what completed manifest destiny?
Now, with territory up to the Mississippi River claimed and settled and the Louisiana Purchase explored, Americans headed west in droves. Newspaper editor John O'Sullivan coined the term  manifest destiny  in 1845 to describe the essence of this mindset. A symbol of Manifest Destiny, the figure Columbia moves across the land in advance of settlers, replacing darkness with light and ignorance with civilization. The religious fervor spawned by the Second Great Awakening created another incentive for the drive west.