Whitman y El Destino Manifiesto

Walt Whitman and Manifest Destiny
Author(s): Henry Nash Smith

Source: Huntington Library Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Aug., 1947), pp. 373-389
Published by: University of California Press
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Walt Whitman and Manifest Destiny
By HENRY NASH SMITH
W1
7ALT WHITMAN was an enthusiasticAmericannationalistand
a believerin the confusedbut exciting doctrinesof Manifest
Destiny. He was committedto Americaas againstEurope,and to
the American West as against the American East. These alle-
gianceswere not casualandperipheralwith him,but vitallyimport-
ant, formingone of the two or three centralstrandsin his poetry.
From the firstpublicationof Leavesof Grassin 1855 to the end of
his life, he returnedagainand againto the themesof the imperial
missionof the United Statesandthe peculiarrole of the West with-
in Americansociety.'
But if Whitmanremainedloyal to these rulingideasover a long
period,one can neverthelessdistinguishseveralstagesin the devel-
opmentof his attitudetowardthem.The startingpoint for this de-
velopmentwas his demandfor a new Americanculturecreatedby,
and in turn finding expressionin, a native literature,of which his
own poetry was intended to be the beginning. Negatively the
theory demandedthat Americansociety and Americanliterature
should renouncetheir bondageto Europe and the past. Although
the poet counselspatienceas the corpseof traditionis slowly borne
from the house,he proclaimsthat "its action has descendedto the
stalwartand wellshapedheir who approaches...." In America,
"thereshall be a man coheredout of tumult and chaos,"3and the
true poets of the future, a superiorbreed supplantingpriestsand
other custodiansof the old order, "gangsof kosmosand prophets
en masse,"4 shallariseto proclaima new ordercorrespondingto the
'Albert K. Weinberg, in his excellent monograph Manifest Destiny. A Study of
Nationalist Expansionismin American History (Baltimore, 1935), refers frequently
to Whitman (as at pp. 127-28, 153, I67, etc.) in such a way as to demonstrate the
poet's orthodoxy. Professor Weinberg does not, however, deal with the materials
presented here.
2Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Reproduced from the First Edition (1855),
ed. Clifton J. Furness (New York, 1939), p. iii; hereafter "Leavesof Grass (I855)."
3Ibid.,p. xi.
4Idem.
373
374 HUNTINGTON LIBRARY QUARTERLY
grandeurof Nature in the New World. The poet of America,
wrote Whitmanin his 1855Preface,"incarnatesits geographyand
naturallife andriversand lakes":
Mississippiwith annual freshets and changing chutes, Missouri and
Columbiaand Ohio and Saint Lawrence with the falls and beautiful
masculineHudson, do not embouchurewhere they spend themselves
more than they embouchure into him. . . . When the long Atlantic
coast stretches longer and the Pacific coast stretches longer he easily
stretcheswith them north or south. He spansbetween them also from
east to west and reflectswhat is between them.5
Let us designatethis complexof ideas as the first stage of Whit-
man's Utopian theory of Americansociety. The past, feudalism,
Europeantraditionfall away; a new order begins. It is founded
not upon traditionbut upon Nature, upon the physicalearth,the
North AmericanContinent:
I swearthere is no greatnessor power that does not emulate
those of the earth!
I swearthere can be no theory of any account,unlessit
corroboratethe theory of the earth!6
In the firsttwo editionsof Leavesof Grass,I85 5 and I 856, Whit-
man carriesout a consideredprogramin speakingequally for all
sections of his country. But he was subject to certainforces that
could hardly fail to lead him into an increasingemphasison the
West. These forceswere derivedfrom the internallogic of his ideas
andfrom the maindrivesof Americansocietyratherthanfrom per-
sonal experience.After his trip to New Orleansin I848 Whitman
madeno importantjourneywestwardfrom the Atlantic seaboard
duringhisproductiveperiod.The excursionto Denverin I 879 came
after his majorwork was completedand was the resultratherthan
the cause of his long preoccupationwith the West.7 The Pacific
51bid.,p. iv.
6"Poemof the Sayers of the Words of the Earth,"Leaves of Grass (New York,
I856), p. 329; hereafter "Leaves of Grass (I856)."
7The Western trip is described in chapter v of Robert R. Hubach, 'Walt Whit-
man and the West" (unpublished doctoral dissertation,Indiana University, 1943),
pp. 158-201; in Mr. Hubach's article, "Three Uncollected St. Louis Interviews of
Walt Whitman," American Literature,XIV (May, 1942), I41-47; and in Rolo G.
Silver, "WhitmanInterviewsHimself,"AmericanLiterature,X (March, 1938), 84-87.
WALT WHITMAN 375
Coast,which cameto play so largea partin Whitman'sconception
of America,he never visitedat all.
The firstof the tendenciesshapingWhitman'sconceptionof the
West and of Manifest Destiny was his increasingawarenessof
greaterandgreaterdepthsof meaningwithin the notion of Nature,
regardedas identicalwith the vast waiting continent beyond the
Alleghenies,and especiallybeyond the Mississippi.From this point
of view, the Atlanticseaboardrepresentedthe past,the shadowof
Europe,cities,sophistication,a derivativeand conventionallife and
literature.Beyond,occupyingthe overwhelminggeographicalmass
of the continent,lay the West, which was evidentlyto be the true
theaterof Americansociety in the future. The West was a realm
where Nature loomed largerthan civilization.It was remotefrom
the influenceof Europe,andthereforealoneauthenticallyAmerican.
These inferencesfrom his originalnationalismand his commit-
ment to Nature became plainerto Whitman during the interval
between the second and third editionsof Leaves of Grass.In the
i 86o editionthe imageof the West is muchmorevivid thanin I 856.
Whitmanhasnow becomefully consciousof his deepestallegiance:
". . . These States tend inland, and toward the Western Sea," he
writes,"andI will also."8He hasmadeup hismindthathis trueaudi-
ence will be in the West of the future:"I dependon being realized,
long hence,where the broadfat prairiesspreadand thence to Ore-
gon andCaliforniainclusive."9 It is in "inlandAmerica"thathe now
finds the insouciance, self-possession,the physical health, and
the
the stout democracywhich in I855 he had admiredin Americans
generally-"the air they have of personswho never knew how it
felt to standin the presenceof superiors."10 In the West will appear
a new politicsand a new literatureappropriateto the turbulentand
audaciousAmericaof the future."1He declaresthat his Leavesare
madefor the trans-Mississippi region,for the Great Plainsand the
8In "Calamus,"Section 30 (later revised and given the title, "A Promise to Cali-
fornia"), Leaves of Grass (Boston, i86o), p. 37I; hereafter "Leaves of Grass (i86o)."
9In "ChantsDemocratic," Section 14, ibid., p. I87.
10Leavesof Grass (I855), p. iii; Leaves of Grass (i86o), p. 368 ("Calamus,"Sec-
tion 25).
ll"Proto-Leaf," Section 6I, Leaves of Grass (I86o), p. 20.
Rocky Mountainsand the Pacific slope, and dwells with ecstasy
upon "afree originallife there . . . simplediet, and cleanand sweet
blood, . . . litheness,majesticfaces,cleareyes, and perfect physique
there... ." Above all, he foresees"immensespiritualresults,future
years,inland,spreadthereeachside of the Anahuacs.. 0 ..12
The otherprincipalforce shapingWhitman'sbelief that the des-
tiny of Americalay beyondthe Mississippiwas the very old theory
that humanhistory exhibitsa successionof empires,each in turn
rising to world dominanceand then giving way in decline to a
new empire farther westward. The currency of this theory in
Americadatesat least from the middle of the eighteenthcentury.
Bishop Berkeley's"Verseson the Prospect of PlantingArts and
Learningin America,"containingthe famousline, "Westwardthe
course of empire takes its way,"13was imitated at once by an anony-
mous Anmerican writer signinghimself"Philomathes"who in 1752
publishedin New York a pamphleton "Erectinga Collegein This
Province."'4 In a poem appendedto the pamphlet,God is represen-
ted as giving directionsto the Heavenly Powers who direct the
courseof empire.As in BishopBerkeley'spoem,the BritishEmpire
is aboutto decline,the Americanto rise. Indeed,the authorseems
to contemplatea series of empiresin successiveregions of North
America,for God says that Americansare to
... asserttheirnativeRightsas Men,
Enjoyby Turns,theirDay of polish'dBliss,
And sink,by Turns,in Slavery'sgloomyNight.
But when the successionof empireshas reachedthe Pacific Coast,
. .which,far jettingout,
NearlyembracesAsia'seasternCoast,
Wherein the Dawnof Timeyou firstappear'd;
Thenwill I, risingin my Might,stretchforth
2lbid., p. i83.
13The Works of George Berkeley, ed. Alexander G. Fraser (Oxford, I901), IV,
364-66.The poemwas composedbeforeFebruaryI0, I726, andpublishedin 1752.
14Some Thoughts on Education: with Reasons for Erecting a College in This

