Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Policy of 1830

804 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Andrew jackson and indian removal reflection

There are many theories and sorted opinions as to why Andrew Jackson implemented the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Andrew Jackson's motives for enforcing the policy, and the actions he performed when he carried it out, can be interpreted in various ways depending on the analyzer's perspective. Robert V. Remini, for one, believes that Andrew Jackson forced the Indians out of their lands solely for humanitarian reasons. He states, "[Andrew Jackson] felt he had followed the 'dictates of humanity' and saved the Indians from certain death." Andrew Jackson himself stated, in Document Q, "It is better for [the natives] to treat and move," because, "the arm of the government is not sufficiently strong to preserve them from destruction." Robert V. Remini also states, "The actual removal of the Choctaw Nation violated every principle for which Jackson stood," and "Jackson tried to prevent this calamity but he was too far away to exercise any real control. "On the other hand, Anthony F. C. Wallace insists that Jackson intentionally "oversaw a harsh policy with regard to the Native Americans." In addition, Anthony F. C. Wallace believes, "It was the team of Jackson, Cass, and Herring that supervised the removal of most of the Southern Indians."
The president, Andrew Jackson, could have also enforced the Indian Removal act for political reasons. Before the act, "white citizens demanded that their governments, at both the state and national levels, do something about the Native American tribes in their midst." Jackson could have seen it as an opportunity to gain popularity among the citizens, for the plan gave Jackson the chance to "exercise leadership as the head of the
Page 2
Democratic party within congress." Also, in the end, the policy b...

... middle of paper ...

...ntegrated, the were not allowed to "swear a Christian oath," they were "denied the right to vote, bring suit, even to testify in court," and they were "subject to state taxes, militia duty, and suits for debt." Also, "after gold was discovered on Cherokee property, the Indians were prohibited from digging or mining gold on their own land."
Page 4
Although there are many theories as to why President Andrew Jackson did what he did, the goal of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was concrete. "His congressional charge was to move them all west of the Mississippi to open up the trans-Appalachian southeast for a flood of settlers who had been spilling over that chain of mountains from the earliest days of the republic." As a result, the "monumental legislation spelled the doom of the American Indian," and the bliss of the white citizens and the states in which they resided.

Show More
Related

  • The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians by Anthony F.C. Wallace

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout Jackson's two terms as President, Jackson used his power unjustly. As a man from the Frontier State of Tennessee and a leader in the Indian wars, Jackson loathed the Native Americans. Keeping with consistency, Jackson found a way to use his power incorrectly to eliminate the Native Americans. In May 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed into law the Indian Removal Act. This act required all tribes east of the Mississippi River to leave their lands and travel to reservations in the Oklahoma Territory on the Great Plains. This was done because of the pressure of white settlers who wanted to take over the lands on which the Indians had lived. The white settlers were already emigrating to the Union, or America. The East Coast was burdened with new settlers and becoming vastly populated. President Andrew Jackson and the government had to find a way to move people to the West to make room. In 1830, a new state law said that the Cherokees would be under the jurisdiction of state rather than federal law. This meant that the Indians now had little, if any, protection against the white settlers that desired their land. However, when the Cherokees brought their case to the Supreme Court, they were told that they could not sue on the basis that they were not a foreign nation. In 1832, though, on appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokees were a "domestic dependent nation," and therefore, eligible to receive federal protection against the state. However, Jackson essentially overruled the decision. By this, Jackson implied that he had more power than anyone else did and he could enforce the bill himself. This is yet another way in which Jackson abused his presidential power in order to produce a favorable result that complied with his own beliefs. The Indian Removal Act forced all Indians tribes be moved west of the Mississippi River. The Choctaw was the first tribe to leave from the southeast.

