Manifest Destiny and Its Critics.pdf - Mr. Mermelstein's classes

Student ActivitySource Analysis: Primary Source Document 1An 1839 article by John Louis O’Sullivan.ContextualizingO’Sullivan wrote the article of which thispassage is a part in 1839. He actuallyused the specific phrase “manifestdestiny” in another article in 1845. Sumup the events of those years that mightadd to the enthusiasm of someone whobelieve America was destined to expandinto a huge continental nation.Interpreting meaningsO’Sullivan says in his first paragraph that“our national birth was the beginning ofa new history.” How does the rest of thisparagraph explain what he means?O’Sullivan says the nation is “enteringon its untrodden space…with a clearconscience unsullied by the past.” Why doyou think he believed this? Do you think hewas right to think of American society as“unsullied by the past”? Why or why not?One historian says, “Much of O’Sullivan’sforceful optimism in this article seemsto rest on his view of the Declaration ofIndependence and its central place innational life.” Can you explain?Manifest Destiny and Its Critics | The Historian’s Apprentice 19