Andrew Jackson Trail Of Tears Analysis
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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 that the Indians were subjected to the laws of the state of Georgia. In 1830, the Cherokee Nation took the state of Georgia to the Supreme Court, arguing that it was an independent nation and as such, was not subjected to the authority of the state of Georgia. 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.