Era of Good Feelings

The Era of Good Feelings was a period from 1817 to 1825, when the United States was under the presidency of James Monroe and a one-party political system, the Democratic-Republicans (which got their start from Jeffersonian Republicans). Although this was known as the Era of Good Feelings, there was a lot of tension, especially when it came to slavery.

The War of 1812 ended with the Federalist Party all but destroyed, and a new party, the Democratic-Republicans, was ushered in. By 1816, the Democratic-Republicans controlled 85% of the seats in Congress, and James Monroe was elected president.

The Era of Good Feelings was marked by economic changes, some of which had been backed by James Madison. Some of these changes included: chartering the second Bank of the United States, establishing tariffs to protect American manufacturing, and federally-funded internal improvements.


Chartering the Second Bank of the United States

After the War of 1812, the United States was facing money troubles due to an unregulated currency and a lack of fiscal order. In order to move forward from an agrarian society into one that was more industrial, something had to be done.

The Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816 with the same powers and responsibilities as the First Bank (to serve as a repository for federal funds, to be the government's fiscal agent, to help fund military operations). The SBOTUS was a private corporation with public responsibilities, as it handled all fiscal transactions for the US Government, and was accountable to the US Treasury and Congress. Twenty percent of the Bank's capital was owned by the federal government, the Bank's largest stockholder; 4,000 private investors held the other 80% of its capital, with some of those investors being wealthy Americans and many being wealthy Europeans (including wealthy British). The bulk of the stocks that were owned by private investors were held by a few wealthy Americans. The main duties of the SBOTUS was to regulate the public credit issued by private banking institutions through the fiscal duties it performed for the US Treasury, as well as to establish a stable national currency.

The SBOTUS also tried to limit the disbursement of paper currency/bank notes to prevent post-war inflation. By doing so, they instead focused on issuing lines of credit--giving small loans to farmers, small manufacturers, and entrepreneurs which encouraged rapid economic expansion.

However, not everyone was a fan of this Bank; many believed that the Bank was unconstitutional and fought against it, going to the Supreme Court twice. The first SCOTUS case dealing with the SBOTUS was McCulloch v. Maryland (1819). The state of Maryland had tried to impede the operations of the SBOTUS by imposing a tax on all bank notes that were not issued by banks that were chartered in the state of Maryland...at this time, that was the SBOTUS. Despite the law saying it taxed all bank notes not issued by banks chartered in Maryland, this was seen as a direct attack against the SBOTUS. The Supreme Court invoked the Necessary and Proper Clause of the Constitution, which allowed the Federal government to pass laws not expressly provided for in the Constitution's list of express powers as long as those laws are useful in furthering the express powers of Congress under the Constitution. The ruling of the case was that state action may not impede valid constitutional exercises of power by the Federal government.

Later, under the presidency of Andrew Jackson, the SBOTUS would not have its charter renewed, but that's a post for another day.



Establishing Tariffs to Protect American Manufacturing

After the War of 1812 and the Embargo that preceded it, the US economy was stimulated and manufacturing, industry, and trade boomed. A system of tariffs (taxes on imported goods) was necessary to protect the new boom in industry. Southern cotton was being exported around the world, not just around the United States, and it drove the Southern economy to new heights; prosperity was felt around the country. The tariffs, as well as land sales, made the federal government all the money it needed to run properly. However, it wouldn't be all sunshine and daisies for the young country--the economy would soon come to a screeching halt in 1819 and the nation would become economically divided...this will be explained further in another post.



Federally-funded Internal Improvements

The period from post-American Revolution through much of the 19th century was known for the creation of transportation infrastructure such as roads, turnpikes, canals, bridges, harbors, and other improvements.

Two major improvements of this era were in transportation--the invention of the steamboat by Robert Fulton and the construction of the Erie Canal.

The steamboat was invented by Robert Fulton prior to the War of 1812, taking its first voyage from New York City up the Hudson River to Albany in 1807. They steamboat was a lot quicker than other modes of transportation at the time, and would revolutionize the shipping industry. For example, in the South, cotton was often shipped up the Atlantic Coast or up the Mississippi River in order to get to its destinations. The steamboat made transporting goods much quicker.

The Erie Canal was a canal that linked the waters of Lake Erie in Western New York to the Hudson River at the state capital of Albany. Ground was broken in 1817 after about a decade of various proposals for where the canal would be located and how far it would travel, and the canal was finished in 1825. The Erie Canal allowed for more western settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains and allowed people to offer a cheap and safe way to move their products to market.

For more information about the Erie Canal, you can visit eriecanal.org.


The Era of Good Feelings was marked by numerous changes to the United States, which would propel us well into the 19th century and would have an impact on our country's history.

Next time on the blog I'll be writing about why the Era of Good Feelings was anything but.