    Read More

  • Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal 1980 DBQ

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    Under the Jackson Administration, the changes made shaped national Indian policy. Morally, Andrew Jackson dismissed prior ideas that natives would gradually assimilate into white culture, and believed that removing Indians from their homes was the best answer for both the natives and Americans. Politically, before Jackson treaties were in place that protected natives until he changed those policies, and broke those treaties, violating the United States Constitution. Under Jackson’s changes, the United States effectively gained an enormous amount of land. The removal of the Indians west of the Mississippi River in the 1830’s changed the national policy in place when Jackson became President as evidenced by the moral, political, constitutional, and practical concerns of the National Indian Policy.

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Andrew Jackson

    820 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Indian Removal Act was passed by Congress in order to allow the growth of the United States to continue without the interference of the Native Americans. Jackson believed that the Native Americans were inferior to white settlers and wanted to force them west of the Mississippi. He believed that the United States would not expand past that boundary, so the Native Americans could govern themselves. Jackson evicted thousands of Native Americans from their homes in Georgia and the Carolinas and even disregarded the Supreme Court’s authority and initiated his plan of forcing the Natives’ on the trail of tears. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Indians, however Jackson ignored the ruling and continued with his plan. The result of the Indian Removal Act was that many tribes were tricked or forced off their lands, if they refused to go willingly, resulting in many deaths from skirmishes with soldiers as well as from starvation and disease. The Cherokee in particular were forced to undergo a forced march that became known as the Trail of

    Read More

  • DBQ on Jackson and the Indian Removal

    1646 Words  | 4 Pages

    The generalization that, “The decision of the Jackson administration to remove the Cherokee Indians to lands west of the Mississippi River in the 1830s was more a reformulation of the national policy that had been in effect since the 1790s than a change in that policy,” is valid. Ever since the American people arrived at the New World they have continually driven the Native Americans out of their native lands. Many people wanted to contribute to this removal of the Cherokees and their society. Knox proposed a “civilization” of the Indians. President Monroe continued Knox’s plan by developing ways to rid of the Indians, claiming it would be beneficial to all. Andrew Jackson ultimately fulfilled the plan.     First of all, the map [Document A] indicates the relationship between time, land, and policies, which affected the Indians. The Indian Tribes have been forced to give up their land as early as the 1720s. Between the years of 1721 and 1785, the Colonial and Confederation treaties forced the Indians to give up huge portions of their land. During Washington's, Monroe's, and Jefferson's administration, more and more Indian land was being commandeered by the colonists. The Washington administration signed the Treaty of Holston and other supplements between the time periods of 1791 until 1798 that made the Native Americans give up more of their homeland land. The administrations during the 1790's to the 1830's had gradually acquired more and more land from the Cherokee Indians. Jackson followed that precedent by the acquisition of more Cherokee lands.     In later years, those speaking on behalf of the United States government believed that teaching the Indians how to live a more civilized life would only benefit them. Rather than only thinking of benefiting the Indians, we were also trying to benefit ourselves. We were looking to acquire the Indians’ land. In a letter to George Washington, Knox says we should first is to destroy the Indians with an army, and the second is to make peace with them.      The Indian Trade and Intercourse Act of 1793 began to put Knox’s plan into effect. The federal government’s promise of supplying the Indians with animals, agricultural tool...

    Read More

  • Worchester v. Georgia

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the frontier moved west, white settlers wanted to expand into territory, which was the ancestral land of many Indian tribes. Although this had been going on since the administration of George Washington, during the administration of Andrew Jackson the government supported the policy of resettlement, and persuaded many tribes to give up their claim to their land and move into areas set aside by Congress as Indian Territory. In 1830, Congress passed the Indian Resettlement Act, which provided for the removal of Indians to territory west of the Mississippi River. While Jackson was President, the government negotiated 94 treaties to end Indian titles to land in the existing states.

