History and Political Science: Filibustering Males and Manifest Destiny - Essay Example

History and Political Science: Filibustering Males and Manifest Destiny. The article by Robert E. Young (1991) explains the original meaning of the term filibuster as a name for private military forces who were involved illegal raids on neighboring lands. The author then contrasts this with the official U.S. army position, which was to prevent filibusters from launching their expeditions along America’s borders, and shows how officers and men in the army were tempted to join the filibusters in significant numbers.

The main point of the article is to show that filibustering was more than just an annoying sideshow which affected combative sections of antebellum society in the south, and that it was then, and is now, an important element in American culture as a whole. Filibusters represent a lingering remnant of the early American notion of “Manifest Destiny” which provided a rationale for conquest of the wild frontiers by brave pioneers and settlers. The established American state had moved on from this to a more organized civil society, within agreed and finite borders, but people clung to their Romantic ideals of conquest.

Young males, including serving soldiers, felt hemmed low pay, dull routine and a lack of promotion prospects. Even West Point became a “breeding ground for Manifest Destiny apostles” (p. 876) and this highlights the enduring force of “expansionist fantasies” (p. 879) which provided “heroes, martyrs and villains” (p. 859) in American society. The article thus demonstrates that filibustering was an enduring and widespread phenomenon. It was treasured as a small pocket of freedom for old style private military action before the civil war established once and for all the exclusive authority of state armies.

The illegal raids may have ceased, but the romantic notion of “Manifest Destiny” acted out in daring raids, remains in American cultural memory even to the present day. Reference May, Robert E. “Young American Males and Filibustering in the Age of Manifest Destiny: The United States Army as Cultural Mirror. Journal of American History (1991), pp. 857-886.