Letters to the Editor: America’s true heritage is the kind of dissent Trump is trying to hide

To the editor: After the Louisiana Purchase, which nearly doubled the size of the nation, Thomas Jefferson called the United States the “empire of liberty,” hoping that territorial expansion would mean the spread of American ideals and values — those exposed in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution — across the continent. All too quickly, “the empire of liberty” became Manifest Destiny, the excuse for plunder, genocide and the expansion of slavery whitewashed in that horrendous painting, “American Progress” by John Gast, which columnist Gustavo Arellano deservedly excoriates (“With Manifest Destiny art, DHS goes hard on ‘white makes right,’” July 26).

However, Arellano neglects to note the notable historical figures such as William Lloyd Garrison, Frederick Douglass, Henry David Thoreau, Abraham Lincoln and Susan B. Anthony, along with a host of politicians, ministers and ordinary citizens, who saw through the euphemism and lies, especially those opposed to the Mexican-American War that was started by President Polk to take land from Mexico. There has always been dissent; there has always been a maligned minority called “unpatriotic” and “treasonous” because they dared to challenge presidents and the Supreme Court, especially when the court declared that Congress had no power to close slavery to the new territories.

This is the “homeland heritage,” the history that the administration is trying to keep out of our schools and national parks. The whitewash continues.

Sidney Morrison, Los Angeles