    Read More

  • Cruel and Inhuman Treatment of Native Americans by the Colonists

    1498 Words  | 3 Pages

    Unfortunately, this great relationship that was built between the natives and the colonists of mutual respect and gain was coming to a screeching halt. In the start of the 1830s, the United States government began to realize it’s newfound strength and stability. It was decided that the nation had new and growing needs and aspirations, one of these being the idea of “Manifest Destiny”. Its continuous growth in population began to require much more resources and ultimately, land. The government started off as simply bargaining and persuading the Indian tribes to push west from their homeland. The Indians began to disagree and peacefully object and fight back. The United States government then felt they had no other option but to use force. In Indian Removal Act was signed by Andrew Jackson on May 18, 1830. This ultimately resulted in the relocation of the Eastern tribes out west, even as far as to the edge of the Great Plains. A copy of this act is laid out for you in the book, Th...

    Read More

  • Native American Perspective on Indian Removal Act

    800 Words  | 2 Pages

    In May 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act which forced Native American tribes to move west. Some Indians left swiftly, while others were forced to to leave by the United States Army. Some were even taken away in chains. Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, strongly reinforced this act. In the Second State of the Union Address, Jackson advocated his Indian Policy. There was controversy as to whether the removal of the Native Americans was justified under the administration of President Andrew Jackson. In my personal opinion, as a Native American, the removal of the tribes was not in any way justified.

    Read More

  • Mississippi History: Indian Removal Act, 13th Amendment, and Reverend George Lee

    667 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Indian Removal Act was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson on May 28, 1830. The act authorized him to negotiate with the Native Americans in the Southern Non- Native Americans supported the act heavily. Christian missionaries opposed this act was future President Abraham Lincoln, future New Jersey Theodore Frelinghuysen and Congressman Davy Crockett spoke against the legislation. It later was passed by Congress. Due to the Indian Removal Act the current Native American population is very low. --The Removal Act of 1830, section I, in The American Indian and the United States, A Documentary History, ed. Wilcomb E. Washburn, vol. 3 (New York: Random House, 1973) 2169"That in the making of any such exchange or exchanges, it shall and may be lawful for the President solemnly to assure the tribe or nation with which the exchange is made, that the United States will forever secure and guaranty to them, and their heirs or successors, the country so exchanged with them and if they prefer it, that the United States will cause a patent or grant to be made and executed to them for the same: Provided always, Those lands shall revert to the United States, if the Indians become extinct, or abandon the same." (http://www.columbia.edu/~lmg21/BC3180/removal.html).

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Andrew Jackson

    1788 Words  | 4 Pages

    He was the first president to be born in a log cabin, to be an orphan by the age of fifteen, and to be hardened by decades of military campaigns (195). In his first term he exercised the use of veto power more than all previous presidents combined (196). He ran the government the same way he ran his army (196). Andrew Jackson resolved the issue of breaking up the Union and was able to postpone it for another 30 years (197). He also moved all of the United States deposits from the Second National Bank and put them into state and local banks (198). Another thing he did while in office was to begin to move the Indians to Oklahoma (199). In 1830, the General Removal Act was passed (199). The next act passed was the Removal Act against the Choctaws (200). By 1833 nearly 11,000 were removed, and in 1838 nearly all Chickasaws were removed (200). In December 1985 the Cherokee Nation signed a treaty to move west, and in 1838 they walked the Trail of Tears, where 4,000 out of 18,000 died (201). Andrew Jackson’s policies moved 45,690 Indians across the Mississippi (201). This was his most controversial legacy

    Read More

  • Conflict Between Andrew Jackson And The Cherokee

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    To own land, that is the privilege of whom? To Andrew Jackson the Cherokees current homesteads where on his country’s land. For whatever reason at that time some people living in America weren’t treated as good as there white counterparts. Meanwhile the Cherokees principal chief John Ross felt like that land belonged to his people. If you want to get technical he was speaking on the behalf of a tribe that made up a mere one-eighth of his ancestry. Not exactly a full blooded leader. He also was one of the main reason the “trail of tears” was as hostile and brutal as it was on his people. Its ironic, even as hard as Jackson pushed and deceived the Cherokee, the Cherokee people in turn pushed back, but past the point of being rational.

