The Impact Of Andrew Jackson's Trail Of Tears

Before becoming president, Andrew Jackson had distinguished himself as a champion of white settlers against the American Indians. In the War of 1812, Jackson had led an offensive against the Creek nation in an attempt to clear the Mississippi Territory for white settlement, and under President James Monroe, he had participated in the First Seminole War, which devastated the Seminole tribe of Florida. By the time Jackson entered the White House, white settlers in Georgia had been complaining for some time about the continued presence of Cherokee and Creek people on the lands they wished to inhabit. These white settlers were emboldened by the election of Jackson in 1828 and revoked the constitution of the Cherokee Nation in Georgia, declaring

Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Marshall agreed that the Cherokee Nation was a distinct society but not that it was a foreign nation. In 1838 and 1839, as a major speciality of Andrew Jackson 's Indian evacuation strategy, the Cherokee country was compelled to surrender its properties east of the Mississippi River and to relocated to a territory in show day Oklahoma. The Cherokee individuals tabbed this excursion the "Trail of Tears," as a result of its overwhelming impacts.

The verbal confrontation on the bill was longed and unpleasant, for the subject of Indian evacuation touched upon various extremely intense subject matters: the established inquiry of states ' rights versus government privileges, Christian

But the actual policy of the administration was to encouraged removal by all possible means, fair or foul. Jackson as usual spoke publicly in a tone of friendship and concern for Indian welfare. In a letter of instruction to an agent who was to visit the Choctaws on October 1829 (evened before the Removal Act was passed) he outlined the message from “their father,” the President, urging them to emigrate. The threats were veiled. “They and my white children are too near each other to live in harmony and peace.” The state of Mississippi had the right to extend a burden--some jurisdiction over them, and “the general government will be obliged to sustain the States in the exercise of their right.” He, as President, could be their friend only if they removed beyond the Mississippi, where they should have a “land of their own, which they shall possess as long as Grass grows or water runs ...and I never speak with forked tongue.” A harsh policy was nevertheless; quickly put in place. To weaken the power of the chiefs, many of whom opposed removal, the traditional practice of paying annuities in a lump sum, to be used by the chiefs on behalf of the tribe for capital improvements and education, was terminated and annuities were doled out piecemeal to individual Indians. The amounts were pitifully small-each Cherokee was to