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The War of 1812

Hello readers. Now, I know I promised back in February (almost a year, ouch) that because I was no longer student teaching I'd be posting more often because I'd have the time to do so...but life got in the way. I'm working a few jobs, I got married over the summer, I've been recovering from surgery, and I've been teaching so I've been super-busy. However, I hope you forgive me and continue to read as we continue through America's past.


Today's post will be about the War of 1812.


The War of 1812 is the war that inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner" which would become the U.S. National Anthem. It's also the war in which the famous Battle of New Orleans took place ("In 1814 we took a little trip along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip. We took a little bacon and we took a little beans and we caught the bloody British in a town called New Orleans..."). However, despite these facts, the War of 1812 is a little-known war that U.S. curriculum often neglects to mention. The War of 1812 had many complicated causes and an inconclusive outcome, however, the war helped to further establish the credibility of the young nation and helped to solidify its place as a force to be reckoned with...and it would also usher in an Era of Good Feelings.


The 1783 signing of the Treaty of Paris at the conclusion of the American Revolution formalized Britain's recognition of the U.S. as its own entity. Shortly after the American Revolution had ended, the U.S. and Britain resumed trading, but it wasn't without cost.


In 1803, as a continuation of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte, the French emperor, and his army ravished Europe. Slowly, they fought and took over country after country. Britain became involved in the war as well and sought to stop the French in their tracks.


In the early 19th century, the U.S. and other countries had been trading with the French, and in 1807 the British introduced a series of trade restrictions to limit or eliminate neutral trade with France. The U.S. saw this move as illegal under internal law and viewed Britain as violating its right to trade with others. At this time, the British felt threatened by the U.S. due to the American merchant marine doubling its force between 1802 and 1810, making it the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the U.S.'s primary trading partner, receiving 80% of its cotton and 50% of other exports. Britain saw how America was growing and becoming a major force of mercantile and commercial competition. This is seen as one of the causes of the war of 1812.


As Britain's navy grew during the Napoleonic Wars to include over 700 ships, their amount of sailors did not grow along with it. In times of peace the British could very easily fill its ships with volunteers, but at times of war they competed with privateers (sometimes called buccaneers and often known as pirates) and merchant shipping. In times of war to get the numbers of sailors they needed, the British would often turn to impressment, which meant they would kidnap sailors and force them to take part in their navy. Impressment was one of the causes of the War of 1812. The U.S. saw British men and women who emigrated to the U.S. and became naturalized as citizens, but the British did not recognize them as citizens of the U.S., they were still seen as British subjects. It was estimated that there were 11,000 naturalized sailors in the U.S. merchant marine and 9,000 of them were British. The British Royal Navy would intercept U.S. ships and search them for British "deserters", impressing them and forcing them to fight in their navy. Americans were outraged by this and saw the actions the British were taking as an infringement on national sovereignty and denying their right to naturalize foreigners. It's also important to note, however, that the Americans' anger in the impressment of sailors is a bit hypocritical--the U.S. would also impress British sailors to use in their own navy and merchant marine, and considering impressment was seen as common practice by the British, they would only rescue their sailors on a case-by-case basis.


Another important cause of the War of 1812 was American raids on the Natives in the Northwest Territory and parts of Canada to try to take over more land. Much like how the British colonists encroached upon the land in the Ohio River Valley prior to the breakout of the French and Indian War, post-Revolutionary Americans were happy with the outcome of the American Revolution except for the amount of land they received after the war. The British had ceded the Northwest Territory at the signing of the Treaty of Paris to the U.S., both sides ignoring the fact that the land was already inhabited by Natives such as the  Miami, Winnebago, Shawnee, Fox, Sauk, Kickapoo, Delaware and Wyandot. The Natives formed a confederation comprised of many tribes to fight against American expansion into their territory. To do this, the Natives used their own weapons as well as muskets and knives supplied by the British to raid the Americans and would cause small wars along the frontier. The Americans would urge the British to stop supplying their Native allies with weapons in hopes that the small wars along the frontier would end. The Americans would gain a major victory in the wars along the frontier by capturing Canada. Historians debate whether the Americans did this to annex Canada or to just use it as a bargaining chip in hopes the impressment of sailors would come to an end. This action of capturing Canada would also cut off food supplies for the colonies in the British West Indies and would temporarily prevent the British from arming the Natives.



According to History.com, in the fall of 1811, Indiana’s territorial governor William Henry Harrison led U.S. troops to victory in the Battle of Tippecanoe. The defeat convinced many Indians in the Northwest Territory (including the celebrated Shawnee chief Tecumseh) that they needed British support to prevent American settlers from pushing them further out of their lands. Meanwhile, by late 1811 the so-called “War Hawks” in Congress were putting more and more pressure on Madison, and on June 18, 1812, the president signed a declaration of war against Britain. Though Congress ultimately voted for war, both House and Senate were bitterly divided on the issue. Most Western and Southern congressmen supported war, while Federalists (especially New Englanders who relied heavily on trade with Britain) accused war advocates of using the excuse of maritime rights to promote their expansionist agenda.

