Indian Removal Dbq

The election separated the nation in half and also urged 7 states including South Carolina seceded from United States. From then on, the pro-slavery and anti-slavery were officially against each other, which soon gave rise to the Civil War. In conclusion, the issue of slavery precipitated the Civil War. Uncle Tom’s Cabin gave a strong social effect on opposing slavery, the Kansas-Nebraska Act was the prelude of the Civil War, and the Election of 1860 splitted the nation into two sides, which directly led to the War.

Throughout the 19th century Native Americans were treated far less than respectful by the United States’ government. This was the time when the United States wanted to expand and grow rapidly as a land, and to achieve this goal, the Native Americans were “pushed” westward. It was a memorable and tricky time in the Natives’ history, and the US government made many treatments with the Native Americans, making big changes on the Indian nation. Native Americans wanted to live peacefully with the white men, but the result of treatments and agreements was not quite peaceful. This precedent of mistreatment of minorities began with Andrew Jackson’s indian removal policies to the tribes of Oklahoma (specifically the Cherokee indians) in 1829 because of the lack of respect given to the indians during the removal laws.

In some of the state government has passed laws saying to limit Native Americans rights, territory, power, and authority. In the U.S. Supreme Court, they rejected the laws that limited Native American rights. The harshness still continued especially from the President Andrew Jackson. President Andrew Jackson spoke out on he called the “Native American Removal.” He was an Army general.

To steer away from this, an agreement was made. This agreement was called the Compromise of 1877. This compromise permitted Hayes the presidency, but there was a catch in it. In order for Hayes to have the presidency he would have to remove the Federal soldiers from the south, Hayes agreed (Background Essay paragraphs 4-5). This was a big mistake.

This document written by the government of South Carolina is justifying their succession from the Union. Their reasoning was that the northern states have denied the rights of property which were established in the United States Constitution. The government of South Carolina viewed Lincoln as a threat to slavery, this is evident when they said “ … All the states north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery.” (Doc 7). This also shows extremism as South Carolina did secede from the union, justifying it.

This was because gold was found on Cherokee land in Georgia, and American citizens needed more places to live, expanding our territories further south. However, someone got in the way: a man named Samuel Worcester allied himself with the Cherokee Indians and sued the state of Georgia in 1832. This led to the Worcester v. Georgia Supreme Court case. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in favor of the Indians, stopping the removal, but Jackson didn’t listen, disobeying the Judge’s orders. For someone or something to be unconstitutional, it must first be judged by the Supreme Court.

The northerner had been a loud voice against the slavery that took place (mostly) in the south and with him winning the election, there was a lot of opposition from slavery-advocates. Lincoln was against slavery and with the possibility of his end-goal being the abolishment of slavery seven states where already done leaving the union before Lincoln had taken his place in the Oval Office. The Confederate states of America had been formed and it was composed of the pro-slavery states in the south. However, even though people in the north believed that the

Jackson planned on moving Native Americans west of the Mississippi River, to maintain the land many Native Americans called home. At first, Jackson proposed treaties to the Native Americans hoping for them to sign so he could deviously take their land. One of Jackson’s known tactics is lying, which he happened to do in this case, where he promised Native Americans that by moving west the were insuring a safe future. Conclusively, the Native Americans refused to sign the treaty as stated in Andrew Jackson and the Constitution, “Ultimately, he forcibly removed a number of tribes, most notoriously the Cherokee, from their homes.” (gilderlehrman.org) Numerous amounts of Native Americans were killed from their removal, this incident was known as the Trail of Tears.

The American Civil War The background and causes. the main cause of the civil war was the that seven states (South Carolina, the Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas) that have declared their secession from the USA and the prime reason for that secession was slavery as the Southern anger at the attempts by Northern antislavery political forces to stop the expansion of slavery into the western lands .although some authors said that the main cause of the civil war was the states right 's in the meaning of The Southern states wanted to make sure on their authority so that they could cancel the federal laws they didn 't support. But this may be the second cause not the prime cause because all the historians agreed that the main cause of the civil war was the slavery.

The conflict between the Americans and the Natives for the Native’s lands caused the government to created an Act to move the Natives. This compromise was the Indian Removal Act, “An Act to provide for an exchange of lands with the Indians residing in any of the states or territories and for their removals west of the river Mississippi” (United). The Act was passed on May 30, 1830 (Removal), and moved the Natives’ across the country from Georgia to Oklahoma (adamelhamouden). The Removal Act was for all Indians, but there were many other treaties that the government used to move the Natives. The Cherokees used the Treaty of New Echota.

Contrary to popular belief, Thomas Jefferson was the one who proposed the idea of the Indian Removal Act. The proposal was made when native tribes refused to integrate and adapt to American lifestyle (assimilation). In fact, Jefferson stated, “if we are constrained to lift the hatchet against any tribe, we will never lay it down until that tribe is exterminated, or driven beyond the Mississippi.” As president, Jefferson made an agreement with Georgia to relinquish their claim of land in the west in return that the United States army would force the Cherokee from Georgia. However, the agreement was demolished because the United States had formed a treaty with the Cherokee granting them the right to their lands.

This was a very controversial event that many people opposed. The law required that Natives not be forced to leave their lands; however, President Andrew Jackson, who had signed the Act into law, often ignored this, and took Native land by force. Native Americans were relocated to land west of the Mississippi that the United States had gotten in the Louisiana Purchase (History.com, 2009). The Choctaw nation was the first to be forced from its land. These Natives travelled on foot to their new lands, on what was later called the “Trail of Tears”.

When Abraham Lincoln became President there was a fear from the southerners that the southern way of life would end. The southerners thought that if the western territories became free states that the Republicans would change the Constitution and make slavery in all areas outlawed and many thought that they would leave the Union before this inflicted upon them. The southerners held back from the division until 1860 when Lincoln became President. In history it is known that South Carolina was the first state that began the secession. “On December 20, 1860, a state convention repealed South Carolina’s ratification of the U.S. Constitution and voted to withdraw from the Union.

The reelection of President Andrew Jackson left the opponents of removal uneasy and they began to reevaluate their positions. Organized by Major Ridge along with his son John Ridge, his nephews Elias Boudinot and Stand Watie, they became known as the “Ridge Party”, or as the “Treaty Party”. This party believed that the Cherokee had a better chance of literal and cultural survival if they, “…get favorable terms from the U.S. government, before white squatters, state governments, and violence made matters worse,” (Wilkins, 1986). However, the majority of the people were still loyal to John Ross, Chief of the Cherokee Nation, and what would be known as the “National Party” fighting to remain an independent nation. Ross fiercely opposed the idea of relocation and sought to find peaceful avenues of disagreement.

In 1830, just a year after taking office, Jackson pushed a new piece of legislation called the "Indian Removal Act" through both houses of Congress. It gave the president power to negotiate removal treaties with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi. Under these treaties, the Indians were to give up their lands east of the Mississippi in exchange for lands to the west. Those wishing to remain in the east would become citizens of their home state. This act affected not only the southeastern nations, but many others further north.