President Andrew Jackson's Case for the Removal Act
First Annual Message to Congress, 8 December 1830
United States Benefits
Native American Benefits
What is Andrew Jackson’s attitude towards Native Americans? ( Defend with 5 pieces of
evidence.)
Attitude:
Evidence:
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President Andrew Jackson's Case for the Removal Act
First Annual Message to Congress, 8 December 1830
It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent (caring) policy of the
Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the
Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation
(conclusion). Two important tribes have accepted the provision made for their removal at
the last session of Congress, and it is believed that their example will induce (encourage)
the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages.
The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to
individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary (financial) advantages
which it Promises to the Government are the least of its recommendations. It puts an end
to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the General (federal) and
State Governments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and civilized
population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage (uncivilized) hunters.
By opening the whole territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the
south to the settlement of the whites it will incalculably (hugely) strengthen the
southwestern frontier and render (leave) the adjacent States strong enough to repel (keep
away) future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole State of Mississippi
and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy (use), and enable those States to
advance rapidly (quickly) in population, wealth, and power. It will separate the Indians
from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the
States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude
institutions; will retard (slow) the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers,
and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through
the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting,
civilized, and Christian community. These consequences, some of them so certain and the
rest so probable, make the complete execution of the plan sanctioned (authorized) by
Congress at their last session an object of much solicitude (concern).
Toward the aborigines (natives) of the country no one can indulge a more friendly feeling
than myself, or would go further in attempting to reclaim them from their wandering
habits and make them a happy, prosperous people. I have endeavored (attempted) to
impress (make an impression on) upon them my own solemn (serious) convictions
(beliefs) of the duties and powers of the General Government in relation to the State
authorities. For the justice of the laws passed by the States within the scope of their
reserved powers they are not responsible to this Government. As individuals we may
entertain and express our opinions of their acts, but as a Government we have as little
right to control them as we have to prescribe (set) laws for other nations.
With a full understanding of the subject, the Choctaw and the Chickasaw tribes have with
great unanimity determined to avail themselves of the liberal offers presented by the act
of Congress, and have agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi River. Treaties have
been made with them, which in due season will be submitted for consideration. In
negotiating these treaties they were made to understand their true condition, and they
have preferred maintaining their independence in the Western forests to submitting to the
laws of the States in which they now reside. These treaties, being probably the last which
will ever be made with them, are characterized by great liberality (kindness) on the part
of the Government. They give the Indians a liberal (large) sum in consideration of their
removal, and comfortable subsistence (life) on their arrival at their new homes. If it be
their real interest to maintain a separate existence, they will there be at liberty to do so
without the inconveniences and vexations (complex issues) to which they would
unavoidably have been subject in Alabama and Mississippi.
Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines (natives) of this country, and
Philanthropy (charity) has been long busily employed (used) in devising (creating) means
to avert it, but its progress has never for a moment been arrested, and one by one have
many powerful tribes disappeared from the earth. To follow to the tomb the last of his
race and to tread on the graves of extinct nations excite melancholy (sad) reflections. But
true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissitudes (change in fortune) as it does
to the extinction of one generation to make room for another. In the monuments and
fortress of an unknown people, spread over the extensive regions of the West, we behold
the memorials of a once powerful race, which was exterminated (kill) or has disappeared
to make room for the existing savage tribes. Nor is there anything in this which, upon a
comprehensive (complete) view of the general interests of the human race, is to be
regretted. Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to the conditions in
which it was found by our forefathers. What good man would prefer a country covered
with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive (far reaching)
Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms, embellished (filled with)
with all the improvements which art can devise or industry execute, occupied by more
than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the blessings of liberty, civilization, and
religion?
The present policy of the Government is but a continuation of the same progressive
change by a milder process. The tribes which occupied the countries now constituting
(making up) the Eastern States were annihilated or have melted away to make room for
the whites. The waves of population and civilization are rolling to the westward, and we
now propose to acquire (get) the countries occupied by the red men of the South and
West by a fair exchange, and, at the expense of the United States, to send them to a land
where their existence may be prolonged and perhaps made perpetual. Doubtless it will be
painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what do they more than our ancestors did
or than our children are now doing? To better their condition in an unknown land our
forefathers left all that was dear in earthly objects. Our children by thousands yearly
leave the land of their birth to seek new homes in distant regions. Does Humanity weep at
these painful separations from everything, animate and inanimate (non living), with
which the young heart has become entwined (tangled)? Far from it. It is rather a source of
joy that our country affords scope where our young population may range unconstrained
(free) in body or in mind, developing the power and faculties of man in their highest
perfection. These remove hundreds and almost thousands of miles at their own expense,
purchase the lands they occupy, and support themselves at their new homes from the
moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in this Government when, by events which it can
not control, the Indian is made discontented (unhappy) in his ancient home to purchase
his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the expense of his removal,
and support him a year in his new abode (home)? How many thousands of our own
people would gladly embrace the opportunity of removing to the West on such
conditions! If the offers made to the Indians were extended to them, they would be hailed
(celebrated) with gratitude (thanks) and joy.
