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Andrew Jackson's 'Sharp Knife'

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Andrew Jackson, The "Sharp Knife" When we look back into history, we are now able to fully comprehend the atrocities the Indians faced at the hands of the historic general and President, Andrew Jackson. It can be seen as one of the most shameful and unjust series of political actions taken by an American government. However, as an American living almost 200 years later, it is crucial to look at the motives possessed by Andrew Jackson, and ask whether he fully comprehended the repercussions of his actions or if is was simply ignorant to what he was subjection the natives to. We must also consider weather he truly had the countries best interest in mind, or his own. We can begin to see Jackson's vigilante style leadership following …show more content…

However, despite the knowledge that the Natives were in alliance with our countries enemies, there were still those who saw Jackson as a vicious killer and brutal vigilante. Even though these historical events took place nearly 200 years ago, several of the same problems faced with modern America also plagued the country during the 1800's. One major dilemma faced during Jackson's time was the divided country. Once Jackson takes office in 1829, almost immediately he begins a crusade to expel the Indians out of white inhabited eastern lands. Despite his belief that there is no conceivable way for the Natives and settlers to ever live together and coexist in the same community, he does seem to show awareness and what appears to be remorse towards the Indians and what they have been subjected to. In his First Annual Message on December 8, 1829 Jackson states to the Senate and of the House of Representatives: "Their (Natives) present condition, contrasted with what they once were, makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies…By persuasion and force they have been made to retire from river to river and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct and others have left but remnants to preserve for a while their once terrible names. Surrounded by the whites with their arts of civilization, which by destroying the resources of the savage doom him to

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