Jacksonian+Democracy+Group+6

1. Identify the 2 main reasons U.S. officials wanted to move American Indians westward, and describe how the Sequoya and the Cherokee adapted to white culture (pp. 243-244). 2. Identify the Indian Removal Act; explain how Jackson defended his policy of removing the Indians from their lands; and describe one of the many conflicts that arose as a result of this policy---the Second Seminole War (p 244). 3. Describe the circumstances surrounding the Supreme Court case Worcester v. Georgia; identify the two main rulings of the Court; and explain how Jackson’s refusal to enforce the ruling led to the Trail of Tears (p. 245). 4. Identify and describe the relationship between the tariff of 1828, the doctrine of nullification, and South Carolina’s threat to secede (leave the union) --- (pp. 246-247).

Bart Murphy Alex Bell

[] Study Guide Questions:

1. Why did U.S. official want to move American Indians westward?

2. How did Sequoya and Cherokee Indians adapt to white culture?

3. What was the Indian Removal Act?

4. How did Jackson defend his policy of removing the Indians from their land?

5. What was the conflict of the Second Seminole War?

6. What occured with the Supreme Court case of Worcester v. Georgia?

7. What were the two main rulings of the court?

8. How did Jackson's refusal to enforce Marshall's ruling lead to the Trail of Tears?

9. What was the tariff of 1828?

10. What was the doctrine of nullification?

11. Why did South Carolina threaten to leave the union?

Answers:

1. White American's hunger for land and the American Indians' support for the British during the War of 1812 led to a change in government policy. By the early 1820s many government officials had begun to call for the removal of all American Indians to lands beyond the U.S. borders.

2. Indians believed their best chance for survival lay in adapting to white culture, many had given up hunting and become farmers. The Cherokee had shifted to farming in the late 1700s. They built towns with thriving agricultural economies. They wrote a constitution modeled on that of the United States, created a judicial system, supported schools, and formed a militia. The Cherokee were assisted by one man, Sequoya. He neither spoke nor read English, but he recognized the value of a written language. He saw that literacy benefited settlers by enabling them to spread ideas, keep records, and communicate thoughts over long distances. He created a writing system for the Cherokee language that was similar to English. Later, the Cherokee were publishing its own newspaper that was written in both English and Cherokee.

3. The call for relocation of Indians occured because of pressures against them and the Indian Removal Act was passed in 1830 by Congress providing for the relocatio of Indian tribes living east of the Mississippi River to Indian Territory in present-day Oklahoma.

4. American Indians' efforts to adopt practices similar to white Americans failed to ease pressure. Indians were viewed as competitors for valuable land, and in the Southeast occupied millions of acres of fertile land suitable for growing cotton. White farmers pressured the government to open the land to white settlement. Jackson phrased his calls for removal in humanitarian terms. He said that it was for their own protection and that Indians should be moved westward where "their white brothers will not trouble them." Jackson promised eastern Indians that for "as long as grass grows and water runs..., the land will be yours forever."

5. In Florida, resistance and removal led to the Second Seminole War which occured from 1835 to 1842. The war cost more money and lives than any other Indian war in U.S. history. The Seminole were aided by runaway slaves and fought bravely, but most were eventually killed or removed to Indian Territory.

6. The Cherokee fought for their rights through the courts and the Supreme Court ruled they were subject to federal laws, but they did not have the right to sue in federal court. To test whether the ruling applied to the state as well as federal authority, Cherokee ally Samuel Worcester disobeyed an order from the Georgia militia to leave Indian lands. After he was arrested, he appealed his case to the Supreme Court, arguing that the state of Georgia had no power over Indian lands.

7. Chief Justice John Marshall ruled in favor of Worcester and the Cherokee, limiting state power over them. The Court also indicated that the federal government had an obligation to protect the Cherokee from state governments that were trying to take their lands.

8. The victory was short-lived. Georgia officials-with Jackson's support-ignored the Court's ruling and continued to seize Cherokee lands. By the 1838 dealine, few of the some 18,000 Cherokee had moved west. Federal troops began forcing the remaining to make the journey to Indian Territory. An estimated 4,000 Cherokee died on the 800-mile journey. The journey has now become to be known as the Trail of Tears.

9. Congress passed a new tariff in 1828 that doubled the rates set in 1816 for certain imports. Outraged southern planters accused Congress of promoting the interests of the industrial North at the expense of southern agriculture. Southerners argued that the tariff would make British goods, on whith southerners relied heavily, more expenive. They called it the Tariff of Abominations.

10. Vice President John Calhoun no longer believed the national government represented the best interests of his native region, the South. Responding to the new tariff, Calhoun wrote an anonymous essay outlining the southern position. The essay arguesd that as creators of the federal Union, the states had the right to nullify, or refuse to obey, any act of Congress they considered unconstitutional. This view became known as the doctrine of nullification.

11. In 1832 Henry Clay attempted to create a compromise by pushing a slight tariff reduction through Congress. However, the reduction was too small to satisfy South Carolina. In November the state declared the 1828 and 1832 tariffs null and void. South Carolina threatened to secede if the federal government tried to collect tariffs within the state. Siding with his home state, Calhoun resigned as vice president. To calm tensions in South Carolina, Clay convinced Congress to pass a compromise tariff in 1833 that lowered rates over a 10-year period. South Carolina accepted the new tariff.