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A M E S S A G E T O C O N G R E S S O N

I N D I A N P O L I C Y

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–––––––––––––––––––––– Andrew Jackson ––––––––––––––––––––––

The plan of removing the aboriginal people who yet remain within the settled

portions of the United States to the country west of the Mississippi River

approaches its consummation. It was adopted on the most mature consideration

of the condition of this race, and ought to be persisted in till the object is

accomplished, and prosecuted with as much vigor as a just regard to their

circumstances will permit, and as fast as their consent can be obtained. All

preceding experiments for the improvement of the Indians have failed. It seems

now to be an established fact that they can not live in contact with a civilized

community and prosper. Ages of fruitless endeavors have at length brought us to a

knowledge of this principle of intercommunication with them. The past we can not

recall, but the future we can provide for. Independently of the treaty stipulations

into which we have entered with the various tribes for the usufructuary rights

[rights to use another’s property and enjoy the profits from it] they have ceded to

us, no one can doubt the moral duty of the Government of the United States to

protect and if possible to preserve and perpetuate the scattered remnants of this

race which are left within our borders. In the discharge of this duty an extensive

region in the West has been assigned for their permanent residence.…

The plan for their removal and reestablishment is founded upon the knowledge

we have gained of their character and habits, and has been dictated by a spirit of

enlarged liberality. A territory exceeding in extent that relinquished has been

granted to each tribe. Of its climate, fertility, and capacity to support an Indian

population the representations are highly favorable. To these districts the Indians

are removed at the expense of the United States, and with certain supplies of

clothing, arms, ammunition, and other indispensable articles; they are also

furnished gratuitously with provisions for the period of a year after their arrival at

their new homes. In that time, from the nature of the country and of the products

raised by them, they can subsist themselves by agricultural labor, if they choose to

resort to that mode of life; if they do not they are upon the skirts of the great

prairies, where countless herds of buffalo roam, and a short time suffices to adapt

their own habits to the changes which a change of the animals destined for their

food may require. Ample arrangements have also been made for the support of

schools; in some instances council houses and churches are to be erected, dwellings

constructed for the chiefs, and mills for common use. Funds have been set apart for

the maintenance of the poor; the most necessary mechanical arts have been

introduced, and blacksmiths, gunsmiths, wheelwrights, millwrights, etc., are

supported among them. Steel and iron, and sometimes salt, are purchased for

them, and plows and other farming utensils, domestic animals, looms, spinning

wheels, cards, etc., are presented to them. And besides these beneficial

arrangements, annuities are in all cases paid, amounting in some instances to more

than $30 for each individual of the tribe, and in all cases sufficiently great, if justly

divided and prudently expended, to enable them, in addition to their own

exertions, to live comfortably. And as a stimulus for exertion, it is now provided

by law that “in all cases of the appointment of interpreters or other persons

employed for the benefit of the Indians a preference shall be given to persons of

Indian descent, if such can be found who are properly qualified for the discharge

of the duties.”

Such are the arrangements for the physical comfort and for the moral

improvement of the Indians. The necessary measures for their political

advancement and for their separation from our citizens have not been neglected.

The pledge of the United States has been given by Congress that the country

destined for the residence of this people shall be forever “secured and guaranteed

to them.” A country west of Missouri and Arkansas has been assigned to them,

into which the white settlements are not to be pushed. No political communities

can be formed in that extensive region, except those which are established by the

Indians themselves or by the United States for them and with their concurrence.

A barrier has thus been raised for their protection against the encroachment of our

citizens, and guarding the Indians as far as possible from those evils which have

brought them to their present condition.