4.8 Jackson and Federal Power

“He [Jackson] believed that removal was the Indians’ only salvation against certain extinction. . . .

Not that the President was motivated by concerns for the Indians . . . . Andrew Jackson was motivated principally by two considerations: first . . . military safety . . . that Indians must not occupy areas that might jeopardize the defense of this nation; and second, . . . the principle that all persons residing within states are subject to the jurisdiction and laws of those states. . . .

Would it have been worse had the Indians remained in the East? Jackson thought so. He said that they would ‘disappear and be forgotten.’ One thing does seem certain: the Indians would have been forced to yield to state laws and white society. Indian Nations per se would have been obliterated.”

“The Georgia legislature passed a law extending the state’s jurisdiction . . . over the Cherokees living within the state.

Georgia’s action forced the President’s hand. He must see to it that a removal policy long covertly pursued by the White House would now be enacted into law by Congress. . . .

Jackson as usual spoke publicly in a tone of friendship and concern for Indian welfare. . . . He, as President, could be their friend only if they removed beyond the Mississippi, where they should have a ‘land of their own, which they shall possess as long as Grass grows or water runs . . . .’

A harsh policy was nevertheless quickly put in place.

It is abundantly clear that Jackson and his administration were determined to permit the extension of state sovereignty because it would result in the harassment of Indians, powerless to resist, by speculators and intruders hungry for Indian land.”