done entire justice. I mean that new revelation of right which has been designated as the right of our manifest destiny to spread over this whole continent. It has been openly avowed in a leading Administration journal that this, after all, is our best and strongest title one so clear, so pre-eminent and so indisputable that if Great Britain had all our other titles in addition to her own, they would weigh nothing against it. The right of our manifest destiny! There is a right for a new chapter in the law of nations; or rather in the special laws of our own country; for I suppose the right of a manifest destiny to spread will not be admitted to exist in any nation except the universal Yankee nation!”

Discussion and Analysis

When dealing with a topic as complex as morality it is also important to analyze probable causes and motives. In “Which Socio-Economic Indicators Influence Collective Morality? Big Data Analysis on Online Chinese Social Media” the authors, Yu Zhang and Feng Yu, discuss the correlation between popular socio-economic indicators in their sample group, China. Among them were agency, communication, wealth, political

standing, and more. As previously discussed morality and ethics are very similar across all people groups therefore when looking into the humanistic behaviors of one people group or culture, one can safely apply these findings to all different groups of people.

The authors explained their findings in the following excerpt, “What’s the relationship between economics and morality? Philosophers like Karl Marx and Adam Smith worried that capitalism and wealth accumulation would harm morality. Karl Marx’s point that rich capitalists are financial bloodsuckers who unethically exploit the poor people’s labor has already been a part of common sense in modern Chinese people’s folk ideology. Also, psychological studies have found that, rich people are more likely to behave unethically than poor people” (1). Zhang and Yu explain, “Research found that rich people who drove expensive cars were more likely to break the law while driving, relative to poor individuals who drove bad cars. And the rich people are more likely to exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies, take valued goods from others, lie in a negotiation, cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize, and endorse unethical behavior at work than poor people. This might be because poor people orient themselves to the welfare of others as a means to adapt to their more hostile environments and that this orientation gives rise to greater prosocial behavior, such as being more generous, charitable, trusting, and helpful compared to rich people. These results are consistent with folk beliefs that, poor people like farmers who live in lower developing and the less cultivated countryside are more simple, honest, and kind” (1). However this does not mean that the rich are the only ones not displaying upright ethics. The authors continue “However, there are still a possibility that, poor people are associated with fewer resources, greater exposure to threat, and a reduced sense of personal control, so they are more likely to engage in less prosocial behavior, prioritizing self-interest over the

welfare of others. In classic moral development research, the material Kohlberg used in 1963 implied this viewpoint. The wife of a man named Heinz was near death and desperately needed a drug costing $2,000, but Heinz could not afford it. So, Heinz got desperate and broke into the man’s store to steal the drug for his wife. Actually, the lack of money leads to Heinz stealing. Criminology research always found that the poverty and inequality are the most prominent predictors of crime rates” (1-2). No one is outside of being immoral or unethical. All humans have temptations to do the wrong things and humans cannot pretend like some people are more ethical than others. Scientifically and logically if one has lied they are a liar, if one has stollen they are a thief. These labels are black and white, and no amount of good deeds will undo what has been done. In addition, this also means that no amount of wealth or power can change that either, but these things can indicate perhaps what crimes they are willing to commit. Zhang and Yu continue: “Moral behavior is usually driven by two fundamental motivations: agency and communion. Agency is the motive to promote the interests of self, which manifests in such themes as social power, dominance, material wealth, and achievement.

Communion, in contrast, is the motive to promote the interests of others, instantiated in themes of benevolence, interpersonal concern, social justice, and ecological preservation” (2). This point is pivotal in the discussion of immoral motivation of the expansionists in Westward Expansion. Evidence can be seen that the expansionists’ leaders possessed these motives. The people expanding west wanted power, land, wealth, prosperity, and achievements. The correlation of these motives further illustrates that humans have an objective idea of morality, meaning that humans also, by extension, share motives for immoral behavior. The goals of the settlers were by its very definition, selfish. They did not take into consideration the lives of people around them,

the effect on the environment or wildlife, or just how immoral they were behaving, once again depicting the very thing David Hume was talking about when he writes about “giving views to passion without proper deliberation”.

