Andrew Jackson's Indian Policies: Unbridled Aggression or Pragmatic Solution?
"It seems not to be an established fact that they can not live in contact with a civilized community and prosper." Andrew Jackson believed that Indians were savages, incapable of any "civilized" intercommunication between themselves and whites. Through this belief Jackson declared that Indians need not be in contact with white settlers. Throughout Jackson's life he had fought Indians, beginning with his campaign against the Northern Creek Indians of Alabama and Georgia. He led the Tennessee militia to fight Seminoles in Florida in a war known as the "First Seminole War" just seven years before his election into the presidency . Jackson's land policies, which he wrote out in the form of ordinances and acts took land away from Indians. The only reason why many Indians accepted the terms of Jackson's land policies was because of his skillful rhetoric and good speaking skills, as well as the Indian's disorganization in terms of making highly influential decisions. Jackson's land policies eventually only benefited whites, in the form of taking all land from Indians, rendering his policies unfair to the Indians who signed them. Andrew Jackson, who had been fighting Indians for all his life,
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expressed his aggressive attitude towards them through land policies that were unfair and destructive to their societies.
Jackson's aggressions towards the Indians began long before his presidency. The beginning of his military career took place in the Tennessee militia, which, during Jackson's time, battled and killed many Indians. He was the colonel of the Tennessee militia at the beginning of his military career. Jackson commanded the campaign against the Northern Creek Indians of Alabama and Georgia, also known as the "Red Sticks." In 1813, Northern Creek Band chieftain Peter McQueen massacred 400 men, women, and children at Fort Mims (in what is now Alabama). Jackson led the campaign against these "Red Stick" Indians, with a fierce disgust and hatred toward them. Jackson conveyed his outright hatred to William Meadows before launching his attack on the "Red Sticks",
These horrid scenes bring fresh to our recollection the influence during the Revolutionary War that raised the scalping knife and tomahawk against our innocent women and children
The blood of our innocent citizens must not flow with impunity. Justice forbids it
and a final check [is needed] of these hostile murdering Creeks.
When Jackson was within un-settled Indian territory he had the intuition that Indians were always around him, waiting for the perfect opportunity to fight him when he least expected.
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.
Born March 15, 1767 on the Carolina frontier, Andrew Jackson would eventually rise from poverty to politics after the War of 1812 where he earned national fame as a military hero. Jackson won the popular vote in the 1829 election and became the seventh United States President. As President, Jackson sought out to be a representative of the common man. Jackson remarks in his veto message of July 10, 1832 that, “It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.” Andrew Jackson put in place the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This act forced Natives off their homelands and onto the lands west of the Mississippi River. They encountered a journey, called the Trail of Tears, where they traveled by foot to what would be their new homes, which transformed the lives of thousands of Native Americans. The President’s intentions were to move all Natives west of the Mississippi River to open up the land to American settlers.
Andrew Jackson is often referred to as one of America’s greatest presidents. Yet, evaluating his presidency has proven to be a problematic undertaking. Weighing his accomplishments against his tribulations is often conflicting. Having written three volumes and six novels on the life and presidency of Andrew Jackson, Robert V. Remini (1921-1913) is regarded as a Jacksonian authority. In Andrew Jackson & His Indian Wars (2001), Robert V. Remini unearths many of the atrocities committed against Native Americans by Jackson. Remini argues that Jackson’s experience and sentiment towards natives aided his ascension of the military and political ladders.
Picture being kicked out of your home that you grew up in and wanted to raise your children in, how would you feel? Imagine the fury and the sadness that would be running through your veins. This is how the Native Americans felt in 1830 when Andrew Jackson came up with the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act and the events leading up to it is a direct violation of the constitution. It is unconstitutional because the Natives had to convert their way of life to “stay” on their own land and then forced them off their tribal land. Jackson was a power hungry man who believed that anything he said everyone had to abide by, especially the Indian Removal Act.
