The deep religiousness of the first groups of colonists in North America, such as the Puritans, in what would become today's United States always upheld the belief that these American colonists, later on U.S. citizens, would achieve greatness by the grace of God. This notion remained vague until 1845 when journalist John L. O'Sullivan called it Manifest Destiny, in order to justify the expansion of the U.S. to the Pacific Ocean coast.
