Mistress of Manifest Destiny

Jane McManus Storm Cazneau was a complex person who died at sea the way she lived — at the center of a storm of controversy. Whether as Aaron Burr's mistress, land speculating in Texas, behind enemy lines during the Mexican War, filibustering for Cuba or Nicaragua, promoting Mexican revolution from a dugout in Eagle Pass, or urging free blacks to emigrate to the Dominican Republic, Cazneau seldom took the easy path. As a journalist, an advisor to national political figures, and publicist, she helped shape United States domestic and foreign policy from the mid-1840s into the 1870s. Cazneau's most unique contribution was as a staff member for John L. O'Sullivan, editor of the United States Magazine and Democratic Review, where she described the mission of the United States as "Manifest Destiny," thereby coining one of the most significant and influential phrases in American political history. Cazneau was dedicated to the expansion of republican government and she had a deep and abiding love for her country and faith in its people and its future.