Andrew Jackson's Case

Settlers coming to the "new world" only hoped to come to a better place, whether their reason was to obtain land or for religious freedom. Little did they know that Native Americans who have been living there for years already occupied land. As only a few of the settlers may have treated them with respect, almost all settlers attempted, and succeeded, to run them off their own homes and property. Among the many that succeeded with this removal of human beings was President Andrew Jackson, greatly known as a "war hero" and as a president who defended the interests of ordinary Americans. Being President, you should not forget the principles and freedom rights that the "fore fathers" fought and secured for Americans; a major one being independence rights. Therefore, Andrew Jackson was wrong on his part for forbidding these rights to Indians by empowering several Indian removal acts.

Before dying, Andrew Jackson's mother left him a piece of advice. She said to him, "Never tell a lie, nor take what is not your own, nor sue anybody for slander or assault... (93)". During his presidency, Jackson went against what his mother said and played an elaborate and conclusive role in the removal of Indians on their land. He had two "legal" methods that would possibly have the Indians move out past the Mississippi states. There was an indirect through the land allotment program and direct removal through treaty,

The land allotment program provided land to individual Indians. Then, once a land owner, an Indian can be "reduced" to citizenship or they can sell the land and move out west of the Mississippi river. This was Jackson's indirect way of extracting Indians. The Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was for the Choctaw families to be registered with an agent in order to receive a grant of land if they wished to stay in the state of Mississippi. They were mostly forced to accept these grants only to have speculators take their "property". This program also enabled farmers and planters to legally take Indians land and were not held responsible if the Indians got into debt and lose their land and property. This indirect way failed and was not right considering that President Jackson made it seem as if he was siding with them by "offering" and "giving" them land.

Jackson's next attempt was through the treaty method. It was used against the Cherokee tribe. The Treaty of New Echota stated that if the Cherokees ceded their entire eastern territory and moved beyond the Mississippi, they would receive 4.5 million dollars in return. It was signed in Washington on March 14th and had to be ratified by the tribe in full council in order for it to be effective. In the meantime, the militia in Georgia subdued the Cherokee newspaper which forbidden many members of the tribe to hear about this meeting in order to ratify the treaty. Reverend Schermerhorn

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