Jacksonian Democracry

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Jacksonian Democracy Between the years of 1775 and 1825, the United States government was hypocritical with respect to their Native American policy. The government, at most times, claimed to be acting in the best interest of the Native Americans. They claimed that their actions were for the benefit of not only their own citizens, but for the Native Americans, too. These beneficial actions included relocation from their homeland, murder in great numbers, rape, and a complete disregard for the various cultures represented by the Native Americans. While the nation was still very young, it issued the Northwest Ordinance. This document told the Native Americans that they should not feel threatened by this new nation because …good faith shall always be observed toward the Indians. The United States told the Native Americans, with this document, that they were dealing with a just and humane country. Despite these humane intentions, in 1790, Native Americans pleaded with President Washington about the cruel treatment they were receiving. The Indian chiefs wrote to Washington to inquire as to why they were being punished. They referred to the American army as the town destroyer. Obviously the Untied States was not acting in the good hearted manner and just way it had declared it would in 1787. Americans, as they moved westward, tried to rationalize its brutal treatment of the Native Americans. In 1803, Jefferson set two goals in regard to dealing with the Native Americans. His first goal was to convince them to abandon hunting and become educated in the ways of the white man (i.e. agriculture or raising stock). He said that they would see the advantages of this better life. In reality, Jackson wanted to control the amount of land the Native Americans occupied. He also spoke of leading them to civilization and to the benefits of the United States government. Jefferson presented these goals as being advantageous for them. In actuality, these goals put the Native Americans at a sizable disadvantage. In 1811, an Indian chief explained that, by being forced to sell their lands, they could not survive. They would be thrust upon a land where they did not know the terrain, the people that had already occupied it, or even where to find shelter and food. He explained that they could not be expected to just give up their land and way of life for the advancing of the white people.

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    President Jefferson and President Jackson recklessly occupied the Indians’ lands for cotton production and their people as costless labor for plantation. Regarding them as livestock and property, the white community did not feel guilty of depriving the native Indians’ rights to be equal men, and even traded them as cheap slave labors for their lucrative cotton business. In order to fight for freedom and equal rights, the native Indians especially the Creeks acted like “savage bloodhounds” and “blood thirsty barbarians” (80). Believing that Indians were unable to coexist with the white community because they were subordinate to the white, President Jackson commanded his American troops to kill these brutal Indians and to “cut off their noses for body count” (80). While carrying out these massacres, he never realized that his immoral and racially discriminated deeds actually conflicted with the all men equal principle he declared as the foundation of establishing the United States of America. Instead, he considered the brutal slaughters a progress and advance of American civilization (82). Later, President Jackson eventually decided to relocate the native Indians to a place west of Mississippi rather than to continue killing them. During the Indian removal, President Jackson pretended he was the

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