And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his home than
the settled, civilized Christian? Is it more afflicting (troubling) to him to leave the graves
of his fathers than it is to our brothers and children? Rightly considered, the policy of the
General Government toward the red man is not only liberal, but generous. He is unwilling
to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with their population. To save him from
this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation (obliteration), the General Government
kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the whole expense of his removal and
settlement. . . .
May we not hope, therefore, that all good citizens, and none more zealously (kindly) than
those who think the Indians oppressed by subjection (hopelessness) to the laws of the
States, will unite in attempting to open the eyes of those children of the forest to their true
condition, and by a speedy removal to relieve them from all the evils, real or imaginary,
present or prospective (future), with which they may be supposed to be threatened.
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/andrew.htm
First Hand Accounts of the Indian Removal Policy
Elizabeth Watts
The soldiers gathered them up, all up, and put them in camps. They hunted them
and ran them down until they got all of them. Even before they were loaded in
wagons, many of them got sick and died. They were all grief stricken they lost all on
earth they had. White men even robbed their dead_s graves to get their jewelry and
other little trinkets. They saw to stay was impossible and Cherokees told Gen. Scott
they would go without further trouble and the long journey started. They did not all
come at once. First one batch and then another. The sick, old, and babies rode on
the grub and household wagons. The rest rode a horse, if they had one. Most of
them walked. Many of them died along the way. They buried them where they died,
in unmarked graves. It was a bitter dose and lingered in the mind of Mrs. Watts'
Grandparents and parents until death took them. The road they traveled, history
calls the "Trail of Tears". This trail was more than tears. It was death, sorrow,
hunger, exposure, and humiliation to a civilized people as were the Cherokees.
General Winfield Scott
Chiefs, head-men and warriors! Will you then, by resistance, compel us to resort to
arms? God forbid! Or will you, by flight, seek to hid yourselves in mountains and
forests, and thus oblige us to hunt you down? Remember that, in pursuit, it may be
impossible to avoid conflicts. The blood of the white man or the blood of the red man
may be spilt, and, if spilt, however accidentally, it may be impossible for the discreet
and humane among you, or among us, to prevent a general war and carnage. Think
of this, my Cherokee brethren! I am an old warrior, and have been present at many
a scene of slaughter, but spare me, I beseech you, the horror of witnessing the
destruction of the Cherokees.
Lt. L.B. Webster
We were eight days in making the journey (80 miles), and it was pitiful to behold the
women & children who suffered exceedingly as they were all obliged to walk, with
the exception of the sick.... I had three regular ministers of the gospel in my party,
and ... we have preaching or prayer meeting every night while on the march, and
you may well imagine that under the peculiar circumstances of the case, among
those sublime mountains and in the deep forest with the thunder often roaring in the
distance, that nothing could be more solemn and impressive. And I always looked on
with ... awe, lest their prayers which I felt... ascending to Heaven and calling for
justice to Him who alone can & will grant it... [might] fall upon my guilty head as one
of the instruments of oppression.
Private John G. Burnett
Being acquainted with many of the Indians and able to fluently speak their language,
I was sent as interpreter into the Smoky Mountain Country in May, 1838, and
witnessed the execution and the most brutal order in the history of American
warfare. I saw helpless Cherokees arrested and dragged from their homes, and
driven at the bayonet point into the stockades. And in the chill of a drizzling rain on
an October morning, I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into six hundred and
forty-five wagons and started toward the west.
One can never forget the sadness and solemnity of that morning. Chief John Ross led
in prayer and when the bugle sounded and the wagons started rolling many of the
children rose to their feet and waved their little hands good-by to their mountain
homes, knowing they were leaving them forever. Many of these helpless people did
not have blankets and many of them had been driven from home barefooted.
On the morning of November the 17th we encountered a terrific sleet and snow
storm with freezing temperatures and from that day until we reached the end of the
fateful journey on March the 26th, 1839, the sufferings of the Cherokees were awful.
The trail of the exiles was a trail of death. They had to sleep in the wagons and on
the ground without fire. And I have known as many as twenty-two of them to die in
one night of pneumonia due to ill treatment, cold, and exposure.
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/indian_removal/human_meaning.cfm
Assignment:
After reading through the accounts of the Trail of Tears, develop a thesis statement that
you think accurately portrays the experience.
You will be asked to develop a one page essay that shows your analysis of the first hand
accounts of the Trail of tears. Your essay should take the 5-paragraph form, and use
direct evidence from the reading to defend your thesis statement.
Mr. Carty
Trail of Tears
Essay: 30 pts.
Requirements:
 Essay should be in 5 paragraph form.
 Introduction Paragraph should set the historical setting and introduce the
topic/thesis statement.
 Each supporting paragraph should be directly tied into defending your thesis
statement, and incorporate specific evidence to strengthen your argument.
 Summary should summarize your main points and restate your thesis.
 You should use in-text citation.
 Must be typed, size 12 font, Times New Roman, double-spaced
Organization:
Thesis/ArgumentSupporting Evidence:
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