“In 1829, Andrew Jackson, who was called Sharp Knife by the Indians,
took office as President of the United States. During his frontier career, Sharp Knife and his
soldiers had slain thousands of Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles, but these
southern Indians were still numerous and clung stubbornly to their tribal lands, which had been
assigned them forever by white men’s treaties. In Sharp Knife’s first message to his Congress,
he recommended that all these Indians be removed westward beyond the Mississippi. ‘I suggest
the propriety of setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi . . . to be guaranteed to
the Indian tribes, as long as they shall occupy it.’
“Although enactment of such a law would only add to the long list of broken
promises made to the eastern Indians, Sharp Knife was convinced that Indians and whites
could not live together in peace
and that his plan would make possible a final promise which never would be broken again. On
May 28, 1830, Sharp Knife’s recommendations became
law. Ӡ
Andrew Jackson, or as he is more affectionately known,
“Old Hickory,” was born in Waxhaws area near the border between North and
South Carolina. He was the of son Scotch-Irish parents.
As a young man, he served as prosecuting officer for the Superior Court in Nashville, Tennessee,
(then part of the Western District of North Carolina). After Tennessee achieved
statehood in 1796, he served as congressman and then U.S. senator for one session, then
six years as a judge on the Tennessee Superior Court. He retired from the bench in 1804 and took up cotton growing and
thoroughbred horses on his plantation near Nashville.
In 1802, Jackson was elected Major General of the Tennessee militia.
In 1812, Tennessee Governor Willie Blount gave him the rank of Major General of U.S. forces.
In 1814, after the Creek campaign, he was promoted to Major General in the regular army. He
emerged a national hero from the War of 1812, primarily because of his absolute defeat of the
British at the Battle of New Orleans (8 Jan 1815). We see Jackson as the first signatory on
the 9 Aug 1814 Treaty with the Creeks and on the
8 Jul 1817 Treaty with the Cherokee.
He was involved in carrying out War Department
orders in
removing intruders from Indian lands.
Jackson led troops during the First Seminole War (1817-1818).
Jackson was praised as a symbol of the common man, a frontier hero
and a great military leader, yet he was hated by many, and feared by most who opposed him.
He was called “tough as hickory” yet some detractors called
him “murderer.”
†† -
This they claimed, for causing the execution of
six militia men during the Creek campaign.
During the First Seminole War, two
men,‡‡ one a Scottish trader among the Indians, were thought
to be involved with the Seminole. They were captured and General Jackson put them on trial before
a court martial. Both were sentenced to death. The verdict was later reduced on one of the men.
Jackson had both men executed by hanging.
When Jackson was inaugurated President on 4 Mar 1829, he inherited the federal policy
of Indian Removal. Before 1829, the federal government had concluded at least one hundred forty six
treaties‡
with the Indians. Almost all of the treaties included cessions. Most were made with the eastern woodland people
and mostly involved native homelands east of the Mississippi. Jackson had been a great supporter of Indian Removal
so it was only natural that he would continue the policy in earnest during his administration.
There is no doubt that Jackson was determined, unforgiving, uncompromising, and
strongly opinionated. It was in his administration that the final treaties were put in place to remove the
eastern Indians to west of the Mississippi River. He proved to be the right man for the job at hand, however,
one can seriously question the righteousness of the job itself.
We present here excerpts from Jackson’s annual messages to Congress
(State of the Union addresses). True, these messages were strictly for public consumption. Still,
they will take you through the closing years for eastern woodlands native peoples on their native lands. So, without
further ado, Mr. President, to the podium please:
1st Annual Message
December 8, 1829
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
... Georgia became a member of the Confederacy which eventuated in our
Federal Union as a sovereign State, always asserting her claim to certain limits,
which, having been originally defined in her colonial charter and subsequently
recognized in the treaty of peace, she has ever since continued to enjoy, except as
they have been circumscribed by her own voluntary transfer of a portion of her
territory to the United States in the articles of cession of 1802. Alabama was
admitted into the Union on the same footing with the original States, with
boundaries which were prescribed by Congress.