Province, and Fixing the Same at the City of New York . . . the Whole Conclud-
ing with a Poem (New York, 1752). I have not seen the pamphlet, but it is listed
in Evans. The concluding poem is reprinted in Literary World, IV (1849), 26-27.
WALT WHITMAN 377
My strong right Arm, and Renovationgive
To Nature; will my Sceptre reassume;
And bid you reascendto the bright Realms
Of Day, for ever there, beneathmy Sway,
With stedfastPeace and Order join'd, to reign;
Where Sloth, Corruption,Flux and sad Decay
Can never come; where Death himself must die.
According to the general theory of the course of empire, then,
Europe's dominance is a certain prelude to her decline and to the
glorious rise of America. But with the advent of the American em-
pire, universal history reaches a climax because on the Pacific Coast
the cycle of history closes. This event ushers in a millennium of
some sort that is vaguely associated with the contact between
America and Asia across the Pacific. As one Eugene Lies wrote in
I849 in the Democratic Review (a magazine to which Whitman
had contributed in recent years),
Westward arts and creeds have tended,
Never shall their march be ended,
Till they reach the utmost west ...
Is it that all earthly things
Westward ply their restless wings,
Problems of their being to solve?
Faith and Knowledge, Commerce, Wealth,
Valor, Strength and manly Health,
Do they, like the stars, revolve?
Like his predecessor in handling the theme a century earlier, Lies
foresees a millennium at the closing of the circle:
Westward, ho! the morning breaks;
Lo! a younger world awakes;
There the day-god long shall rest;
Nor can wild Hesperian dreams,
Dreams of golden earth and streams,
Lure him to a further west.'5
Although this is anything but Whitmanesque in tone, it indicates
the currency of the notion of a course of empire during Whit-
man's formative period, which coincided with the apogee of the
cult of Manifest Destiny.
15United States Democratic Review, New Series, XXIV (January, I849), 43.
Strangely enough, ideas of this sort receive little emphasisin
the 1855 and i856 editions of Leavesof Grass.They are first
clearly statedin the i 86o edition.Section 4 of the "ChantsDemo-
cratic"has a mutedversionof the theme:
With those old continentswhence we have come to this
new continent,
With the fadingkingdomsandkingsoverthere,
With the fadingreligionsandpriests. . .16
Section9 of the samegroupis hardlymorespecific:
How Americais the continentof glories,andof the triumph
of freedom,andof theDemocracies, andof the fruitsof
society, and of all that is begun.... 17
But Section io of "Enfansd'Adam"presentsthe theory most elab-
orately,with a significantand characteristicturn at the end:
Inquiring,tireless,seekingthatyet unfound,
I, a child,veryold,overwaves,towardthe houseof maternity,
the landof migrations,
look afar,
Lookoff overthe shoresof my WesternSea-havingarrived
at lastwhereI am-the circlealmostcircled;
For comingwestwardfromHindustan,fromthe valesof
Kashmere,
FromAsia-from thenorth-from the God,the sage,and
the hero,
Fromthe south-from the flowerypeninsulas, andthe spice
islands,
Now I facethe old homeagain-lookingoverto it, joyous,
as afterlongtravel,growth,andsleep;
Butwhereis whatI startedfor, so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?18
16Leaves of Grass (I86o), p. 174.
17bid., p. I8o.
l8Ibid., p. 3I2. Whitman's reliance upon the tradition, if not a specific indebted-
ness, is evident in such passages as the following (from a newspaper editorial by
Thomas H. Benton first published in i8i8 and reprinted for the campaign of I844):
"The disposition which 'the children of Adam' have always shown 'to follow the
sun', has never discovered itself more strongly than at present. Europe discharges
her inhabitantsupon America; America pours her population from east to west....
All obey the same impulse-that of going to the West; which, from the beginning
of time, has been the course of the heavenly bodies, of the human race, and of
science, civilization, and national power following in their train... . In a few years
WALT WHITMAN 379
At this stage, therefore,Whitman has adoptedthe theory of a
westwardcourseof empire,soon to culminatewith the emergence
of an Americanempireas a consequenceof the Americanadvance
to the Pacific.This event closesthe cycle of universalhistory.But
Whitmanpresentsalternativeendingsto the story. One follows the
orthodoxtraditionin exhibitingan Americamaintainedindefinitely
at the summitof humanglory; all the struggleof the race from the
Gardenof Eden onwardhas led to that consummation.The other
endingdissents,takesno accountof glory, does not see a coherent
purposein man'slong journey aroundthe globe, and leaves him
standingupon the shoreof the Pacificwith his eternalquestionstill