Discussion and Analysis

A big motive for the expansionists, as mentioned previously, is their religion. The expansionists had this idea that they had a divine right to this land and that it was their destiny or call to claim it. However, there is a discrepancy which will be explored and assessed. Christianity is founded upon the idea that we are not deserving of anything and we have no God given right to do or have anything. We do not have spiritual authority and one person is not better than another according to the Bible. These concepts were misconstrued, misrepresented, and ignored to fit the narrative of the expansionists. The following quote represents their goals when following Christ: “‘We are commanded this day to love the Lord our God, and to love one another, to walk in his ways and keep his Commandments and his ordinance and his laws, and the articles of our Covenant with Him, that we may live and be multiplied, and that the Lord our God may bless us in the land whither we go to possess it.’ – John Winthrop, onboard the Arbella, 1630” (42). They were commanded to live according to The Law (or the Bible) but the Bible contradicts their actions. This theme continues even in our own government documents. The Unanimous Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen United States of America, July 4, 1776 says this, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain

unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”(42). The leaders of the day spoke about equality and rights. They question now arises: did they actually believe these things? Neither their actions nor their thoughts aligned with these beliefs. Dobson continues by talking about how The United States even described themselves as “politically and morally exceptional to all other peoples in the world.

Thus, Americans from their very earliest beginnings believed that God had bestowed upon them a mission to spread their supreme civilization, in particularly, freedom, whether in religion, commerce, or race” (42-43). As one can see here, the expansionists tend to contort Christian beliefs with lies. God does command His people to be fruitful and multiply, and to share the Good News to all, but He does not command that Christians are to spread some idea of a “supreme civilization”. This quote implies that the civilizations that were already present were not adequate. Regardless of religious standpoint God has never given the notion that one people group, or race has supreme knowledge and understanding of what a civilization should be. By the Christian ideology itself God is described as the only all-knowing, supreme being. Meaning that their standard for a good civilization should not have been based on their own knowledge and understanding but instead of the only all-knowing being there is. However, unfortunately their judgment was clouded by selfish ambition. Dobson sums up their standards perfectly in the following quote. “Being white skinned meant that one had the capacity for civilization, Christian morality, and an upstanding citizen while at the same time giving back to other free white Protestant Americans. If however, a person or group of people fell out of this paradigm, then it was up to all white Americans to bring forth the benefits of their civilization and help these people to realize their own freedoms so long as these were in line with Protestant Christianity, American Republicanism and

capitalism” (43). The double standards of the westward expansion leaders were immense. They talked about freedom for all and the pursuit of happiness because all men are created equal, and then they set boundaries for their favor and make the previous statement meaningless.

Findings and Recommendations

In “The Effects of Moral Judgment and Moral Identity on Moral Behavior: An Empirical Examination of the Moral Individual,” by Scott J. Reynolds and Tara L. Ceranic, they concluded, “Some have referred to identity theories, social identity theory in particular, to suggest that the cognitive developmental approach fails to account for the individual’s perception of the moral self and the constraints that an individual’s self-conception has

on his or her ability to see a moral judgment through to moral behavior. In short, these approaches argue that moral behavior is the result of both moral judgment and an individual’s moral identity” (1610). The expansionist’s moral identity was falsely linked to the Bible and they used somewhat vague references from the Bible to manipulate it to justify their actions. Their perception of the ideal moral route may have been present and individualized, but perception is not equivalent to truth. If the expansionists are considered as a whole, like an organization, the individuals acquired their moral identity from others who were in the same political or social circles meaning that because there was nobody to oppose them (because of fear of retaliation, etc.) they justified each other’s moral ideals with feelings rather than truth. In the following excerpt, Reynolds and Ceranic explain in further detail recommendations for encouraging good moral behavior and punishing bad moral behavior. “Finally, organizations can reward and encourage behaviors that are associated with the traits of a moral identity (e.g., fair, hard- working, compassionate), thereby encouraging the development of moral identities within employees. Both formal and informal systems have to be considered, and such efforts would have implications for the identity of the entire organization.

Nevertheless, the results of this research indicate that to the extent that the organization employs individuals with strong moral identities, moral behavior is likely to follow” (1622-1623). The authors continue to examine the effects of the organization, or at least the idea that the individuals identify as a member of this larger group, and the role the organization plays in encouraging or discouraging bad moral behavior. “As an example of how these practical implications might translate in an organizational setting to facilitate change, consider how these factors might be applied to the issue of cheating.

