Indian Removal Act

The Rationale and Impact of President Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830

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The Rationale and Impact of President Jackson’s Indian Removal Act of 1830

In 1830, the Indian Removal Act was signed into law, officially marking the beginning of recognizing Native Americans' legal and political rights in the United States. In the aftermath of a spirited debate in the public, lawmakers agreed to withdraw President Andrew Jackson's approval for the act. A result of the passage of this legislation, the president was given the authority to trade attractive state-border property in the Southeast for uninhabited western prairie region that would be given to Indian tribes. It was signed into law by President Andrew Jackson at the end of May 1830 in Washington, DC. This enabled him to award western land that belonged to native Indians within current state borders west of the Mississippi in in place of Indian land in what in the present constitute state boundaries east of the Mississippi. By the mid-1820s, it was becoming clear and evident that even peace-loving native Indians would not be accepted by the white man to remain in the east as a result of the increasing colonization of the territory east of the Mississippi River.

The Indian Removal Act of 1830, that brought about this new course of action, was sponsored by President Andrew Jackson (1829–37), who served as president from 1829 to 1837. Trouble was triggered by the United States use of force to compel the Native American tribes to agree to the land swap and move to the west, despite the fact that the existing laws permitted only negotiations and not force with tribes east of the Mississippi River and compensation in terms of payments for their lost lands. In spite of the fact that a few of the native tribes peacefully relocated, the vast majority refused to accept the proposal. Between autumn and winter seasons of 1838 and 1839, the natives were forcibly removed and relocated westward by the United States government. This forceful relocation claimed the lives of over 4,000 native and this came to be called the "Trail of Tears" (Rečlová, 2019).

President Andrew Jackson claimed in 1832 that the Supreme Court's decisions would fail or be born still if no one intended to carry them out, which he certainly did not intend to do in the case of the Jackson administration. Native American territory was a topic of major concern to the southern states throughout the Civil War. During his speech, Jackson declared that the southern barrier would be bolstered to an unfathomable degree. It is anticipated that the removal of Indians from Alabama and Mississippi will allow these eastern states to accelerate their economic and political growth and development and increase their populations.

More than half a million acres of Native American lands were made available for European colonization as a result of President Jackson's Indian Removal Act. The loss of cultural identity for Native Americans resulted as a result of this, as they relied on their lands to serve as burial grounds for ancestors and sacred sites for religious ceremonies (Valentine, 2018). Taking away the native Indians’ land deprived them of their cultural identity, its sense of self and mission.

Under the Indian Removal Act of 1830, president Jackson was given authority on negotiations with Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River in order to secure their deportation. To win territory west of the Mississippi, it was necessary for the Indians to cede their land east of the river in exchange for gaining territory west of the river. The citizenship of their native country will be granted to those who desire to remain in the east. According to the conditions of the Act, Indian tribes who consented to abandon their ancestral territory could be allocated land west of the Mississippi River if they agreed to do so. Indian tribes were driven out of the eastern United States as a result of acts like this one, which allowed Jackson's government to trade them for territory west of the Mississippi River (Treuer, 2020). Despite Jackson's assurances that Native Americans would leave on their own volition, it approved monies for military-led forced evacuation of Native Americans. 

A key item of legislation passed at Jackson's direction during his eight years as president was the tragic relocation of native Indians from their ancestral territories in the Southern states to areas of western Mississippi River, which took place in 1830. A just and liberal attitude toward Indians within the confines of the US was always a main concern President Jackson grappled with as he believed that treating native Indians with respect, as well as the American government and its people, was in the best interests of the American people.

President Jackson argued that if the native tribes did not leave the east voluntarily, then they would be forced to comply with state legislation because according to him, the Indian removal Act had the backing of Congress although some members of Congress who were in the minority such as Davy Crockett, argued that Jackson had broken the law by refusing to enforce treaties protecting Indian land rights. Despite also the fact that the US government had agreed to reimburse the natives for the property they would have to give up, Jackson refused to pay them until they moved to the West (Hamen, 2019). The president instituted the use of force in removing the native Indians despite the fact that the departure was supposed to be voluntary at least according to the Act. 

In 1832, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Worcester v. Georgia that Jackson had been wrong in enforcing forceful removal of native Indians with the Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall arguing that it was Congress and not states that had the authority to enact legislation affecting Indian tribes. President Jackson declined to enforce this natives’ legal victory and the Southern governments also ignored it. The Indian Removal Act violated the principles of the constitution and was unjustified since there was no legislation stating that White Americans could relocate Native Americans forcefully further west. It is thus right to conclude that the white Americans broke the Constitution.

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References

Hamen, S. E. (2019). The Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears. Weigl Publishers.

Library of Congress. (n.d.-b). Of debates in Congress (Clay’s debate of the American system in 1832). https://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llrd&fileName=011/llrd011.db&recNum=132

Our Documents. (n.d.). Transcript of President Andrew Jackson's message to Congress 'On Indian removal' (1830). https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=25&page=transcript

Rečlová, Z. (2019). The Trail of Tears: Indian Removal in the 1830s.

Treuer, D. (2020). This Land Is Not Your Land: The Ethnic Cleansing of Native Americans. Foreign Aff., 99, 171.

Valentine, A. (2018). Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act of 1830 personal agenda or territorial expansion.