John Ross and Jackson
The two lettersone from Chief John Ross to the US governmentthe other from President Andrew Jackson to the Cherokeeshow two sides of a terrible battle in the 19th century. On the one hand is the plight of the Cherokee, who see themselves being forced off their land in the South to go to the West. On the other hand is the argument of Jackson that the Cherokee have not bought the land and have no means of securing it for themselves, that the US has set aside funds for them and promised schools for them in the Westand so they must go. Chief John Rosss letter shows how the Cherokee just wanted to have the same kind of liberty that the Americans promoted in their Declaration.[footnoteRef:2] Jacksons letter shows how there is no thought of liberty for the Cherokee but rather an intense desire to move them out of the way and to justify their removal by glossing it with a veneer of altruism by promising a fund, schools, and shelter in the West.[footnoteRef:3] [2: Chief John Ross Letter Our Hearts are Sickened 2.] [3: Andrew Jackson Letter to the Cherokee, 1.]
Chief John Ross essentially tries to explain in his letter that when members of the Cherokee nation signed the Treaty of New Echota in 1835, they did so under a kind of duressnot as speakers of the entire Cherokee Nation. Moreover, he argues that the provisions of the treaty were altered in such a way as to make it all the more unfavorable for the Cherokee people.[footnoteRef:4] Facing overwhelming pressure, Ross argues that these individuals had but little understanding of the consequences, and that they represented only but a small group of Cherokee leaders who agreed to cede their lands in the East to the US government and relocate to present-day Oklahoma....
…significant figure whose story has basically been consigned to the dust heap of history by the American establishment. Second, these letters offer a rare glimpse into the negotiations between the Cherokee and the US government. They show what a farce it actually was and how the government was willing to use pressure and unfair tactics to get what it wantedwhich was the Southin its own hands. Finally, they shed light on the differing perspectives of Native Americans and white Americans on the issue of Removal. Taken together, these letters offer a unique window into one of the most significant events in American history. The more one realizes what was at stake at that point in history, the more one sees the negotiation as treacherousfor if the Cherokee had not been forcibly removed, there might not have been a Civil War and the total takeover of the states by the federal system of government that…
Bibliography
Andrew Jackson Letter to the Cherokee.
“Our Hearts are Sickened”: Letter from Chief John Ross of the Cherokee, Georgia, 1836.
The Congress eventually followed suit by enacting the Indian Removal Act which was greeted by the newly elected President Andrew Jackson. Americans should feel no regret for the disappearance of Indians from the face of the earth, Jackson argued. "Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to the condition in which it was found by our forefathers," he said to Congress in his State of the Union
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