There is no constitutional, conventional, or legal provision which allows them
less power over the Indians within their borders than is possessed by Maine or
New York. Would the people of Maine permit the Penobscot tribe to erect an
independent government within their State? And unless they did would it not be
the duty of the General Government to support them in resisting such a
measure? Would the people of New York permit each remnant of the six Nations
within her borders to declare itself an independent people under the protection
of the United States? Could the Indians establish a separate republic on each of
their reservations in Ohio? And if they were so disposed would it be the duty of
this Government to protect them in the attempt? If the principle involved in the
obvious answer to these questions be abandoned, it will follow that the objects of
this Government are reversed, and that it has become a part of its duty to aid in
destroying the States which it was established to protect.
Actuated by this view of the subject, I informed the Indians inhabiting parts of
Georgia and Alabama that their attempt to establish an independent government
would not be countenanced by the Executive of the United States, and advised
them to emigrate beyond the Mississippi or submit to the laws of those States.
Our conduct toward these people is deeply interesting to our national character.
Their present condition, contrasted with what they once were, makes a most
powerful appeal to our sympathies. Our ancestors found them the uncontrolled
possessors of these vast regions. 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
weakness and decay, the fate of the Mohegan, the Narragansett, and the
Delaware is fast over-taking the Choctaw, the Cherokee, and the Creek. That this
fate surely awaits them if they remain within the limits of the States does not
admit of a doubt. Humanity and national honor demand that every effort should
be made to avert so great a calamity. It is too late to inquire whether it was just in
the United States to include them and their territory within the bounds of new
States, whose limits they could control. That step can not be retraced. A State can
not be dismembered by Congress or restricted in the exercise of her
constitutional power. But the people of those States and of every State,
actuated by feelings of justice and a regard for our national honor, submit to you
the interesting question whether something can not be done, consistently with
the rights of the States, to preserve this much- injured race.
As a means of effecting this end I suggest for your consideration the propriety of
setting apart an ample district west of the Mississippi, and without the limits of
any State or Territory now formed, to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes as long
as they shall occupy it, each tribe having a distinct control over the portion
designated for its use. There they may be secured in the enjoyment of
governments of their own choice, subject to no other control from the United
States than such as may be necessary to preserve peace on the frontier and
between the several tribes. There the benevolent may endeavor to teach them the
arts of civilization, and, by promoting union and harmony among them, to raise
up an interesting commonwealth, destined to perpetuate the race and to attest
the humanity and justice of this Government.
This emigration should be voluntary, for it would be as cruel as unjust to compel
the aborigines to abandon the graves of their fathers and seek a home in a distant
land. But they should be distinctly informed that if they remain within the limits
of the States they must be subject to their laws. In return for their obedience as
individuals they will without doubt be protected in the enjoyment of those
possessions which they have improved by their industry. But it seems to me
visionary to suppose that in this state of things claims can be allowed on tracts of
country on which they have neither dwelt nor made improvements, merely
because they have seen them from the mountain or passed them in the chase.
Submitting to the laws of the States, and receiving, like other citizens, protection
in their persons and property, they will ere long become merged in the mass of
our population ...
2nd Annual Message
December 6, 1830
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
... It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of
the Government, steadily pursued for nearly 30 years, in relation to the removal
of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy
consummation. Two important tribes have accepted the provision
[The Indian Removal Act of 1830] made for their
removal at the last session of Congress, and it is believed that their example will
induce the remaining tribes also to seek the same obvious advantages.
The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to
individual States, and to the Indians themselves. The pecuniary 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
strengthen the SW 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, make the
complete execution of the plan sanctioned by Congress at their last session an
object of much solicitude.
Toward the aborigines of the country no one can indulge a more friendly feeling
than myself, or would go further in attempting to reclaim them from their
wandering habits and make them a happy, prosperous people. I have
endeavored to impress upon them my own solemn convictions of the duties and
powers of the General Government in relation to the State authorities. For the
justice of the laws passed by the States within the scope of their reserved powers
they are not responsible to this Government. As individuals we may entertain
and express our opinions of their acts, but as a Government we have as little
right to control them as we have to prescribe laws for other nations.
With a full understanding of the subject, the Choctaw and the Chickasaw tribes
have with great unanimity determined to avail themselves of the liberal offers
presented by the act of Congress, and have agreed to remove beyond the
Mississippi River. Treaties have been made with them, which in due season will
be submitted for consideration. In negotiating these treaties they were made to
understand their true condition, and they have preferred maintaining their
independence in the Western forests to submitting to the laws of the States in
which they now reside. These treaties, being probably the last which will ever be
made with them, are characterized by great liberality on the part of the
Government. They give the Indians a liberal sum in consideration of their
removal, and comfortable subsistence on their arrival at their new homes. If it be
their real interest to maintain a separate existence, they will there be at liberty to
do so without the inconveniences and vexations to which they would
unavoidably have been subject in Alabama and Mississippi.
Humanity has often wept over the fate of the aborigines of this country, and
Philanthropy has been long busily employed in devising means to avert it, but its
progress has never for a moment been arrested, and one by one have many
powerful tribes disappeared from the earth. To follow to the tomb the last of his
race and to tread on the graves of extinct nations excite melancholy reflections.
But true philanthropy reconciles the mind to these vicissitudes as it does to the
extinction of one generation to make room for another. In the monuments and
fortifications of an unknown people, spread over the extensive regions of the
West, we behold the memorials of a once powerful race, which was exterminated
of has disappeared to make room for the existing savage tribes. Nor is there any
thing in this which, upon a comprehensive view of the general interests of the
human race, is to be regretted. Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent
restored to the condition in which it was found by our forefathers. What good
man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand
savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous
farms, embellished with all the improvements which art can devise or industry
execute, occupied by more than 12,000,000 happy people, and filled with all the
blessings of liberty, civilization, and religion?
The present policy of the Government is but a continuation of the same
progressive change by a milder process. The tribes which occupied the countries
now constituting the Eastern States were annihilated or have melted away to
make room for the whites. The waves of population and civilization are rolling to
the westward, and we now propose to acquire the countries occupied by the red
men of the South and West by a fair exchange, and, at the expense of the United
States, to send them to a land where their existence may be prolonged and
perhaps made perpetual.
Doubtless it will be painful to leave the graves of their fathers; but what do they
more than our ancestors did or than our children are now doing? To better their
condition in an unknown land our forefathers left all that was dear in earthly
objects. Our children by thousands yearly leave the land of their birth to seek
new homes in distant regions. Does Humanity weep at these painful separations
from every thing, animate and inanimate, with which the young heart has
become entwined? Far from it. It is rather a source of joy that our country affords
scope where our young population may range unconstrained in body or in mind,
developing the power and faculties of man in their highest perfection.
These remove hundreds and almost thousands of miles at their own expense,
purchase the lands they occupy, and support themselves at their new homes
from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in this Government when, by
events which it can not control, the Indian is made discontented in his ancient
home to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the
expense of his removal, and support him a year in his new abode? How many
thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the opportunity of
removing to the West on such conditions! If the offers made to the Indians were
extended to them, they would be hailed with gratitude and joy.
And is it supposed that the wandering savage has a stronger attachment to his
home than the settled, civilized Christian? Is it more afflicting to him to leave the
graves of his fathers than it is to our brothers and children? Rightly considered,
the policy of the General Government toward the red man is not only liberal, but
generous. He is unwilling to submit to the laws of the States and mingle with
their population. To save him from this alternative, or perhaps utter annihilation,
the General Government kindly offers him a new home, and proposes to pay the
whole expense of his removal and settlement.
In the consummation of a policy originating at an early period, and steadily
pursued by every Administration within the present century -- so just to the
States and so generous to the Indians -- the Executive feels it has a right to expect
the cooperation of Congress and of all good and disinterested men. The States,
moreover, have a right to demand it. It was substantially a part of the compact
which made them members of our Confederacy. With Georgia there is an express
contract; with the new States an implied one of equal obligation. Why, in
authorizing Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama to form
constitutions and become separate States, did Congress include within their
limits extensive tracts of Indian lands, and, in some instances, powerful Indian
tribes? Was it not understood by both parties that the power of the States was to
be coextensive with their limits, and that with all convenient dispatch the
General Government should extinguish the Indian title and remove every
obstruction to the complete jurisdiction of the State governments over the soil?
