1) During Andrew Jackson’s presidency, one of the major issues that arose was the removal of Indians from the east and relocating them to the west of the Mississippi River. The greed for land increased among settlers in the southern states as they demanded for Indian land for the cultivation of cotton. Tensions arose between the settlers and the Indians up to the point of violence. Davey Crockett, a white settler and a writer in the 19th century, wrote about the “Indian character” in his narrative, where he gives an account of the Indian raid on Fort Mims and the massacre of white settlers. Crockett’s description of the raid gives the Indian a title of savages and blood-thirsty. He narrates that “Indians came in a troop, loaded with rails… They immediately commenced scalping, without regard to age or sex, having forced the inhabitants up to one side of the fort, where they carried on the work of death as a butcher would in a slaughter pen”. This description compares the Indians to a butcher in a slaughterhouse, where they continuously beheaded every settler in the area, regardless of age or gender. It gives an idea of how the settlers saw these Indians as inhumane in their killing. Later in his account, he gives several other instances where the Indians they had in alliance had scalped two Indians who were in the opposition. He states “When we reached them, they had cut off the heads of both the Indians; and each of those Indians with us would walk up to one of the heads, and taking his war cub would strike on it”. This description further shows the blood-thirsty and savage characteristics of the Indians.
Andrew Jackson, the president of the United States at the time, was also a white settler who believed in Indian removal. In his speech to Congress on Indian removal, he refers to them as “savage hunters” and “red men”. Jackson viewed the Indians as uncivilized and believed that their presence in the east will delay the progress of liberty,
civilization and religion. This description is representative of what most white settlers thought about the Indians.
According to Andrew Jackson’s address to the Cherokee and Creek Nations in 1814, he tells the Indians to “yield as much of [their] land as will pay [the] sum”. Jackson believed the Indians to be fully responsible for paying off the cost it took the United States to go to war with the Indians. The payment method was for the Indians to give up twenty-three million acres of land and move to the west. Just as Davey Crockett describes Indians as savages, uncivilized, and blood-thirsty, Jackson repeatedly refers to the Indians as savages and in his speech to Congress, states that it is best for the Indians to take their uncivilized behavior to the west.
2) In his letter to Martin Van Buren, Ralph Waldo Emerson, a respected and recognized writer of the 19th century, sympathized with the Cherokee Indians and displayed his views in regards to the future of indigenous Americans. As opposed to Andrew Jackson, Emerson did not believe the Indians to be savages but rather neighbors and brothers of the settlers. In his speech to Congress on Indian removal, Jackson claims the Indians to be uncivilized savages occupying land that can be used for civilization to prosper, where farms can be established, improvements to the arts and industry can be made, and where happy individuals can enjoy their liberty civilization and religion. His intent is to remove the Indians from these lands in order for progress to be made. In opposition, Emerson believes that the Indians did not display acts of savageness and had civility in their nature. In his letter to Van Buren, Emerson states “Even in our distant State some good rumor of their worth and civility has arrived. We have learned with joy their
improvement in social arts. We have read their newspapers. We have seen some of them in our schools and colleges.” Emerson believes that the Indians have assimilated to American culture and are just as civil as the settlers are. He insisted that their future is not in the west, but in their current land with the settlers.
In his letter, Emerson also focuses on the importance of the Indian’s connection to their past on their land, as opposed to Jackson who believed the Indians should be content with leaving their land and finding a new home. In his speech to Congress, Jackson claims that settling in new land that is provided by the government and all expenses paid should be a joyous event for the Indians. He does acknowledge that it will be painful to leave the graves of their forefathers behind but it is not rational to be weeping over such issue. Emerson in opposition believed that one can never forget the influence nature had where one is born and bred. He believed that the Indians belonged in their current land because they had a strong connection to it and their past there.
In his letter to Van Buren, Emerson also questions the morality of the government and the lack of justice provided to the Indians. He directly challenges the government by asking “Will the American government steal? Will it lie? Will it kill?”. Emerson asks the government if it has any morals and is so how will it let this injustice fall upon the Indians and force the to leave their lands. Jackson, on the other hand believed that it was necessary and morally right to remove the Indians from the land. He followed the idea that the Indians were not owners of the land but rather only had the “right to occupancy”.
3) The re-chartering of the National Bank of the United States during the market revolution was against the ideals of Andrew Jackson. Jackson, being a man in favor of limited
federal power, believed that having a national bank gave too much power to the government. In his Bank Veto message, Jackson states “some of the powers and privileges possessed by the existing bank are unauthorized by the Constitution, subversive of the rights of the States, and dangerous to the liberties of the people”. He believed that the creation of the bank was unconstitutional because it was an elitist institution that favored only the rich at the expense of the “humble members of society”, which were the farmers, mechanics, and laborers. In his first inaugural address, Jackson stated some of his objectives as a president, of which eliminating the national debt and reforming the Bank of the United States were major ones.
4) The Tariff of 1824 taxed manufactured imports and sought to help boost of the American economy. This tariff made cheaper imports from Britain more expensive in order to protect and encourage American manufacturing. Through the tariff, Henry Clay hoped to gain a source of revenue for the federal government in order to make internal improvements. Also, the experience of the War of 1812 made it necessary for the issuing of this tariff. In his Speech on the Tariff, Clay states “Other and animating considerations invite us to adopt the policy of this system. Its importance, in connexion with the general defence in time of war, cannot fail to be duly estimated. Need I recal to our painful recollection the sufferings, for the want of an adequate supply of absolute necessaries, to which the defenders of their country’s rights and out entire population were subjected during the late war [the War of 1812]?”. This was a key argument in imposing the tariff and Clay states remembers that the United States economy was not
large enough to fight the War of 1812. The nation needed the money to produce whatever was needed in times of war and imposing this tariff was a means to help finance that.