Andrew Jackson
Was Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Policy motivated by Humanitarian Impulses?Taking Sides/Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History. Historians have long debated on whether or not Andrew Jackson’s Indian removal policy was motivated by Humanitarian Impulses. This debate can be seen in the writings of Robert V. Remini in “Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Freedom” and in Anthony F.C. Wallace in “The Long, Bitter Trail: Andrew Jackson and the Indians.” Remini argues that Jackson’s Indian removal policy was motivated by Humanitarian motives, in order to protect the Indians from destruction by white hands. On the other end of the debate is Wallace who argues that Jackson was not motivated by humanitarian impulses, but oversaw a harsh removal policy in regards to the Indians welfare. Remini has outlined several issues to support his argument in favor of Jackson. The attitudes of white Americans towards Indians varied at times. Some whites believed that the Indians could be integrated into white society, but others felt the Indians were savage and inferior. The colonists would at times drive the Indians away from their homelands an . . .
When Jackson approached the Indians on the issue of relocation he said, the move would be voluntary. Remini has shown that it was Jackson who first suggested the removal policy of the Indians in place of the civilizing process. Both Remini and Wallace have both stated that Jackson’s primary concern for the removal of the Indians was in the interest of national security. Wallace has shown that several action were taken to make the Indians consider relocation if they decided to stay. The issue of Indian affairs was raised in the twenty-first congress by the Cherokee claim to being a separate state within a state. Jackson played to the general public and the Indians promising compensation for the move, but in reality was guiding his administration and the states to move the Indians by any means necessary. Wallace has cited several examples that Jackson did indeed oversee a harsh policy of removal when dealing with Indians. But from the start of the relocation programs there was corruption. In fact if the Indians decided to stay on the lands they lived they would have to except that states laws. Jackson proposed this policy on the basis that to many white Americans held to many prejudices towards the Indians and that the two societies would be able to coexist due to the white Americans attitudes towards the Indians and their land. Jac! kson drew up legislation that would empower him to exchange unorganized public land in exchange for Indian land. I believe that Jackson was not motivated by humanitarian reasons for the removal of the Indians. Remini has shown that Jackson was not moved by concern for the Indians way of life, but by the safety of the nation and that all inhabitants of a state are subject to that states laws. Jackson believed that removal of the Indians was the only way that their society would survive.
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