John L. O'Sullivan

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Not to be confused with John L. Sullivan.

John L. O'Sullivan
United States Minister to Portugal
In office
June 16, 1854 – July 15, 1858
PresidentFranklin Pierce
Preceded byCharles Brickett Haddock
Succeeded byGeorge W. Morgan
Personal details
BornNovember 15, 1813
At sea
DiedMarch 24, 1895 (1895-03-25) (aged 81)
New York City, US
NationalityAmerican
Political party
Columbia College
Known forCoined phrase manifest destiny

John Louis O'Sullivan (November 15, 1813 – March 24, 1895) was an American columnist, editor, and diplomat who coined the term "

U.S. minister to Portugal during the administration of President Franklin Pierce
(1853–1857).

Early life and education

John Louis O'Sullivan, born on November 15, 1813, was the son of Irishman John Thomas O'Sullivan, an American diplomat and sea captain, and Mary Rowly, a genteel Englishwoman. According to legend, he was born at sea on a British warship off the coast of Gibraltar.[2] O'Sullivan's father was a naturalized US citizen and had served as US Consul to the Barbary States.[3][4]

O'Sullivan enrolled at

Columbia College in New York at the age of 14. He graduated in 1831. In 1834, he received a Masters of Arts and became a lawyer.[2]

Career

In 1837, he founded and edited

Jacksonian Democracy and the cause of a democratic, American literature. It published some of the most prominent American writers, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Greenleaf Whittier, William Cullen Bryant, and Walt Whitman. O'Sullivan was an aggressive reformer in the New York State Legislature, where he led the unsuccessful movement to abolish capital punishment. By 1846, investors were dissatisfied with his poor management, and he lost control of his magazine.[5]

O'Sullivan opposed the coming of the

free soil" movement, he now defended the institution of slavery, writing that blacks and whites could not live together in harmony. His activities greatly disappointed some of his old friends, including Hawthorne. Towards the end of the Civil War, O'Sullivan appealed to his southern "comrades in arms" to burn Richmond, stating "let every man set fire to his own house".[6]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 0-89096-756-3
    .
  2. ^ a b Widmer, Edward L. "Young America". Retrieved July 22, 2021.
  3. ISBN 9780806317168
    .
  4. ^ https://historycooperative.org/journal/john-l-osullivan-and-his-times/
  5. ^ Robert D. Sampson. "O'Sullivan, John Louis" American National Biography Online Feb. 2000
  6. ISBN 9780823218653
    .

Further reading

External links

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