Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-12-03
COL. BENTONS HISTORY.
NEW YORK EVENING POST.
Anno 1836.-Andrev Jackson PreSideRt-Final
Ren,oval Tie Indians

At the commencement of the annual session of 1867
President jackson had the qualification make known
Congress the completion Of the long pursued policy Of re-
moving all the Indians in the States and within the
ganzed Territories Of the Union to their homes west
of the Mississippi 1t was policy commencing with
Jefferson, pursued by all succeeding Presidents and
complshed by Jackson The Creeks and Cherokees had
withdrawn from Georgia and Alabama the Chickasaws
and Choctaws from Mississippi and Alabama the Semi
noles had stipulated to from Florida; Louisiana,
Arkansas and Missouri had all been relieved of their In
dian populations; Kentucky and Tennessee, by earlier
treaties with the Chickasaws had received the adj
vantage This freed the slave States from obstacle
to their growth and prosperity and left them free to
pand and to cultivate to the full OF their ample
bouu ies All the free Atlantic States had long been
relieved from their Indian populations and in this respect
the Northern and Southern States were now upon an
equality The result has been proved to be- what it
then believed it would be- beneficial to both parties and
still to the Indians than to the whites With
them it question of extinction, the time only the
debatabe point They daily wasting under contact
with the whites and had before their eyes the eventual
but certain fate of the hundreds Of tribes found by the
early coonsts the Roanoke the James River the Po
tomac the Susquehannah the Delaware the Connecticut
the Merrimac, the Kennebec and the Penobscot. The
removal saved the southern tribes from that fate and in
giving them and unmoested homes beyond the verge
of the white mans settlement in country temperate in
climate fertile in soil, adapted to agriculture and to pas
turage with outlet for hunting Astounding with salt
water and salt springs it left them to work out in peace
the problem of Indian civilization To all the relieved
States the removal of the tribes within their borders
great beneft-to the slave States transcendeny and
| inappreoaby great. The largest tribes were within
their limits and the best Of their lands in the hands of
the Indians, the extent, in of the States as
Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, of third quar-
ter of their whole have heretofore shown in the
of the Creeks and the Cherokees in Georgia. that
the ratification of the treaties for the extinction of Indian
claims within her limits, and which removed the tribes
which encountered her. received the cordial support of
Northern Senator's and that in fact without that sup
port these great objects could not have been accomplish
ed. have to say the of all the other slave
States. They all relieved in like manner Chicka-
and Choctaws in Mississippi and Aabama Chicka-
saw claims in Tennessee and Kentucky Seminolas in
Florida; Caddoes and Quapaws in Louisiana and in Ar
kansas kickapoos Delawares, Shawnees Osages Iowas
Piankeshaws, Weas Peorias in Missouri all underwent
the same process and with the same support and result
Northern votes in the Senate to the ratification Of
every treaty and to the passage of every necessary
preparation act in the House of Representatives, Northern
may be said to have made the treaties and passed
the acts without their aid could not have been DONE
constituting they did large majority in the House,
and being equal in the Senate, where vote of
wanting. do not 60 over these treaties and laws
by to show their passage and by what votes
did that in the Of the Creek trest % Ine rba,oo
treaty Tor the removal q Inese tribes from Georgia and
@ zoe North was unanimous in one case and
nearly in the other while in both treaties there
Southern opposition and in of them (the Cherokee)
both Mr. Calhoun and Mr.. Clay in the negative; and
these instances may stand for illustration of the whole
And thus the of slave population has been almost
doubled in the slave States by sending away the Indians
make for their expansion and it is unjust and
crue-unjust and cruel in ITSELF independent Of the
tve-to charge these Northern States with design to
abolish slavery in the South If they had harbored such
design If they had been merely unfrendy to the growth
and prosperity of these Southern States there easy
way have gratifed their feelings without committing
breach of the Constitution, aggression encroach-
ment upon these States they had only TO sit still and
against the ratification Of the treaties and the enactment
Of the laws which effected this great removal They did
not do sodd not sit still aud vote against their Southern
brethren. On the contrary they stood up and spoke
aloud and gave these laws and treaties effective and
jealous support And who the Senate's chairman
Of the Committee Of Indian Affairs at this time and know
how these things DONE and who thankful for
Northern help at the time; who knew the truth and
cye justice and cherish the harmony and union Of the
American people, feel it to be my duty and my privilege
to note this great act of justice from the North the
South, stand in history perpetual contradiction Of
all imputed design in the free States abolish slavery
the slave States speak of States not Of individuals
societies
have shown that this policy Of the universal removal
Of the Indians from the east to the Of the Mssissp
pi originated with Mr. Jefferson and from the most hui
name motives and after having the existence Of
than forty tribes in his State of Virginia and had
been followed up under all subsequent Administrations
With General jackson it nothing but the continue
ton OF established policy, but in which he hearth
y concurred, and Of which his local position and his
perence made him Of the safest of judges but like
every other act Of his Administration it destined
oboquy and opposition, and TO misrepresentation which
have survived the Of their creation and gone into
history. lie charged with injustice the Indians
in not protecting them against the laws and jurisdiction
Of the States with cruelty in driving them away from
the bones Of their fathers with robbery in taking their
lands for paltry considerations Parts OF the tribes
excited to resist the execution Of the treaties and
became necessary to send troops and distinguished gene
rssScot to the Cherokees Jesup to the Creeksto cf
feet their REMOVAL which, by the mdness and steadness
Of those Generals and according the humane spirit Of
their ORDERS eventually accomplished without the APP
pcaton Of force. The outcry raised against General
Jackson account Of these reached the ears
OF the French traveller and writer American democra-
cy, de Tocqueve then sojourning among and col
Letting materials for his work. and induced him to write
thus in bis chapter Is:
eectment Of the Indians very often place. the
present day. in regular and legal When
tho white population gins approach the limit Of n desert
States usually dispatches ENJOYS them who assemble the
Indians in large plain, and having first drunk
with them accos them in the following what have
TO do in the land Of your thers7 Before you must
dig up their bones 10 order TO live In what respect the
country nhabt better than another? there no
woods marshes paires except where you dwell and
you 1--we no where but under your sun Beyond those
mountains which at the hozon-beyond the lake
Whch bounds territory the wcstthere
who're beasts Of chase found in great abundance Sell
your lands to u.s. and and live happily In those soitnde
After holding this language they spread before the eyes
o. the Indians Firearms, wooen garments kegs Of brandy
glasses If wheuthey have behed all riches they still
hesitate IL is nnuAtcd they hnVo not the means re