unanswered.
If the theory of a westwardcourseof empirehad focusedWhit-
man'sattentionon the trans-Mississippi region,what traitsdid the
imageof the West have for him in i 86o that had not been present
earlier?Although his generaltheory of universalinclusivenessstill
leadshim to revertto his cataloguesand his affirmations that noth-
ing is to be left out, the i 86o editionbringsvery clearlybefore the
readera specific areathat Whitman had hardly mentionedin the
two earliereditions.This areais a broadbelt extendingwest across
the Plainsfrom the Missourifrontierto the ColoradoRockies,and
lessvividly on to the Pacific.The most concretedetailsconcernthe
mountainandplateauregion of southernColorado.'9
Whitman'snext publishedvolume,Drum-Taps(I865), is in large
part a collectionof Civil-Warpoems,as the title indicates.But the
poet's interestin the West has undergoneyet a further develop-
ment and now finds expressionin three considerablepoems.Two
of these, "Yearsof the Unperform'd"and "A BroadwayPageant,"
the Rocky Mountains will be passed, and the 'children of Adam' will have com-
pleted the circumambulationof the globe, by marching to the west until they ar-
rive at the Pacific ocean, in sight of the eastern shore of that Asia in which their
first parents were originally planted" (Selections of Editorial Articles from the St.
Louis Enquirer, on the Subject of Oregon and Texas, as Originally Published in
That Paper, in the Years 1818-19 [St. Louis, I844], p. 5). Whitman introduces a sec-
tion entitled "Enfans d'Adam" (later "Children of Adam") in the i86o edition of
Leaves of Grass, at the moment when other influences of the expansionisttradition
appearin his work.
19"Proto-Leaf,"Section 55, Leaves of Grass (I86o), p. 17; "ChantsDemocratic,"
Section ii, ibid., pp. I82-83.
develop the theme of the closing of the cycle of history with the
arrivalof Americanson the PacificCoast.The third, "Pioneers!0
Pioneers!, Whitman'slongestsingle poem entirelyon a western
theme, touches lightly upon the course of empirebut dwells im-
pressivelyupon the westwardadvanceof frontiersmenacrossthe
continent.The fundamentalimageof "Pioneers!"is thatof an army
composedof hardy, courageouswestern youths, Coloradomen, a
"central,inlandrace . . . with the continentalblood intervein'd,"
bearingthe standardsof Americaand thereforeof all humanity:a
poetic rendering,perhaps,of the overlandemigrationto Oregon
andthe fabulousDoniphanexpeditionof I 846-47.21The peoplesof
the Old World are weakeningand decadent,but the sinewy pio-
neerstakeup the cosmicburdenand the lesson.Having conquered
the wildernessand scaled the mighty mountains,they come out
upon the PacificCoast.Their adventinauguratesa new era: "We
debouchupon a newer, mightierworld, variedworld"-that is, the
apocalypticerathat hasalreadybeen noted.
The newer world discernedfrom the shoresof the Pacific was
one whosehorizonwas dominatedby Asia.Whitmantook overthis
theme from a notablesuccessionof theorists:SenatorThomas H.
Benton of Missouri;Benton'sdisciple,William Gilpin;Asa Whit-
20Drun-Taps (New York, i865), pp. 25-30; hereafter "Drum Taps (i865)."
2lThe central idea and many details of "Pioneers!" closely parallel accounts of
these two outstanding events of the i840's by William Gilpin, who had partici-
pated in both. I am strongly disposed to believe that here is an instance of specific
influence, although I have not yet been able to work out the exact circumstances
of Whitman's acquaintance with Gilpin's writings. The most relevant documents
are a letter describing the emigration of I843 to Oregon which Gilpin wrote in
I846 (published in 29 Congress, ist Session. Senate Report No. 306. Committee on
the Post Office and Post Roads.... Submitted April 2o, I846, ... to Accompany
Bill S. No. 157, pp. 19-47); an address on the Doniphan expedition delivered by
Gilpin in 1847, which I know only in a version published in I873 ("Mexican
War. Remarks of Major Gilpin, at the Barbecue Given the Cole Infantry, at Jef-
ferson City [Missouri], Thursday, August io, 1847," Appendix I of Gilpin's The
Mission of the North American People [Philadelphia, 1874], pp. 13I-4I0 [first pub-
lished I873]); and "Speech of Col. William Gilpin, on the Subject of the Pacific
Railway. Delivered at Independence, Mo., at a Meeting of the Citizens of Jackson
County, Held November 5, A.D. 1849" (reprinted as Appendix I of Gilpin's The
Central Gold Region [Philadelphia,i86o], pp. 145-80; listed by the St. Louis Public
Library as a pamphlet published in i850, place unspecified). Mr. Bernard DeVoto
has recently called attention to Gilpin in an article in Harper's Magazine entitled
"Geopolitics with the Dew On It" (CLXXXVIII [March, I944], 313-23).
WALT WHITMAN 381
ney, the New York merchantwho dreameda PacificRailway;and

