Milestones newsletter for October
This morning we released the October issue of the Milestone Documents Newsletter. We chose to focus the issue on the period of expansion and reform in American history between the early 1800s and the start of the Civil War. Thus, our featured articles focus on Andrew Jackson, the Monroe Doctrine, and the Seneca Falls Convention Declaration of Sentiments, among others.
We also feature some great study questions for students from a document that is not quite as famous as those I just mentioned but that has great resonance with current events: Andrew Jackson’s veto message regarding the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States. As historian Jenny Bourne Wahl notes in her analysis of the veto in Milestone Documents in American History, the country enjoyed a period of financial stability during the Second Bank’s existence. However, the bank’s power and influence had made enemies of many vital constituents, among them western farmers, Wall Street powers, and Jackson himself: “Although it is seriously flawed in its logic and economic reasoning, the veto is a masterpiece of propaganda, virtually a call to class warfare and xenophobia.”I’m sure social studies teachers and history educators can have a field day comparing this 1832 battle with today’s tug-of-war over the proposed Wall Street bailout.
Jackson’s veto message is also our latest spotlight document at www.MilestoneDocuments.com. At no cost, you can read the full text of the veto, see a time line of related events, and ponder some of the very interesting quotes from the document. Jenny Wahl’s fascinating analysis will set you back a mere 7 bucks.