October 12, 2018
Dear Subscriber:
Each week we examine a theme from a variety of points of
view. The theme for this week is indigenous peoples in honor of Indigenous
People’s Day, which was celebrated on October 8.
Excerpts for Indigenous People’s Day from Andrew Jackson’s
message to Congress, “On Indian Removal” (1830), and The Memorial of the
Cherokee Nation (1830):
THE TRAIL OF TEARS
JACKSON: It gives me pleasure to announce to
Congress
That the benevolent policy of the Government,
Steadily pursued for nearly thirty years,
In relation to the removal of the Indians beyond
the white settlements
Is approaching to a happy consummation.
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?
CHEROKEE NATION: We wish to remain on the land of
our fathers.
We have a perfect and original right to remain
without interruption or molestation.
The treaties with us, and laws of the United
States
Made in pursuance of treaties,
Guaranty our residence and our privileges,
And secure us against intruders.
Our only request is, that these treaties may be
fulfilled,
And these laws executed.
JACKSON: 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.
CHEROKEE NATION: If we are compelled to leave our
country,
We see nothing but ruin before us.
The country west of the Arkansas territory is
unknown to us.
All the inviting parts of it, as we believe, are
preoccupied by various Indian nations,
To which it has been assigned.
They would regard us as intruders.
The far greater part of that region is,
Beyond all controversy,
Badly supplied with wood and water;
And no Indian tribe can live as agriculturists
without these articles.
All our neighbors . . . would speak a language
totally different from ours,
And practice different customs.
Were the country to which we are urged much better
than it is represented to be,
Still it is not the land of our birth,
Nor of our affections.
It contains neither the scenes of our childhood,
Nor the graves of our fathers. . .
JACKSON: 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.
CHEROKEE NATION: We have been called a poor,
ignorant, and degraded people.
We certainly are not rich;
Nor have we ever boasted of our knowledge,
Or our moral or intellectual elevation.
But there is not a man within our limits
So ignorant as not to know
That he has a right to live on the land of his
fathers,
In the possession of his immemorial privileges,
And that this right has been acknowledged by the
United States;
Nor is there a man so degraded
As not to feel a keen sense of injury,
On being deprived of his right
And driven into exile . . .
© by Nicholas Gordon
This week’s theme: Indigenous Peoples
10/12: The Trail of Tears