a host of other enthusiastsand oratorswho had concernedthem-
selveswith the shapeof thingsto come. In such a chorusof voices
performingalmostin unison,it is difficultto singleout thoseWhit-
man heardmost clearly, but his generalfidelity to the traditionis
clear.Benton,for example,had spent thirty years proclaimingthe
momentousconsequencesthat would follow the establishmentof
communicationswith the Pacific,becausethis would give Ameri-
cans accessto the commerceof the Orient.He had ransackedhis-
tory to show that commandof the tradeof Asia had alwaysbeen
andwould alwaysbe the key to world dominion.Britain'ssuprem-
acy was basedon it; the entranceof the Americansas competitors
favoredby geographicalpositionwould mean the rapid accession
of the United Statesto Britain'spositionof world primacy.22Gilpin
had impartednew depthto Benton'stheoryby synthesizingit with
the thinkingof the great Germanphysicalgeographer,Alexander
von Humboldt,especiallyin the use of Humboldt'sprincipleof iso-
thermallinesto definean isothermal"zodiacof empires"traversing
North America.23 Whitney, who had spent two years in Chinaas
22Speech of Benton in the Senate, February 7, I849, Congressional Globe 30
Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 470, 473; speech of Benton in the House of Representatives,
January i6, I855, ibid., 33 Cong., 2 Sess., Appendix, pp. 73-82, especially pp. 8i-
82; Selections of Editorial Articles from the St. Louis Enquirer, note IS above.
23CentralGold Region, p. I70 (from the 1849 address). The concept of "iso-
thermal bands" had been introduced by Humboldt in I817 and used consistently
thereafter (Alexander von Humboldt, Cosmos: A Sketch of a Physical Descrip-
tion of the Universe, trans. E. C. Otte, B. H. Paul, and W. S. Dallas [London,
1849-I858], I, 323-33). In I856 Gilpin wrote, "The world has lately received from
the learned Humboldt his two works, 'Cosmos'and 'The Aspects of Nature.' This
pre-eminent veteran in science, commenced sixty years ago, to hive and condense
the truths he now gives us in these small volumes. . . . Though not clearly
known to him (for he has not visited our country, or been able to collect the
materialsto supply this deficiency, from others), he has, in his delineations of Peru
and Mexico, exactly sketched our own Andes in California and Oregon. His
descriptionsof the great plateauxof CentralAsia, the CaspianSea, and Thibet, with
their surrounding mountain chains, applied to our continent, solve for us the
enigma of our own geography" ("Memoranda!on the Pacific Railroad,"reprinted
in Central Gold Region, pp. 23-24). Gilpin mentions Humboldt again on pp. 55,
93 of the same work. The anonymous employee of Hubert H. Bancroft who in-
terviewed Gilpin in preparationfor writing the biography in Bancroft's Chronicles
of the Builders of the Commonwealth (John W. Caughey, Hubert Howe Bancroft,
Historian of the West [Berkeley, I946], pp. 318-19, 322) says that "during his
travels in the mountains" Gilpin carried "such books in his knapsack as the
agent for Americanmerchants,was endlesslyexplicit concerning
the economic feasibility of a transcontinental railway.24And these
were only the leadersin the voluminousdiscussion.
"Yearsof the Unperform'd"developsthe notion hintedat in the
countlessmassesdebouchingupon vast tracklessspacesin "Proto-
Leaf" (I86o)25 and the "newer, mightierworld" of "Pioneers!"
The ideasare still far from clear in the poet'smind,but he is con-
vinced of the immenseresultswhich will follow the advanceof the
American"averageman"into the Pacific. A complicatingfactor,
but highly relevant,is Whitman'sdawningawarenessof the role of
technologyin westwardexpansion:
I see tremendousentrancesand exits-I see new combina-
tions I see the solidarityof races ...
Never was averageman, his soul, more energetic,more
like a God;
Lo, how he urges andurges,leavingthe massesno rest;
His daringfoot is on land and sea everywhere-he colon-
izes the Pacific, the archipelagoes;
With the steam-ship,the electric telegraph,the newspaper,
the wholesaleengines of war,
With these, and the world-spreadingfactories,he inter-
links all geography,all lands ...
The technologicalrevolutionsuggestsa new age of universalbroth-
erhood-a distinct anticipationof the opening theme of "Passage
to India":
What whispersare these, 0 lands,runningaheadof you,
passingunderthe seas?
Cosmos of Humboldt, the Vegetable Chemistry of Liebig, Tacitus, Shakespeare,

and DeTocqueville's Democracy in America . . ."' (Hubert H. Bancroft, History
of the Life of William Gilpin. A Character Study [San Francisco, i889], p. 6i).
The first volume of the Cosmos did not appear in German before i845 (English
translation 1849 ff.), so that this statement is probably inaccurate with regard to
Gilpin's Far Western travels, 1843-I848; but other works of Humboldt had ap-
peared, and these are no doubt intended in the passage quoted.
24MargaretL. Brown, "Asa Whitney and his Pacific Railroad Publicity Cam-
paign," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, XX (September, '933), 209-224. The
most important of Whitney's various memorials and published articles and pam-
phlets, dating from I845, are summarizedin Asa VVhitney,A Project for a Rail-
road to the Pacific . .. With Reports of Committees of Congress, Resolutions of
State Legislatures, Etc. With Other Facts Relating Thereto (New York, I849).
25Leaves of Grass (I86o), p. 6.
WALT WHITMAN 383
Are all nationscommuning?is there going to be but one
heartto the globe?
Is humanity forming, en-masse?-for lo! tyrants tremble,
crowns grow dim ...26
"A Broadway Pageant," which Whitman indicates in a note was
suggested by the arrival of the Japanese embassy in New York,
June I6, I86o, finds enormous meaning in the fact that the Orient
is at last coming to America because "Libertad" now faces Asia
from her western shores. A new era similar to that foreseen in
"Years of the Unperform'd" seems on the point of beginning:
I chant the world on my Western Sea; ...
I chant the new empire,granderthan any before-As in a
vision it comes to me;
I chant America,the Mistress-I chant a greatersupremacy;
I chant,projected,a thousandblooming cities yet, in time,
on those groups of sea-islands;...
I chant commerceopening,the sleep of ages having done its
work-races, reborn,refresh'd. . .
The theme of the course of empire comes in most explicidy:
The sign is reversing,the orb is enclos'd,
The ring is circled, the journey is done;
The box-lid is but perceptiblyopen'd-nevertheless the per-
fume pours copiously out of the whole box.27
Here the idea of the American millennium, with its triumph of the
average man armed with the power of steam, is strong enough to
drown out the plaintive question, "Why is it yet unfound?" and to
impose instead a triumphant conclusion foreshadowing the mys-
tical affirmationof "Passageto India," although the theme of doubt
will also survive to be stated in the middle sections of the later
poem. "A Broadway Pageant" ends as follows:
Were the childrenstrayingwestwardso long? so wide the
tramping?
26Drum Taps (I865), pp. 53-54. Whitman's word "unperform'd"and the notion
that the Americans are stirring up the inert masses of Asia suggest an enthusiastic
passage on "the untransacteddestiny of the American people" in Gilpin's letter to
Senator James Semple of I846 (29 Cong., i Sess., Senate Report No. 306, pp. 46-47).
27Drum Taps (I865), p. 64.
Were the precedentdim ages debouchingwestward from
Paradiseso long?
Were the centuriessteadilyfooting it that way, all the while
unknown, for you [Libertad],for reasons?
They are justified-they are accomplish'd-they shall now
be tum'd the other way also, to traveltoward you
thence;
They shallnow also marchobediently eastward,for your
sake,Libertad.28
The ambiguitiesin this passage arise from the transitional state of

