Andrew Jackson Dbq Essay

Before Andrew Jackson became the President, he served as major general in the War of 1812, Battle of New Orleans, Creek War, and the First Seminole War (“The War of 1812 and Indian Wars”). On June 18, 1812 Congress declared war on Britain which started the War of 1812 (“An Act Declaring War Against UK and Ireland”). Jackson leads an army of 2,071 Tennessee volunteers to New Orleans but is instructed to stop at Natchez, and then Secretary of War, John Armstrong sends a message ordering him to turn over his force to Wilkinson. Jackson obeys and also promises to march them back to Nashville and face numerous hardships on the journey back but pays for all of the provisions and earns himself the respect and praise of the people of Tennessee (“The

Georgia and Worcester v. Georgia. In 1829, gold was discovered in Georgia and a gold rush occurred, and this increased the people’s determination to remove the Cherokee from their homeland (Williams 3). Following the discovery of gold, the Georgian legislature forbade the Cherokee to dig gold and in the following session they stripped them of all of their land besides their residences where they lived. Even if state judges interfered in these actions they were denied jurisdiction in such cases. (Perdue 104). This clearly shows that there was political bias and the state government was acting reactively instead of acting proactively and looking at the losses the Cherokees would face. This then instigated the case Cherokee Nation v. Georgia. In June 1830, a delegation of Cherokee led by John Ross and William Wirt, attorney general in the Monroe Administration, were selected to obtain a federal injunction against laws that were passed by the Georgia state legislature depriving them of their rights within the state borders (“Cherokee Nation v. Georgia”). They claimed that Georgia created laws that “go directly to annihilate the Cherokees as a political society,” and since they were a foreign government, Georgia’s laws were not legally binding to them. As a counter, Georgia was trying to make the point that the Cherokee Nation was not a foreign government because they did not have

Governor George Gilmer then ordered the militia to arrest Worcester and the others and after two trials they were all convicted (“Worcester v. Georgia 1832”). The Cherokee then decided to take this case to the Supreme Court which then was Worcester v. Georgia. In this case, the Supreme Court removed the conviction of Samuel Worcester. Interestingly, Georgia did not send anyone to represent them as they said, “no Indian could drag it into court.” Supreme Court Justice John Marshall clearly established the relationship between the Indian tribes, states, and the federal government, stating that the federal government had the sole authority to deal with Indian nations (“Worcester v. Georgia”). This then nullified the Geogia statue prohibiting non-Native Americans from being present on their land without a state license. It also declared the Cherokee as a sovereign nation thus nullifying all laws that Georgia imposed on it (Ehle 24). This case would be cited and be used as a precedent in the future when the laws of tribal sovereignty and reservation system was being established. However, President Jackson blatantly ignored the ruling and responded in a famous quote, “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce