A diffidence, perhaps too just, in my own qualifications will teach me to look with reverence to the examples of public virtue left by my illustrious predecessors, and with veneration to the lights that flow from the mind that founded and the mind that reformed our system. The same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction.
2nd Inaugural Address
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Fellow-Citizens:
THE will of the American people, expressed through their unsolicited suffrages, calls me before you to pass through the solemnities preparatory to taking upon myself the duties of President of the United States for another term. For their approbation of my public conduct through a period which has not been without its difficulties, and for this renewed expression of their confidence in my good intentions, I am at a loss for terms adequate to the expression of my gratitude. It shall be displayed to the extent of my humble abilities in continued efforts so to administer the Government as to preserve their liberty and promote their happiness. | | | So many events have occurred within the last four years which have necessarily called forth—sometimes under circumstances the most delicate and painful—my views of the principles and policy which ought to be pursued by the General Government that I need on this occasion but allude to a few leading considerations connected with some of them. |
| | The foreign policy adopted by our Government soon after the formation of our present Constitution, and very generally pursued by successive Administrations, has been crowned with almost complete success, and has elevated our character among the nations of the earth. To do justice to all and to submit to wrong from none has been during my Administration its governing maxim, and so happy have been its results that we are not only at peace with all the world, but have few causes of controversy, and those of minor importance, remaining unadjusted. |
| | In the domestic policy of this Government there are two objects which especially deserve the attention of the people and their representatives, and which have been and will continue to be the subjects of my increasing solicitude. They are the preservation of the rights of the several States and the integrity of the Union. |
| | These great objects are necessarily connected, and can only be attained by an enlightened exercise of the powers of each within its appropriate sphere in conformity with the public will constitutionally expressed. To this end it becomes the duty of all to yield a ready and patriotic submission to the laws constitutionally enacted, and thereby promote and strengthen a proper confidence in those institutions of the several States and of the United States which the people themselves have ordained for their own government. |
| | My experience in public concerns and the observation of a life somewhat advanced confirm the opinions long since imbibed by me, that the destruction of our State governments or the annihilation of their control over the local concerns of the people would lead directly to revolution and anarchy, and finally to despotism and military domination. In proportion, therefore, as the General Government encroaches upon the rights of the States, in the same proportion does it impair its own power and detract from its ability to fulfill the purposes of its creation. Solemnly impressed with these considerations, my countrymen will ever find me ready to exercise my constitutional powers in arresting measures which may directly or indirectly encroach upon the rights of the States or tend to consolidate all political power in the General Government. But of equal, and, indeed, of incalculable, importance is the union of these States, and the sacred duty of all to contribute to its preservation by a liberal support of the General Government in the exercise of its just powers. You have been wisely admonished to "accustom yourselves to think and speak of the Union as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity, watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety, discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of any attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts." Without union our independence and liberty would never have been achieved; without union they never can be maintained. Divided into twenty-four, or even a smaller number, of separate communities, we shall see our internal trade burdened with numberless restraints and exactions; communication between distant points and sections obstructed or cut off; our sons made soldiers to deluge with blood the fields they now till in peace; the mass of our people borne down and impoverished by taxes to support armies and navies, and military leaders at the head of their victorious legions becoming our lawgivers and judges. The loss of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and happiness, must inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union. In supporting it, therefore, we support all that is dear to the freeman and the philanthropist. |
| | The time at which I stand before you is full of interest. The eyes of all nations are fixed on our Republic. The event of the existing crisis will be decisive in the opinion of mankind of the practicability of our federal system of government. Great is the stake placed in our hands; great is the responsibility which must rest upon the people of the United States. Let us realize the importance of the attitude in which we stand before the world. Let us exercise forbearance and firmness. Let us extricate our country from the dangers which surround it and learn wisdom from the lessons they inculcate. |
| | Deeply impressed with the truth of these observations, and under the obligation of that solemn oath which I am about to take, I shall continue to exert all my faculties to maintain the just powers of the Constitution and to transmit unimpaired to posterity the blessings of our Federal Union. At the same time, it will be my aim to inculcate by my official acts the necessity of exercising by the General Government those powers only that are clearly delegated; to encourage simplicity and economy in the expenditures of the Government; to raise no more money from the people than may be requisite for these objects, and in a manner that will best promote the interests of all classes of the community and of all portions of the Union. Constantly bearing in mind that in entering into society "individuals must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest," it will be my desire so to discharge my duties as to foster with our brethren in all parts of the country a spirit of liberal concession and compromise, and, by reconciling our fellow-citizens to those partial sacrifices which they must unavoidably make for the preservation of a greater good, to recommend our invaluable Government and Union to the confidence and affections of the American people. |
| Finally, it is my most fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our Republic to the present day, that He will so overrule all my intentions and actions and inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens that we may be preserved from dangers of all kinds and continue forever a united and happy people.