    Read More

  • The Jacksonian Era

    1635 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...The Indian Removal Act was all a part of Jackson’s expansion process, and he would stop at nothing until America made the most of its land.

    Read More

  • Andrew Jackson's Abuse Of Power

    882 Words  | 2 Pages

    Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States and was, arguably, the president that caused the most controversy. History shows Andrew Jackson overused his power yet, despite this, he was still well liked by the common men that elected him. Andrew Jackson used more veto power than all of his predecessors combined. He used his law making and veto power according to how he wanted the government to be perceived. At the time, Andrew Jackson was admired by many people. His laws represented the common man and were in line with what the citizens of America wanted, regardless of the actual effect on the economy and government. Despite the voter views, Andrew Jackson only acted according to his wants and how he thought government should

    Read More

  • The Impact of Westward Expansion on The Cherokee Nation

    1470 Words  | 3 Pages

    Natives were forcefully removed from their land in the 1800’s by America. In the 1820’s and 30’s Georgia issued a campaign to remove the Cherokees from their land. The Cherokee Indians were one of the largest tribes in America at the time. Originally the Cherokee’s were settled near the great lakes, but overtime they moved to the eastern portion of North America. After being threatened by American expansion, Cherokee leaders re-organized their government and adopted a constitution written by a convention, led by Chief John Ross (Cherokee Removal). In 1828 gold was discovered in their land. This made the Cherokee’s land even more desirable. During the spring and winter of 1838- 1839, 20,000 Cherokees were removed and began their journey to Oklahoma. Even if natives wished to assimilate into America, by law they were neither citizens nor could they hold property in the state they were in. Principal Chief, John Ross and Major Ridge were leaders of the Cherokee Nation. The Eastern band of Cherokee Indians lost many due to smallpox. It was a year later that a Treaty was signed for cession of Cherokee land in Texas. A small number of Cherokee Indians assimilated into Florida, in o...

    Read More

  • The Removal of the Cherokee

    5744 Words  | 12 Pages

    The tragedy of the Cherokee nation has haunted the legacy of Andrew Jackson"'"s Presidency. The events that transpired after the implementation of his Indian policy are indeed heinous and continually pose questions of morality for all generations. Ancient Native American tribes were forced from their ancestral homes in an effort to increase the aggressive expansion of white settlers during the early years of the United States. The most notable removal came after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee, whose journey was known as the '"'Trail of Tears'"', and the four other civilized tribes, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, were forced to emigrate to lands west of the Mississippi River, to what is now day Oklahoma, against their will. During the journey westward, over 60,000 Indians were forced from their homelands. Approximately 4000 Cherokee Indians perished during the journey due to famine, disease, and negligence. The Cherokees to traveled a vast distance under force during the arduous winter of 1838-1839.# This is one of the saddest events in American history, yet we must not forget this tragedy.

    Read More

  • What Makes George Washington A Good President

    1334 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Indian Removal Act was one of Jackson’s ideas and it failed completely. Jackson was for the removal of the Cherokee Indians in Georgia, but the Supreme court denied his request. Georgia knowing the ruling of the Supreme Court still removed the Indians tribes and over 4,000 of them died. Jackson did not understand their beliefs, culture, way of living and was not going to try too. He knew there was a federal Indian act protecting their land and he went over the Supreme Court’s head and did not stop their removal. Jackson was not head-strong due to him ignoring Georgia as they removed the Indians and knowing the law of his country. A head-strong president would have followed the laws of the Founding Fathers and took charge. The sacrificing of Jackson was when small amounts of Georgian land that belongs to the Indians were given to white working men for cotton to better the country. Jackson was selfish when it came to money and controlling the country. He did not want what was better for the American people, but for

    Read More

More about Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Policy of 1830

Open Document