President Andrew Jackson was a very controversial man. At times, he fights for the common man with a clear head and a sharp mouth, but at others, his rage blinds him from what is truly happening around him. Nevertheless, he fought valiantly for keeping the Union together and for the ordinary citizen's rights as an American. The "black mark" of his presidency was the forced relocation of Native American peoples, from lands which they had live for many generations. Andrew Jackson was a living oxymoron. As James Patron wrote in Jackson's biography, Jackson was "the most law-defying, law-obeying citizen. A stickler for discipline, he never hesitated to disobey his superior."
affirmed war hero, Jackson enjoyed the privileges that accompanied such a stigma, such as being able to act independently without the fear of political repercussion. "Old Hickory" as he was dubbed due to his toughness and strict sense of discipline, had a vision of America, and the Indians did not necessarily have a role in that vision. In 1814, Jackson waged war against the Creek Indians, who were not only a "threat to the...
John Marshall ruled that Georgia’s seizure of Indian lands was unconstitutional in 1832, and the federal government had treaty obligations to protect the Indians, though Jackson refused to act on the ruling. Jackson urged Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act of 1830. This law was to negotiate a peaceful exchange of Indian lands in the south for new lands in the “Indian Territory,” which is now Oklahoma. The Choctaws and Chickasaws agreed to accept lands in the West, but many other groups resisted relocation, and this resisting caused violent conflicts. The United States military removed the Creeks from their lands, and the Seminoles fought the Second Seminole War, which ended with U.S. troops forcing most of them away from Florida. After this, troops forced more than 15,000 Cherokees to travel from the Southeast to Oklahoma. Many died of disease, exposure and hunger. “The name of the route they followed is known as the “trail of Tears,” which comes from the Cherokee nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi, for the “trail where they cried” (history
Remini says, “William Weatherhead, known as Chief Red Eagle led the attack---and with it commenced the Creek War that finally placed Jackson on the road to national fame… Red Eagle, leader of the militant Red Sticks, a faction of the Creek Nation… the Red Sticks actively pursuing policy against white settlers. Thus, it needs to be remembered that from start to finish the Creek War, as it developed, was essentially an Indian Civil War. And most important of all, that it was General Andrew Jackson who took supreme advantage of this internal strife and used it to advance the interest of his country. It is with this information that we see that we see Andrew Jackson as the aggressor of the continuation friction of the Creek Nation. The purpose of this was to divide and conquer
Jackson remained in the military after the war. Late in 1817,he received orders to subdue the Seminole Native Americans, who were raiding across the border from Spanish Florida itself. He captured its bastions at St. Marks Pensacola and arrested, tried, and executed two British nationalists whom he charged with abetting the Native Americans.
In 1829 Andrew Jackson wrote a message to congress discussing the problem with the Indians living within the states. He said that they were either to live by the laws of the state or they would move them somewhere else by force. When they put this into place they offered the Indians free land and happiness. The trip to their new homes which was in Kansas was long and hard. Many people died on the trip to Kansas and once they got to their new homes it was cramped and a desert land which was what Lewis and Clark called it when they visited Kansas before the Indians came. The good thing was that even though they didn’t know at first Kansas had really rich soil which
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.
Towards the beginning of “Old Hickory’s War” Calhoun describes his issues with Andrew Jackson’s appointment to power. Calhoun mentions two problems with Jackson, he was worried about Jackson due to his previous disobedience to orders by the commander of the Northern Division, Major General Jacob Brown. These two in no way got along or worked well together, Jackson constantly disobeyed
Although the Declaration of Independence represents a milestone in American history, in 1776 this event was only significant for the white men who had taken over the lands of the New World. The reason why it was written that “all men are created equal” was because the founding fathers had a narrow definition of who qualified as a human, considering that Native Americans are addressed in this document as “merciless Indian savages.” This was further proved by Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830, which forcefully removed Native tribes from their ancestral homes. Despite the efforts of the Indian tribes to fight Jackson’s removal policy, and even if the government had proposed a less cruel and fairer plan to make use of the Indian lands, the core issue remained on the moral excuse used by Jackson and the government to justify the dehumanization of Indians and the forced appropriation of
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
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...