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Jackson's Second Annual Speech Before Congress, 1830; Andrew Jackson explains the Indian Removal Policy
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. Two
important tribes have accepted the provision 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 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, 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 fortresses of an
unknown people, spread over the extensive regions of the West,
we behold the memorials of a once powerful race, which was
exterminated or has disappeared to make room for the existing
savage tribes. Nor is there anything 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 million 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 everything, 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
cannot 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
forever 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.
Letter from Chief John Ross to the Senate and House of Representatives; Chief John Ross replies to the Trail of Tears
(Red Clay Council Ground of the Cherokee Nation, September 28, 1836)
It is well known that for a number of years past we have
been harassed by a series of vexations, which it is deemed
unnecessary to recite in detail, but the evidence of which our
delegation will be prepared to furnish. With a view to
bringing our troubles to a close, a delegation was
appointed on the 23rd of October, 1835, by the General
Council of the nation, clothed with full powers to enter into
arrangements with the Government of the United States, for
the final adjustment of all our existing difficulties. The
delegation failing to effect an arrangement with the United
States commissioner, then in the nation, proceeded,
agreeably to their instructions in that case, to Washington
City, for the purpose of negotiating a treaty with the
authorities of the United States.
After the departure of the Delegation, a contract was made
by the Rev. John F. Schermerhorn, and certain individual
Cherokees, purporting to be a "treaty, concluded at New
Echota, in the State of Georgia, on the 29th day of
December, 1835, by General William Carroll and John F.
Schermerhorn, commissioners on the part of the United
States, and the chiefs, headmen, and people of the
Cherokee tribes of Indians." A spurious Delegation, in
violation of a special injunction of the general council of the
nation, proceeded to Washington City with this pretended
treaty, and by false and fraudulent representations
supplanted in the favor of the Government the legal and
accredited Delegation of the Cherokee people, and
obtained for this instrument, after making important
alterations in its provisions, the recognition of the United
States Government. And now it is presented to us as a
treaty, ratified by the Senate, and approved by the President
[Andrew Jackson], and our acquiescence in its
requirements demanded, under the sanction of the
displeasure of the United States, and the threat of summary
compulsion, in case of refusal. It comes to us, not through
our legitimate authorities, the known and usual medium of
communication between the Government of the United
States and our nation, but through the agency of a
complication of powers, civil and military.
By the stipulations of this instrument, we are despoiled of
our private possessions, the indefeasible property of
individuals. We are stripped of every attribute of freedom
and eligibility for legal self-defence. Our property may be
plundered before our eyes; violence may be committed on
our persons; even our lives may be taken away, and there is
none to regard our complaints. We are denationalized; we
are disfranchised. We are deprived of membership in the
human family! We have neither land nor home, nor resting
place that can be called our own. And this is effected by the
provisions of a compact which assumes the venerated, the
sacred appellation of treaty.
We are overwhelmed! Our hearts are sickened, our
utterance is paralized, when we reflect on the condition in
which we are placed, by the audacious practices of
unprincipled men, who have managed their stratagems
with so much dexterity as to impose on the Government of
the United States, in the face of our earnest, solemn, and
reiterated protestations.
The instrument in question is not the act of our Nation; we
are not parties to its covenants; it has not received the
sanction of our people. The makers of it sustain no office
nor appointment in our Nation, under the designation of
Chiefs, Head men, or any other title, by which they hold, or
could acquire, authority to assume the reins of Government,
and to make bargain and sale of our rights, our
possessions, and our common country. And we are
constrained solemnly to declare, that we cannot but
contemplate the enforcement of the stipulations of this
instrument on us, against our consent, as an act of injustice
and oppression, which, we are well persuaded, can never
knowingly be countenanced by the Government and people
of the United States; nor can we believe it to be the design
of these honorable and highminded individuals, who stand
at the head of the Govt., to bind a whole Nation, by the acts
of a few unauthorized individuals. And, therefore, we, the
parties to be affected by the result, appeal with confidence
to the justice, the magnanimity, the compassion, of your
honorable bodies, against the enforcement, on us, of the
provisions of a compact, in the formation of which we have
had no agency.
From: The Papers of Chief John Ross, vol 1, 1807-1839, Norman OK
Gary E. Moulton, ed.
University of Oklahoma Press, 1985
Excerpted from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h3083t.html
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