fieldston american reader volume i – fall 2007 - Ethical Culture ...

Worcester v. Georgia and refused to enforce it, saying, “Mr.Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it.,, In theend, the Cherokee were removed by gun point to the IndianTerritory of Oklahoma. Thousands of Cherokee died in transit;the event is now known as the Trial of Tears.As you read Jackson’s statement on Indian Removal, thinkabout why Jackson favored permitting Georgia to remove theCherokee. In what sense was Jackson’s stance consistent withthe ideology of his Democratic Party?As a means of effecting this end I suggest... setting apart anample district west of the Mississippi, and without the limitsof any State or Territory now formed, to be guaranteed tothe Indian tribes as long as they shall occupy it.... There thebenevolent may endeavor to teach them the arts of civilization,and by promoting union and harmony among them... attest tothe humanity and justice of this government.”The condition and ulterior design of the Indian tribes withinsome of our States have become objects of much interest andimportance.... Professing a desire to civilize and settle themwe have, at the same time lost no opportunity to purchasetheir lands and thrust them farther into the wilderness. Bythis means they have not only been kept in a wandering state,but led to look upon us as unjust and indifferent to their fate.[Thus), government has constantly defeated its own policy...[and the Indians) have retained their savage habits.... [Some]states claiming to be the only sovereigns within their territories,extended their laws over the Indians, which induced the latterto call upon the United States for their protection....Georgia became a member of the confederacy which eventuatedin our Federal Union as a sovereign State, always asserting herclaim to certain limits,... was admitted to the Union on thesame footing as the original States. There is no constitutional,conventional or legal provision which allows them less powerover the Indians within their borders than is possessed byMaine or New York. Would the people of Maine permit thePenobscot tribe to erect an independent government withintheir State? Could the Indians establish a separate republic [inOhio]? And if they were so disposed would it be the duty ofthe [federal] government to protect them in their attempt? Ifthe principle involved in the obvious answer to this question beabandoned, it would follow that the objects of this governmentare reversed, and it has become part of its duty to aid indestroying the States which it was established to protect....Our conduct towards these people is deeply interesting toour national character. Their present condition... makes amost powerful appeal to our sympathies... Surrounded bythe whites with their arts of civilization, which by destroyingthe resources of the savage doom him to weakness and decay..This fate surely awaits them if they remain within the limitsof the States.... Humanity and national honor demand thatevery effort should be made to avert so great a calamity. Astate cannot be dismembered by Congress or restricted in theexercise of her constitutional power.... The people of thoseStates and of every State, actuated by feelings of justice anda regard for our national honor, submit to you the interestingquestion whether something cannot be done, consistent withthe rights of the States, to preserve this much-injured race.243