Probably not one of those States would have accepted a separate existence -
certainly it would never have been granted by Congress -- had it been
understood that they were to be confined for ever to those small portions of their
nominal territory the Indian title to which had at the time been extinguished. It
is, therefore, a duty which this Government owes to the new States to extinguish
as soon as possible the Indian title to all lands which Congress themselves have
included within their limits. When this is done the duties of the General
Government in relation to the States and the Indians within their limits are at an
end. The Indians may leave the State or not, as they choose. The purchase of their
lands does not alter in the least their personal relations with the State
government. No act of the General Government has ever been deemed necessary
to give the States jurisdiction over the persons of the Indians. That they possess
by virtue of their sovereign power within their own limits in as full a manner
before as after the purchase of the Indian lands; nor can this Government add to
or diminish it.
May we not hope, therefore, that all good citizens, and none more zealously than
those who think the Indians oppressed by subjection to the laws of the States,
will unite in attempting to open the eyes of those children of the forest to their
true condition, and by a speedy removal to relieve them from all the evils, real or
imaginary, present or prospective, with which they may be supposed to be
threatened. ...
3rd Annual Message
December 6, 1831
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
... The internal peace and security of our confederated
States is the next principal
object of the General Government. Time and experience have proved that the
abode of the native Indian within their limits is dangerous to their peace and
injurious to himself. In accordance with my recommendation at a former session
of Congress, an appropriation of $500K was made to aid the voluntary removal
of the various tribes beyond the limits of the States. At the last session I had the
happiness to announce that the Chickasaws and Choctaws had accepted the
generous offer of the Government and agreed to remove beyond the Mississippi
River, by which the whole of the State of Mississippi and the western part of
Alabama will be freed from Indian occupancy and opened to a civilized
population. The treaties with these tribes are in a course of execution, and their
removal, it is hoped, will be completed in the course of 1832.
At the request of the authorities of Georgia the registration of Cherokee Indians
for emigration has been resumed, and it is confidently expected that half, if not
two-third, of that tribe will follow the wise example of their more westerly
brethren. Those who prefer remaining at their present homes will hereafter be
governed by the laws of Georgia, as all her citizens are, and cease to be the
objects of peculiar care on the part of the General Government.
During the present year the attention of the Government has been particularly
directed to those tribes in the powerful and growing State of Ohio, where
considerable tracts of the finest lands were still occupied by the aboriginal
proprietors. Treaties, either absolute or conditional, have been made
extinguishing the whole Indian title to the reservations in that State, and the time
is not distant, it is hoped, when Ohio will be no longer embarrassed with the
Indian population. The same measures will be extended to Indiana as soon as
there is reason to anticipate success. It is confidently believed that perseverance
for a few years in the present policy of the Government will extinguish the
Indian title to all lands lying within the States composing our Federal Union, and
remove beyond their limits every Indian who is not willing to submit to their
laws.
Thus will all conflicting claims to jurisdiction between the States and the Indian
tribes be put to rest. It is pleasing to reflect that results so beneficial, not only to
the States immediately concerned, but to the harmony of the Union, will have
been accomplished by measures equally advantageous to the Indians. What the
native savages become when surrounded by a dense population and by mixing
with the whites may be seen in the miserable remnants of a few Eastern tribes,
deprived of political and civil rights, forbidden to make contracts, and subjected
to guardians, dragging out a wretched existence, without excitement, without
hope, and almost without thought.
But the removal of the Indians beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the States
does not place them beyond the reach of philanthropic aid and Christian
instruction. On the contrary, those whom philanthropy or religion may induce to
live among them in their new abode will be more free in the exercise of their
benevolent functions than if they had remained within the limits of the States,
embarrassed by their internal regulations. Now subject to no control but the
superintending agency of the General Government, exercised with the sole view
of preserving peace, they may proceed unmolested in the interesting experiment
of gradually advancing a community of American Indians from barbarism to the
habits and enjoyments of civilized life. ...
4th Annual Message
December 4, 1832
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
... The hostile incursions of the Sac and Fox Indians necessarily led to the
interposition of the Government. A portion of the troops, under Generals Scott
and Atkinson, and of the militia of the State of Illinois were called into the field.
