A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term
History
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Volume 2, part 3: Andrew Jackson, 1st term
Jackson, Andrew, 1767-1845; Presidents -- United States; United States -- History -- Sources; United States -- Politics and government
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.
Among the numerous causes of congratulation the condition of our impost
revenue deserves special mention, inasmuch as it promises the means of
extinguishing the public debt sooner than was anticipated, and furnishes
a strong illustration of the practical effects of the present tariff
upon our commercial interests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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