Indian Removal Primary Source Document and Questions
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Comments are due March 09, 2016 15:00
Indian Removal
In 1830 President Andrew Jackson delivered a message to Congress describing his plans for removing Native Americans from their lands by forcing them west to an area beyond the Mississippi River. Here is a portion of his speech on December 6, 1830.
The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to individual states, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary (monetary) advantages which it promises to the government are the least of its recommendations. It puts an end to all possible danger of collision between the authorities of the general and state governments on account of the Indians. It will place a dense and civilized population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters. By opening the whole territory between Tennessee on the north and Louisiana on the south to the settlement of the whites it will incalculably (great or numerous) strengthen the southwestern frontier and render the adjacent states strong enough to repel future invasions without remote aid. It will relieve the whole state of Mississippi and the western part of Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those states to advance rapidly in population, wealth, and power.
It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the states; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions; will retard the progress of decay, which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community. These consequences, some of them so certain and the rest so probable, to make the complete execution of the plan sanctioned by Congress at their last session an object of much solicitude (concern and consideration).
Answer the following questions:
1. What does President Jackson state is the best reason for the removal of Native Americans?
2. How will the Native Americans benefit from this plan, according to Jackson?
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