After a harassing warfare, prolonged by the nature of the country and by the
difficulty of procuring subsistence, the Indians were entirely defeated, and the
disaffected band dispersed or destroyed. The result has been creditable to the
troops engaged in the service. Severe as is the lesson to the Indians, it was
rendered necessary by their unprovoked aggressions, and it is to be hoped that
its impression will be permanent and salutary.
This campaign has evinced the efficient organization of the Army and its
capacity for prompt and active service. Its several departments have performed
their functions with energy and dispatch, and the general movement was
satisfactory.
Our fellow citizens upon the frontiers were ready, as they always are, in the
tender of their services in the hour of danger. But a more efficient organization of
our militia system is essential to that security which is one of the principal objects
of all governments. Neither our situation nor our institutions require or permit
the maintenance of a large regular force. History offers too many lessons of the
fatal result of such a measure not to warn us against its adoption here. The
expense which attends it, the obvious tendency to employ it because it exists and
thus to engage in unnecessary wars, and its ultimate danger to public liberty will
lead us, I trust, to place our principal dependence for protection upon the great
body of the citizens of the Republic. If in asserting rights or in repelling wrongs
war should come upon us, our regular force should be increased to an extent
proportional to the emergency, and our present small Army is a nucleus around
which such force could be formed and embodied. But for the purposes of defense
under ordinary circumstances we must rely upon the electors of the country.
Those by whom and for whom the Government was instituted and is supported
will constitute its protection in the hour of danger as they do its check in the hour
of safety.
But it is obvious that the militia system is imperfect. Much time is lost, much
unnecessary expense incurred, and much public property wasted under the
present arrangement. Little useful knowledge is gained by the musters and drills
as now established, and the whole subject evidently requires a thorough
examination. Whether a plan of classification remedying these defects and
providing for a system of instruction might not be adopted is submitted to the
consideration of Congress. The Constitution has vested in the General
Government an independent authority upon the subject of the militia which
renders its action essential to the establishment or improvement of the system,
and I recommend the matter to your consideration in the conviction that the state
of this important arm of the public defense requires your attention.
I am happy to inform you that the wise and humane policy of transferring from
the eastern to the western side of the Mississippi the remnants of our aboriginal
tribes, with their own consent and upon just terms, has been steadily pursued,
and is approaching, I trust, its consummation. By reference to the report of the
Secretary of War and to the documents submitted with it you will see the
progress which has been made since your last session in the arrangement of the
various matters connected with our Indian relations. With one exception every
subject involving any question of conflicting jurisdiction or of peculiar difficulty
has been happily disposed of, and the conviction evidently gains ground among
the Indians that their removal to the country assigned by the United States for
their permanent residence furnishes the only hope of their ultimate prosperity.
With that portion of the Cherokees, however, living within the State of Georgia it
has been found impracticable as yet to make a satisfactory adjustment. Such was
my anxiety to remove all the grounds of complaint and to bring to a termination
the difficulties in which they are involved that I directed the very liberal
propositions to be made to them which accompany the documents herewith
submitted. They can not but have seen in these offers the evidence of the
strongest disposition on the part of the Government to deal justly and liberally
with them. An ample indemnity was offered for their present possessions, a
liberal provision for their future support and improvement, and full security for
their private and political rights. What ever difference of opinion may have
prevailed respecting the just claims of these people, there will probably be none
respecting the liberality of the propositions, and very little respecting the
expediency of their immediate acceptance. They were, however, rejected, and
thus the position of these Indians remains unchanged, as do the views
communicated in my message to the Senate of [22 Feb 1831]. ...
5th Annual Message
December 3, 1833
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
... Our relations with the various Indian tribes have been undisturbed since the
termination of the difficulties growing out of the hostile aggressions of the Sac
and Fox Indians. Several treaties have been formed for the relinquishment of
territory to the United States and for the migration of the occupants of the region
assigned for their residence West of the Mississippi. Should these treaties be
ratified by the Senate, provision will have been made for the removal of almost
all the tribes remaining E of that river and for the termination of many difficult
and embarrassing questions arising out of their anomalous political condition.