The results of this research suggest that an institution trying to reduce cheating should

hold formal discussions about the rules and the negative long-term consequences associated with cheating (e.g., harm to others, possible expulsion, lack of learning), provide more information about the institution’s and society’s general disdain for cheating, and develop reward and punishment systems that emphasize positive moral traits” (1623). Any expansionists that may have begun to form a moral identity other than that of the group were met with ridicule, public shaming, physical abuse, etc. This punishment system was effective at keeping the individuals in line with the overall group belief. Their standard for each other wasn’t sufficient to base their entire belief system on. As previously stated, the expansionists misrepresented the Bible thus making it impossible for that to be their foundation for moral ideals. A standard is only as good as the creator of the standard. Meaning that any standard created by men will ultimately be faulty. Reynolds and Ceranic derived that, “Moral behavior is a complicated phenomenon that exhibits variance due to a wide variety of factors. Nevertheless, at the core of these complicated processes are fairly simple distinctions that allow individuals to make sense of their world and constitute critical levers for changing behavior. To the extent that researchers can continue to identify these constructs, whether they distinguish between self and others, the means and the ends, or other simple demarcations, we believe that useful opportunities to influence moral behavior will continue to emerge” (1623).

Findings and Recommendations

In How We Become Moral: The Source of Moral Motivation, by Michael Schulman, he states, “In classical psychoanalytic theory, for example, aggression and acquisitiveness are viewed as fundamental to our natures, whereas our moral motives emerge only after an arduous process of socialization (primarily through the supposed resolution of the Oedipus complex, at about age 7, according to Freud, 1921/1960). Similarly, in prominent behavioral theories, concern for others is based on learned or secondary reinforcers that are derived from more egocentric primary reinforcers” (499). There are many different ways to think about one’s improvement strategies in regard to Morality and Ethics. However, recognizing the research and what is known logically is essential to deciphering what is right so one can apply it to their life. One can observe that there are examples of aggression in infancy from Freud. Reconciling that fact to the research that has been proven to be true, both answers have to partially be correct. A child shows signs of anger and good morals at different times and from the studies examined one can see that along with that comes the fact that humans as a race have similarities when it comes to an innate preset of morals. The authors proceed with an alternative theory and recommendation for moral education in the following excerpt, “Correspondingly, a theory of moral education has to figure out how to strengthen this capacity so that individuals become truly concerned about the well-being of others, rather than behaving well merely to acquire external rewards such as money or praise, or to avoid punishers such as spanking or ostracism” (499). This theory would be ideal, but the reality of human learning is that one cannot teach someone to want to be concerned with the well- being of others. Just like one cannot will someone to wish to do a good deed without an

ulterior motive. Just like studies previously viewed, humans (for the most part) have an innate moral preset however this does not mean that children and adults alike don’t need at affirmation from peers or other external rewards or punishments. The author continues, “…our group flourishes best when there is harmony and hopefulness among members. But harmony and helpfulness are not automatic for us. No, we are eminently capable of harming each other and are frequently roused to do so. Nor, like some social animals we do have instinctive mechanisms to help us resolve conflicts (e.g., we do not automatically terminate an attack against an opponent who signals submission by bearing his neck)” (500). The understanding of innate morality is so applicable. Since factually, humans for the most part have a moral preset, one can apply these facts to the past present or future. Schulman concludes with this, “We have come to care about goodness. This interest in, and responsiveness too, morality has played a major role in the development of human civilization and has contributed enormously to the survival and flourishing of our species” (510). Psychologists, scientists, and researchers alike have agreed on their findings and suggestions for our moral dilemma. Humanity must be informed and willing to accept faults and virtues when they occur. There will always be mistakes and imperfections in the world but the readiness to work and improve upon those mistakes is what can set humans on their way to being a more moral and ethical people.

Conclusion

In this paper the moral compass of Westward expansionists was analyzed and the justification of their actions was challenged. As one can observe, the data collected has determined that humans have similar moral inclinations. From the sample sizes in the experiments and from what humans have observed over many years the data concludes that humans possess an innate moral standard. With the previous data as a foundation one can apply these findings to the Westward expansionists. The expansionists were driven by greed, pridefulness, anger, desire, and so much more, and one can see the expansionist’s beliefs and their point of view in the preceding articles and excerpts from past speeches. However, many contradictions were found while examining their “justified” actions. They contorted and misrepresented The Bible to show just cause for all the killing, stealing, and blaspheming they did. Their pridefulness and unwillingness to consider their own faults gave way to another dangerous equation; feelings and facts. Logically and from the data compiled, one can decipher that fact and feeling are not the same. David Hume put it best when he said, “…giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.” Feelings can back up facts, but the distinction is that feelings do not have to back up facts. Facts and truth will stand alone no matter how anyone person feels about it. All humans should reflect on this idea and ask themselves, am I giving views to passion without proper deliberation?

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