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Indian Removal Dbq

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From George Washington, America’s first president, to Benjamin Franklin, the discoverer of electricity, America’s most esteemed and important presidents and figures grace its dollar bills. Today’s twenty-dollar bill depicts a profile of Andrew Jackson, the controversial seventh president of the United States of America. Jackson’s upbringing in a lower class western family significantly differed from the upbringing and social class of his preceding presidents resulting in new ideas and perspectives from the oval office. Many of Jackson’s decisions and policies had roots in prejudice and racism, instead of factual justification, such as the Indian Removal Act. Furthermore, Jackson, in pursuit of achieving his goals of Indian removal, neglected …show more content…

Growing up in the west, Jackson “fought Indians as a militia officer” (Tindall 331) and considered the removal of Indians his primary presidential priority (Tindall 333). In his statement regarding the Indian Removal Act of 1830, he argues that removal is necessary as it “puts an end to all possible danger of collision” between Indian tribes and the American slaves and reasons that removing Indians could potential lead to Indians “cast[ing] off their savage habits and becom[ing]n interesting, civilized, and Christian community” (Jackson). The basis of this argument relies entirely on whether the Indians were a savage and uncivilized community that posed a direct threat to the American government. Primarily, Dale Van Every, an American writer, argues that the “forces that led to removal did not come ... from the poor white frontiersmen who were the neighbors of the Indians. They came from industrialization … and the greed of businessmen” (Zinn 136). The tribes, therefore, did not pose threats to neighboring Americans but were rather simply an obstacle to the rapidly expanding American. Secondarily, many Native American tribes had actually become increasingly civilized (or increasingly American) by the passing of the act. A good example of a Native American tribe whose advancements were discredited by biased …show more content…

The system of checks and balances represents the foundation for the American democracy as it ensures that no one branch of the American government can become too powerful. During the Jackson administration, an important ruling from the Supreme Court was released in the historic case of Worcester v. Georgia (1832). In this case, two missionaries were appealing their arrest for protesting the state of Georgia’s legal encroachment on Cherokee law and land (Tindall 344). Chief Justice John Marshall found that the Cherokee nation was “a distinct political community” (Marshall qtd. in Tindall 344) and therefore not subject to Georgia law. Marshall’s ordered that Worcester, one of the arrested missionaries, must be released from Georgia prison, however, Georgia refused to release him. President Jackson, who wanted to decrease the federal bureaucracy and emphasize state’s power, decided to not enforce the Supreme Court’s verdict by stating that “he had no authority to intervene in Georgia” (Tindall 345). This, of course, is untrue as the federal government represents the “supreme law of the land” as dictated by the US constitution (United States of America). Jackson, however, refuses to take this up this responsibility and neglects his constitutional rights and duties and

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