Life During Westward Expansion

In 1845, a fellow named John C. Calhoun coined the term "Manifest Destiny." The term Manifest Destiny was a slogan for westward expansion during the 1840's. In the west there was plenty of land, national security, the spread of democracy, urbanization, but there was also poverty out west. People moved out west in search for a new life such as a new beginning. Moving out west, settlers from the east were taking a risk of a lot of things. The climate was different and there were more cultures that lived out west because of how much land was available.

In both of these documents, the writer describes both the interactions with other cultures and also the climate. In John Balls' autobiography, he describes the interactions between the native Hawaiians, Chinese, Japanese, and the American missionaries and diplomats when he landed at Honolulu on December 22, 1833. Originally Ball was on an expedition to Oregon, but when he settled there the Sandwich Islands or now called Hawaii, sounded much better at the time.

When he landed at Honolulu, Ball describes how he approached the "splendid view those high volcanic mountains that constitute all of the higher parts of all these Pacific Islands" (Traveler John Ball visits Hawaii in 1833). He describes the islands being 14 miles long on average and the height of the mountains being around 3,000 feet high. The climate of the tropical islands, unlike the contiguous states, was very high in temperature. When Ball landed, he met a Hollander who had been studying the climate the past four years before 1833. He mentioned that the lowest temperature in Hawaii 70 degrees and the highest being 85 degrees (Ball). Honolulu was the principal harbor visited on those islands which means that it was a stopping place or port for all vessels going to China (Ball). Studying Hawaii, Ball noticed a great deal of different cultures living on the islands.

Before arriving in Hawaii, Ball was informed that someone on shore apparently knew him. It was an old friend's brother who had become a merchant in Honolulu. He had two Chinamen as clerks and Ball's friend had mentioned that they dressed in their native costume and had the cue of hair. "My friend told me that one of them was a great accountant, quick and accurate. Their trade was mostly cash, receiving in a day some hundreds of dollars in Spanish gold ounce pieces, and dollars and shillings in silver. To test his accuracy and honesty he had abstracted from his drawer a sixpence, and after fussing a long time over it would tell him he could not make his accounts balance" (Ball). Chinamen were well respected because of the talent they had with money. Ball also ran into Japanese while on his excursion and he later found out they were there for a much different reason than the Chinese were there.

There were only four Japanese on the islands. They arrived a year earlier than Ball did and were taught English. It turned out that they were lost on a journey and they ran into Hawaii. The settlers on the island helped them and let them live there because if they were to go back, they would be executed for being on a foreign land. There was a lot of tension between the traders and missionaries in Hawaii. The missionaries who arrived there in 1818 had let traders from the states come to Honolulu. The traders then sent letters saying that the missionaries were a dissolute and wicked set of men. This caused major tension because of two very different views clashing. The missionaries, though, claimed more than their share of being the real deal (Ball). The Native Americans lived there own lifestyle in Hawaii, much like the Indians in the states.

The Indians of Hawaii live on the plateau Ball describes and employed aboard whale vessels. Ball mentions that the natives were indolent and apparently happy in their ways. The whalers that the Natives worked for were very impressed with their work, but they weren't around for long. The Natives constantly kept on dying of diseases so the population of 200,000 declined when Natives were infected with measles.

The document that I am comparing John Ball's trip to Hawaii is a set of articles written in the Illinois Journal, an Illinois newspaper during the years 1846-1847. There are four articles in this document with four different prospectives on the West. The first article was written by a man named Mr. Wm. Neily. He moved out west for farming purposes, unlike moving to Hawaii which was big on merchants and missionaries. After living there for a while, he thought that the west was significantly over-rated in some respects. He wasn't very happy with the climate. It snowed a great deal during the winter, very much unlike Hawaii's climate. Some cattle in the west died because of the horrible winters. He was happy with the soil but very unhappy with the timber.

The second article, Mr. Isaac Statts wrote about how much he enjoyed living in the west. "I am highly pleased with this country, and so far as I can