Whitman's thinking. If we are to read it as meaning that the ages
are justified and accomplished, we have a version which is intelli-
gible enough: With the founding of the American empire in the
Pacific, the empire of Libertad, humanity enters a new era of uni-
versal brotherhood, the millennium arrives, history stops. But the
statement that "they shall now be tum'd the other way . . . They
shall . . . march obediently eastward" cannot avoid being colored
by the image of the Japaneseambassadorswhose eastward journey,
reversing the course of universal history, was the occasion of the
poem. This reading suggests a new age in which history is to be de-
termined by an eastward course of empire, presumably inaugurated
by migration of Orientals to America. Such an idea had warrant in
the expansionist tradition, but it was little more than a debater's
contrivance.29It is not vividly present to Whitman's mind, and is
not integrated with the other ideas in the poem. His conclusion
therefore fails to come off. He was, in fact, not really moved by
the details of the new order with which the tradition provided him.
28Ibid., p. 65. This should be compared with the passage quoted from Benton in
note I8, above.
29Benton in the Senate, March I, I825: "The valley of the Columbia might
become the granary of China and Japan, and an outlet to their exuberantpopula-
tion" (Register of Debates in Congress, T8 Cong., 2 Sess., I, 711); Benton in the
Senate, May 28, 1846: ". . . socially and commercially, the van of the Caucasians,
and the rear of the Mongolians, must intermix. They must talk together, and
trade together, and marry together" (Congressional Globe, 29 Cong., I Sess., p.
9I8). Edward E. Hale remarkedin 1854 that the tide of Asiatic immigrationsetting
in from the Pacific Coast might help reconcile difficulties encountered when Afri-
can and European labor met in the settlement of new territories in the West
(Kansas and Nebraska: The History, Geographical and Physical Characteristics,
and Political Position of Those Territories [Boston, 1854], pp. 245-46).
WALT WHITMAN 385
He wanted somethingmore transcendentto stand as the goal of
history.
Six yearslater,in 1871, Whitmanresolvedhis imaginativeprob-
lem in one of his majorpoems, "Passageto India,"which he said
was probably"but freer vent and fuller expressionto what, from
the first,... more or less lurksin my writings,underneathevery
page, every line, every where."30We are thus invited by the poet
to take the poem with the utmostseriousness.
It is customaryto point out that "Passageto India"is an occas-
sional poem celebratingthree events: the successfullaying of a
transatlanticcablein I866, and the almostsimultaneouscompletion
of the Union PacificRailroadandthe openingof the Suez Canalin
I869. But these eventsareindeedonly occasions.The poem devel-
ops from a concernwith Asiawhich had firstappearedin i 86o and
had been developedto a considerableextent in I865. Even the im-
pressivemysticismof the final sectionshad been clearly foreshad-
owed in Whitman'searliertreatmentsof the notion of a coming
Americanempirein the Pacific.
After two sectionsannouncingthe subject ("the great achieve-
mentsof the present,. . . the strong,light works of engineers")),3'
Whitman returns to his question of i 86o, "Why is it yet un-
found?"32which is now restated and amplified:
Down from the gardensof Asia, descending,radiating,