It is to be hoped that those portions of two of the Southern tribes, which in that
event will present the only remaining difficulties, will realize the necessity of
emigration, and will speedily resort to it. My original convictions upon this
subject have been confirmed by the course of events for several years, and
experience is every day adding to their strength. That those tribes can not exist
surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizens is
certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the
desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their
condition. Established in the midst of another and a superior race, and without
appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must
necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear.
Such has been their fate heretofore, and if it is to be averted -- and it is -- it can
only be done by a general removal beyond our boundary and by the
reorganization of their political system upon principles adapted to the new
relations in which they will be placed. The experiment which has been recently
made has so far proved successful. The emigrants generally are represented to be
prosperous and contented, the country suitable to their wants and habits, and the
essential articles of subsistence easily procured. When the report of the
commissioners now engaged in investigating the condition and prospects of
these Indians and in devising a plan for their intercourse and government is
received, I trust ample means of information will be in possession of the
Government for adjusting all the unsettled questions connected with this
interesting subject. ...
6th Annual Message
December 1, 1834
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
... No important change has during this season taken place in the condition of
the Indians. Arrangements are in progress for the removal of the Creeks, and will
soon be for the removal of the Seminoles. I regret that the Cherokees east of the
Mississippi have not yet determined as a community to remove. How long the
personal causes which have heretofore retarded that ultimately inevitable
measure will continue to operate I am unable to conjecture. It is certain, however,
that delay will bring with it accumulated evils which will render their condition
more and more unpleasant. The experience of every year adds to the conviction
that emigration, and that alone, can preserve from destruction the remnant of the
tribes yet living amongst us. The facility with which the necessaries of life are
procured and the treaty stipulations providing aid for the emigrant Indians in
their agricultural pursuits and in the important concern of education, and their
removal from those causes which have heretofore depressed all and destroyed
many of the tribes, can not fail to stimulate their exertions and to reward their
industry.
The two laws passed at the last session of Congress on the subject of Indian
affairs have been carried into effect, and detailed instructions for their
administration have been given. It will be seen by the estimates for the present
session that a great reduction will take place in the expenditures of the
Department in consequence of these laws, and there is reason to believe that their
operation will be salutary and that the colonization of the Indians on the western
frontier, together with a judicious system of administration, will still further
reduce the expenses of this branch of the public service and at the same time
promote its usefulness and efficiency. ...
7th Annual Message
December 7, 1835
[No mention of Indians in this Address. On 29 Dec 1835, the Cherokee
signed the
Treat of Removal or
Treaty of New Echota.]
8th Annual Message
December 5, 1836
Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives:
... The war with the Seminoles during the summer was on our part chiefly
confined to the protection of our frontier settlements from the incursions of the
enemy, and, as a necessary and important means for the accomplishment of that
end, to the maintenance of the posts previously established. In the course of this
duty several actions took place, in which the bravery and discipline of both
officers and men were conspicuously displayed, and which I have deemed it
proper to notice in respect to the former by the granting of brevet rank for
gallant services in the field. But as the force of the Indians was not so far
weakened by these partial successes as to lead them to submit, and as their
savage inroads were frequently repeated, early measures were taken for placing
at the disposal of Governor Call, who as commander in chief of the Territorial
militia had been temporarily invested with the command, an ample force for the
purpose of resuming offensive operations in the most efficient manner so soon as
the season should permit. Major General Jesup was also directed, on the
conclusion of his duties in the Creek country, to repair to Florida and assume the
command.
The result of the first movement made by the forces under the direction of Governor
Call in October last, as detailed in the accompanying papers, excited much surprise
and disappointment. A full explanation has been required of the causes which led to
the failure of that movement, but has not yet been received. In the mean time, as it
was feared that the health of Governor Call, who was understood to have suffered much
from sickness, might not be adequate to the crisis, and as Major General Jesup was
known to have reached Florida, that officer was directed to assume command, and to
prosecute all needful operations with the utmost promptitude and vigor. From the
force at his disposal and the dispositions he has made and is instructed to make,
and from the very efficient measures which it is since ascertained have been taken
by Governor Call, there is reason to hope that they will soon be enabled to reduce
the enemy to subjection. In the mean time, as you will perceive from the report of
the Secretary, there is urgent necessity for further appropriations to suppress
these hostilities.
