Many believed in Manifest Destiny. This was a God-given right to spread Christianity and American ideals such as democracy across the continent, from coast to coast. This idea prompted over a million Americans to rise up and sell their homes in the East and take to the Oregon, Mormon, Santa Fe, and California trails. Not everyone agreed with this expansion into the West. The slavery debate once again fueled many problems with westward expansion. Whether having slaves in the West, or even in the South, was very important