Adam and Eve appear,then their myriadprogeny after them,
Wandering,yearning,curious-with restlessexplorations,
With questionings,baffled,formless,feverish-with never-
happy hearts,
With that sad,incessantrefrain,Wherefore,unsatisfiedSoul?
and, Whither,0 mocking Life?33
But after a decade of reflection,the poet has at last graspedthe

"inscrutablepurpose,"the "hidden,propheticintention"implicit
3OTwoRivulets (Camden, New Jersey, I876), P. 5 n.
31Passageto India (Washington, D.C., 1871), p. 5; hereafter "Passage to India
(I87)."
32Leavesof Grass (I86o), p. 312.
33Passageto India (I871), pp. 8-9.
in man's long journey through the ages around the globe:34
Lo, soul! seest thou not God's purposefrom the first?
The earthto be spann'd,connected by net-work,
The people to become brothersand sisters,
The races,neighbors,to marryand be given in marriage,
The oceansto be cross'd,the distantbrought near,
The landsto be welded together.35
This is the dream of Columbus, realized by America:
(Ah Genoese,thy dream!thy dream!
Centuriesafter thou art laid in thy grave,
The shore thou foundestverifiesthy dream!),
for the Union Pacific, "Tying the Eastern to the Western Sea," is
"The road between Europe and Asia."36
The era of internationalbrotherhood thus announced is a second,
developed phase of Whitman's Utopianism, in which his national-
ism has been expanded to the point where it almost ceases to be
nationalism. But this phase yields at once to a third. The merely
sociological millennium of universal peace is only the material basis
upon which will supervene an apocalyptic answer to the question
of the feverish children. Man may be reconciled to man, but the
children of Adam cannot finally rest until they have solved the rid-
dle of Nature: "Who [shall] speak the secret of impassiveEarth?"37
34Ibid.,p. 8. Whitman's early, grandiose plan "to write a work of epic scope
on the progress of the human race throughout the ages" is discussed by Gay W.
Allen ("Walt Whitman's 'Long Journey' Motif," Journal of English and Ger-
manic Philology, XXXVIII [January, I939], 76-95). Professor Allen points out
that elements of this early project were incorporated into Whitman's later national-
ism.
35Passageto India (I871), p. 6. Gilpin had written in I849: "So now we advance
to consummate the blending of the Pacific with these other seas:-Asia with these
other continents-and urge to its goal that expanding progression, which marches
on to complete the zodiac of the globe, and blend into bonds of confraternity all
the continents, all the seas, and all the nations!" (Central Gold Region, p. 176).
36Passageto India (187I), p. 7. The notion that a Pacific Railroad would ful-
fill the dream of Columbus was a commonplace (James D. B. DeBow, "South-
ern Atlantic and Mississippi Railroad," DeBow's Review, I [January, 1846], 23;
Thomas H. Benton, Selections of Editorial Articles from the St. Louis Enquirer,
p. 17, and Congressional Globe, 33 Cong., 2 Sess., Appendix, pp. 81-82; William
Gilpin, Central Gold Region, p. 93).
37Passageto India (I871), p. 9.
WALT WHITMAN 387
Whitman,and indeed his century, had wrestledso long wviththis
question that no single influence can safely be consideredpara-
mountin helpinghim to find an answer.But in this context Whit-
man'shandlingof the problemof Nature may well owe something
to Humboldt,either directly or indirectlythrough Gilpin. Hum-
boldt had insisted that the cosmos must be viewed as a unit, an
organicwhole in which man and inanimatenature,society and its
environment,are properlystudiedtogether.38Gilpin, applyingthe
principle to North America, had maintainedthat the westward
movementfulfilled a mandateof Nature becauseit expandedthe
United States to naturallyordainedlimits and thus establisheda
38In the Introduction to his Cosmos (I, i), Humboldt announced that his sub-
ject was "the chain of connection, by which all natural forces are linked to-
gether, and made mutually dependent upon each other.... Nature," he added,
"consideredrationally, that is to say, submitted to the process of thought, is a unity
in diversity of phenomena; a harmony, blending together all created things, how-
ever dissimilarin form and attributes;one great whole . . . animatedby the breath
of life" (1, 2-3). And again: "We find even amongst the most savage nations ...
a certain vague, terror-stricken sense of the all-powerful unity of natural forces,
and of the existence of an invisible, spiritual essence manifested in these forces,
whether in unfolding the flower and maturing the fruit of the nutrient tree, in
upheaving the soil of the forest, or in rending the clouds with the might of the
storm. We may here trace the revelation of a bond of union, linking together the
visible world and that higher spiritual world which escapes the grasp of the
senses" (I, I6). A close inquiry into the relation between Whitman and Hum-
boldt is greatly to be desired. One would like to know, for example, whether there
is any connection between Humboldt and Whitman's use of the word "kosmos"
(as in Leaves of Grass [1855], pp. vii, ix ["the poets of the kosmos," "with a per-
fect sense of the oneness of nature"], xi ["the gangs of cosmos and prophets en
masse"], 29 ["Walt Whitman, . . . a kosmos"], 68 ["The great masters and kosmos
are well as they go"]). A long footnote on the etymology and semantic history
of the word "kosmos" (Cosmos, I, 5I-53) could conceivably have been very sug-
gestive for Whitman. Humboldt's work appearedin English translationat the time
when Whitman was maturing the conceptions that were to issue in Leaves of
