To What Extent Was The Indian Removal Act Justified

Was the Indian Removal Act Justified?

“Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all” (Maximilien Robespierre). The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized negotiation between the United States of America and the Five Civilized Tribes in the southeast for the acquisition of their lands. Andrew Jackson signed it in to gain territory for agriculture as well as to appease Georgia, as tensions are high between the state and the Cherokee. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 is unjust because it violates the Cherokees’ right to their lands and nation, can only bring them harm, and the grounds upon which the law was formed and justified are invalid.

Andrew Jackson argues that the Indian

Now the Cherokee may share the same fate. Nowhere in the deal given by the United States states or even implies that the nation would provide aid or assistance as the Cherokee are deported from their own country and forced to trek across our country most likely on foot. In short, the Cherokee are being forced to trek the Trail of Tears across the United States just as the Choctaw and Creek were before them, effectively committing national suicide, with the death rate of the trail reaching 66

The sheer nature of the law is unjustified as it states that the United States can negotiate for the full acquisition of Indian lands so that southern states can gain land for farming and so that Georgia will not invade the Cherokee. Not only does the United States not have the right to declare several nations tradeable to the United States, the Supreme Court case Worcester v. Georgia ruled that Georgians cannot participate in Indian affairs, including forcing the Cherokee off their land. It is the executive branch’s (the President’s and their subordinates’) duty to enforce it, even with force if need be like when South Carolina threatened to secede. The law also does not take into account the amount of hardship the Indians must go through if they are forced off their land. Good land or not, $5 million is not enough to rebuild an entire nation’s settlements, culture, and history. No aid is provided during transit either, leaving the exiled natives to the elements when it was the Union that sought after their lands in the first place. Previous tribes who had been forced off their land in the same manner walked the infamous “Trail of Tears”, a harsh and deadly trek that spans from the southeast United States to the Indian