Happily for the interests of humanity, the hostilities with the Creeks were brought
to a close soon after your adjournment, without that effusion of blood which at one
time was apprehended as inevitable. The unconditional submission of the hostile party
was followed by their speedy removal to the country assigned them West of the Mississippi.
The inquiry as to alleged frauds in the purchase of the reservations of these Indians and
the causes of their hostilities, requested by the resolution of the House of Representatives
of the first of July last [1 Jul 1836] to be made by the President, is now going on through
the agency of commissioners appointed for that purpose. Their report may be expected during
your present session.
The difficulties apprehended in the Cherokee country have been prevented, and the peace
and safety of that region and its vicinity effectually secured, by the timely measures
taken by the War Department, and still continued.
The discretionary authority given to General Gaines to cross the Sabine and to occupy a
position as far West as Nacogdoches, in case he should deem such a step necessary to the
protection of the frontier and to the fulfillment of the stipulations contained in our
treaty with Mexico, and the movement subsequently made by that officer have been alluded
to in a former part of this message. At the date of the latest intelligence from Nacogdoches
our troops were yet at that station, but the officer who has succeeded General Gaines has
recently been advised that from the facts known at the seat of Government there would seem
to be no adequate cause for any longer maintaining that position, and he was accordingly
instructed, in case the troops were not already withdrawn under the discretionary powers
before possessed by him, to give the requisite orders for that purpose on the receipt of
the instructions, unless he shall then have in his possession such information as shall
satisfy him that the maintenance of the post is essential to the protection of our frontiers
and to the due execution of our treaty stipulations, as previously explained to him.
Whilst the necessities existing during the present year for the service of militia and
volunteers have furnished new proofs of the patriotism of our fellow citizens, they
have also strongly illustrated the importance of an increase in the rank and file of the
Regular Army. The views of this subject submitted by the Secretary of War in his report
meet my entire concurrence, and are earnestly commended to the deliberate attention of
Congress. In this connection it is also proper to remind you that the defects in our
present militia system are every day rendered more apparent. The duty of making further
provision by law for organizing, arming, and disciplining this arm of defense has been
so repeatedly presented to Congress by myself and my predecessors that I deem it sufficient
on this occasion to refer to the last annual message and to former Executive communications
in which the subject has been discussed.
It appears from the reports of the officers charged with mustering into service the volunteers
called for under the act of Congress of the last session that more presented themselves
at the place of rendezvous in Tennessee than were sufficient to meet the requisition
which had been made by the Secretary of War upon the governor of that State. This was
occasioned by the omission of the governor to apportion the requisition to the different
regiments of militia so as to obtain the proper number of troops and no more. It seems but
just to the patriotic citizens who repaired to the general rendezvous under circumstances
authorizing them to believe that their services were needed and would be accepted that the
expenses incurred by them while absent from their homes should be paid by the Government.
I accordingly recommend that a law to this effect be passed by Congress, giving them a
compensation which will cover their expenses on the march to and from the place of
rendezvous and while there; in connection with which it will also be proper to make
provision for such other equitable claims growing out of the service of the militia
as may not be embraced in the existing laws.
On the unexpected breaking out of hostilities in Florida, Alabama, and Georgia it
became necessary in some cases to take the property of individuals for public use.
Provision should be made by law for indemnifying the owners; and I would also
respectfully suggest whether some provision may not be made, consistently with the
principles of our Government, for the relief of the sufferers by Indian depredations
or by the operations of our own troops.
No time was lost after the making of the requisite appropriations in resuming the great
national work of completing the unfinished fortifications on our sea-board and of placing
them in a proper state of defense. In consequence, however, of the very late day at which
those bills were passed, but little progress could be made during the season which has just
closed. A very large amount of the moneys granted at your last session accordingly remains
unexpended; but as the work will be again resumed at the earliest moment in the coming spring,
the balance of the existing appropriations, and in several cases which will be laid before you,
with the proper estimates, further sums for the like objects, may be usefully expended during
the next year. ...
...
...
The national policy, founded alike in interest and in humanity, so long and so steadily pursued
by this Government for the removal of the Indian tribes originally settled on this side of the
Mississippi to the W of that river, may be said to have been consummated by the conclusion of
the late treaty with the Cherokees. The measures taken in the execution of that treaty and in
relation to our Indian affairs generally will fully appear by referring to the accompanying papers.
Without dwelling on the numerous and important topics embraced in them, I again invite your attention
to the importance of providing a well-digested and comprehensive system for the protection, supervision,
and improvement of the various tribes now planted in the Indian country.
The suggestions submitted by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and enforced by the Secretary,
on this subject, and also in regard to the establishment of additional military posts in the Indian
country, are entitled to your profound consideration. Both measures are necessary, for the double
purpose of protecting the Indians from intestine war, and in other respects complying with our
engagements with them, and of securing our western frontier against incursions which otherwise will
assuredly be made on it. The best hopes of humanity in regard to the aboriginal race, the welfare of
our rapidly extending settlements, and the honor of the United States are all deeply involved in the
relations existing between this Government and the emigrating tribes. I trust, therefore, that the
various matters submitted in the accompanying documents in respect to those relations will receive
your early and mature deliberation, and that it may issue in the adoption of legislative measures
adapted to the circumstances and duties of the present crisis. ...
Notes:
† Source:
Brown, Dee, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Holt Rinehart Winston, 1970, p. 5. If you grew
up in the United States and received a whitewashed education - backed by the Hollywood
movie cant that “The Only Good Indian Is a Dead Indian,” then Dee
Brown’s book is a must read. Be warned though, the book is poignant.
‡ Source:
Royce, Charles C., compiler. “Indian Land Cessions in the United States,” from the 18th Annual
Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology -- 1896-’97, Vol II, Smithsonian Institution, printed by
the Government Printing Office, 1899. In this publication which lists Indian land cessions in chronological order, we see
the last treaty before Andrew Jackson’s Inauguration as 20 Sep 1828 with the Potawatomi people, number 146.
†† Murderer.
During the 1828 presidential campaign, There was a major effort to discredit Jackson. “The primary weapon of
the anti-Jackson forces was his alleged impetuous, unrestrained, martial personality, utterly unsuitable for the presidency
of a democratic republic whose success required respect for constitutional checks and balances.” The main focus
of his detractors was his shooting of the six militia men. Anti-Jackson broadsides (handbills) were published and there was
also an anti-Jackson pamphlet published:
Official Record From the War Department, of the Proceedings of the Court Martial Which Tried, And the Orders of
General Jackson For Shooting the Six Militia Men, Together With Official Letters From the War Department, (Ordered
to be Printed by Congress) Showing That These American Citizens Were Inhumanly & Illegally Massacred.
Washington: Jonathan Elliot. 1828. (32pp)
Of course, not everyone thought Jackson was bad - and he did win the election. There is an interesting letter from
the U.S. Patent Office correspondence that shows the other side. Here is a excerpt from that letter:
. . . It is stated in the paper above referred to that I am “one
of the most clamorous office seekers,” that
I was connected with the late newspaper called “We the People”; and that I said that General
Jackson ought to have been hanged for the murder of six militia men. The whole is without the least foundation in truth . . .
. . . With regard to having said that General Jackson ought to have been hung for the murder of the six militia men,
it is a falsehood too glaring to need refutation. For I, as well as all the nation know, that the militia men were
ordered into service by Governor Blount (whether legally or illegally I shall not say); that they left their service
before the expiration of that term; were tried by a court martial for desertion; were condemned to be shot; and that
General Jackson merely confirmed the sentence of the court: therefore such a remark as that attributed to me was
irrational and void of common sense; this information is utterly false.
(10 Apr 1829 William Elliot to Martin Van Buren, Dept of State, Patent Office.)
Transcribed P.J. Federico. Patent Office Correspondence 1814-36.
Call number T223 D7P29 1988 NMAH
Smithsonian National Museum of American History Library
‡‡ Alexander
Arbuthnot and Robert C. Ambrister are the
names of two men executed during the First Seminole war.
Illustration credit:
Top of page; Chief Justice John Marshall administering the oath of office to Andrew Jackson, 4 Mar 1829.
Mural by Allyn Cox, east-central portico, U.S. Capitol building, Washington D.C.