Grass. The tantalizingly inexplicit "List of Certain Magazine and Newspaper
Articles Studied and Preserved by Walt Whitman and Found in His Scrapbooks
and among His Papers"in Volume VII of The Complete Prose Works, ed. Richard
M. Bucke, Thomas B. Harned, and Horace L. Traubel (New York, I902), pp. 63-
97, mentions two items bearing on Humboldt: Item No. 3I3 (p. 83), "Newspaper
piece, 'Alexander von Humboldt, etc."'; Item 484 (p. 93), "Newspaper piece
on 'Humboldt's Cosmos."' I have been unable to discover the whereabouts of
these clippings.-The relevance of Humboldt's Cosmos to the "dynamic con-
ception of nature" is noted by Professor Howard M. Jones ("The Influence of
European Ideas in Nineteenth-Century America," American Literature, VII
[November, I935], 257-60).
harmonybetweenthe society andits physicalsetting.39The Ameri-
can advanceto the Pacific, and specificallythe constructionof a
Pacific Railway, were firmly associatedin Gilpin'swritings with
the achievementof a previouslyunattainedharmonywith Nature.
If Whitmanprofitedby thesesuggestions,however,he carriedthe
idea of harmonymuch further.He conceivedof man'srelationto
Nature not merelyas a sociologicalproblembut as a matterof the
most directandinescapablepersonalconcern:
Who [shall] speakthe secret of impassiveEarth?
Who bind it to us? What is this separateNature, so
unnatural?
What is this Earth,to our affections?(unloving earth,with-
out a throb to answerours;
Cold earth,the place of graves.)40
Yet if what man demandsof Nature is love, he approachesNature
along a pathway that begins, as Humboldt had insisted,with ra-
tional comprehension.This optimisticview is characteristicof the
eighteenthcentury that had formedHumboldt'smind ratherthan
of the later nineteenthcentury to which "Passageto India"be-
longed. It embodiesWhitman'srefusalto follow the maindrift of
ideas in his day toward finding a conflict between scientificand
poetic attitudestoward Nature. He staunchlymaintainsthat the
mind'sgraspof Nature leadsto successfulmanipulation,and this in
turn to communion.The scientistsand engineersare appointedto
preparethe way for "thePoet, worthy that name,The true Son of
God, singing his songs," who will consummatethe salvationof
mankindby restoringman'slost harmonywith Nature on all levels
of his experience.The promisedKingdom is materialas well as
spiritual,for here as alwaysWhitmanrefusedto acknowledgethat
the two realmscould be separated:
39Gilpin wrote, for example, that "The American Republic is . . . predestined
to expand and fit itself to the continent" (Central Gold Region, p. 20). He be-
lieved that the "divine mission"of the United States required all citizens to master
"the geographical portrait of our continent . . in its unity of system," that is,
from the perspective of comparative geography (ibid., p. i8). Similar ideas were,
however, widely prevalent, and Whitman could have found them on every hand
(Albert Weinberg, Manifest Destiny, chap. ii, "GeographicalPredestination,"pp.
43-71).
40Passage to India (I87I), p. 9.
WALT WHITMAN 389
Then, not your deeds only, 0 voyagers, 0 scientistsand in-
ventors,shallbe justified,
All these hearts,as of fretted children,shall be sooth'd,
All affectionshallbe fully respondedto-the secret shallbe
told;
All these separationsand gaps shallbe takenup, and hook'd
and link'd together;
The whole Earth-this cold, impassive,voicelessEarth,shall
be completely justified;
Trinitas divine shall be gloriously accomplish'dand com-
pacted by the true Son of God, the poet,
(He shallindeed passthe straitsand conquerthe mountains,
He shall double the Cape of Good Hope to some purpose;)
Nature and Man shallbe disjoin'dand diffusedno more,
The true Son of God shall absolutelyfuse them.4'
If this can be thought of as a third stage in Whitman's Utopian-
ism, an advance beyond both his nationalism and his internation-
alism, it is still but preliminary to his final vision, for Nature can be
penetrated indefinitely toward a center hardly to be distinguished
from God, as he indicates in a magnificent invocation:
0 Thou transcendant!
Nameless-the fibre and the breath!
Light of the light-shedding forth universes-thou
centre of them!42
It is toward this ultimate center rather than to any geographical
destination that the poet and his soul set sail in their "Passage to
more than India!"43Whitman had worked his way entirely through
Manifest Destiny as a political conception to come out upon the
highest plane of his mysticism.
4lIbid., pp. 9-IO. "When . . . this interval of North America shall be filled up," Gil-
pin wrote, "the affiliationof mankind will be accomplished, proximity recognised,
the distraction of intervening oceans and equatorial heats cease, the remotest na-
tions be grouped together and fused into one universal and convenient system of
immediate relationship" (Central Gold Region, p. I '7) .
42Passageto India (1871), p. 13.
431dem.

Whitman y El Destino Manifiesto

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Whitman y El Destino Manifiesto

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Walt Whitman and Manifest Destiny

Author(s): Henry Nash Smith

14Some Thoughts on Education: with Reasons for Erecting a College in This

ney, the New York merchantwho dreameda PacificRailway;and

Cosmos of Humboldt, the Vegetable Chemistry of Liebig, Tacitus, Shakespeare,

The ambiguitiesin this passage arise from the transitional state of

Down from the gardensof Asia, descending,radiating,

But after a decade of reflection,the poet has at last graspedthe

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