<P> Historian Frederick Merk says this concept was born out of "a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example...generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven". </P> <P> Historians have emphasized that "manifest destiny" was a contested concept--pre-civil war Democrats endorsed the idea but many prominent Americans (such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, and most Whigs) rejected it . Historian Daniel Walker Howe writes, "American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity...Whigs saw America's moral mission as one of democratic example rather than one of conquest ." </P> <P> Newspaper editor John O'Sullivan is generally credited with coining the term manifest destiny in 1845 to describe the essence of this mindset, which was a rhetorical tone; however, the unsigned editorial titled "Annexation" in which it first appeared was arguably written by journalist and annexation advocate Jane Cazneau . The term was used by Democrats in the 1840s to justify the war with Mexico and it was also used to divide half of Oregon with the United Kingdom . But manifest destiny always limped along because of its internal limitations and the issue of slavery, says Merk . It never became a national priority . By 1843 John Quincy Adams, originally a major supporter of the concept underlying manifest destiny, had changed his mind and repudiated expansionism because it meant the expansion of slavery in Texas . </P> <P> Merk concluded: </P>

Who coined the phrase manifest destiny and what does it mean