In order to strike at Great Britain, U.S. forces almost immediately attacked Canada, then a British colony. American officials were overly optimistic about the invasion’s success, especially given how underprepared U.S. troops were at the time. On the other side, they faced a well-managed defense coordinated by Sir Isaac Brock, the British soldier and administrator in charge in Upper Canada (modern Ontario). On August 16, 1812, the United States suffered a humiliating defeat after Brock and Tecumseh’s forces chased those led by Michigan William Hull across the Canadian border, scaring Hull into surrendering Detroit without any shots fired.

 Things looked better for the United States in the West, as Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry’s brilliant success in the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813 placed the Northwest Territory firmly under American control. Harrison was subsequently able to retake Detroit with a victory in the Battle of Thames (in which Tecumseh was killed). Meanwhile, the U.S. navy had been able to score several victories over the Royal Navy in the early months of the war. With the defeat of Napoleon’s armies in April 1814, however, Britain was able to turn its full attention to the war effort in North America. As large numbers of troops arrived, British forces raided the Chesapeake Bay and moved in on the U.S. capital, capturing Washington, D.C., on August 24, 1814, and burning government buildings including the Capitol and the White House.

On September 13, 1814, Baltimore’s Fort McHenry withstood 25 hours of bombardment by the British Navy. The following morning, the fort’s soldiers hoisted an enormous American flag, a sight that inspired Francis Scott Key to write a poem he titled “The Star-Spangled Banner.” (Set to the tune of an old English drinking song, it would later be adopted as the U.S. national anthem.) British forces subsequently left the Chesapeake Bay and began gathering their efforts for a campaign against New Orleans."

 By that time, peace talks were beginning to take shape in Ghent (modern-day Belgium) and Britain moved toward an armistice (cease-fire) after their failure to assault Baltimore, Maryland. In the negotiations that led up to the singing of the Treaty of Ghent, the United States gave up its demands to end impressment and Britain promised to leave the Canadian borders unchanged and abandoned efforts to create an Indian state in the Northwest.

On December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, which would later be ratified the following February. Unaware that peace had been concluded, British forces mounted a major attack on New Orleans on January 8, 1815, only to be defeated by future U.S. president Andrew Jackson’s army. News of the battle boosted sagging U.S. morale and left Americans with a sense of victory, despite the fact that the country had achieved none of its pre-war objectives.

The War of 1812 ushered in the Era of Good Feelings, brought the demise of the Federalist Party, boosted national self-confidence, and encouraged American expansionism which would continue on into the 19th century.

The Market Revolution

Hello readers! I'm finished with student teaching and my undergraduate studies as a whole and I'm glad to finally be able to have time to sit and work on this blog. Teaching 9th and 10th graders global studies was definitely an experience I won't forget as I work toward getting done what I need to do to one day have control over my own classroom, but I'm glad to be able to write about American history for a change.

So, we left off with this blog in September having to backtrack a bit, but now we're going to be moving forward again as we pick up in the late 1700s-mid-1800s and discuss the Market Revolution.

The Market Revolution is a term used by historians to show the significance of this period in American history. The Market Revolution was a period of rapid development in manufacturing and improved farming, and these changes were so profound on the country at that time that historians called it a "revolution" because it showed great technological changes and advances.



Agriculture

Some of the changes which transpired during the Market Revolution had to do with farming. The earliest Market Revolution invention in regards to farming was the cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney in 1793. The cotton gin was a machine that separated the cotton fibers from the cotton seeds, which was significantly more productive that separating the seeds and fibers by hand. The fibers were later processed into clothing or other textiles, and any undamaged seeds could be replanted or used to produce cottonseed oil (used for cooking) or cottonseed meal (used in animal feed and organic fertilizers). The invention of the cotton gin led to an increased need for slaves so more cotton could be produced, led to the rise of plantations and a Southern merchant class, led to a rise in Northern factories (to manufacture the cotton into textiles), and would lead to the rise of the Cotton Kingdom [note: all of these will be discussed in greater detail in another post later on]. There were two other very important inventions which aided in the expansion of agriculture in this era, and those were the mechanical mower-reaper invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1834 and the steel plow invented by John Deere in 1838. The mechanical mower-reaper was a machine that allowed farmers to cut standing grain and sweep it onto a platform where it would then be raked into piles by a man standing to the side of the machine. This allowed for more profitable wheat farming in the West, and even created surpluses that the West would sell to the Northeast. The horse-drawn steel plow replaced the ox-driven wooden plows of the past. The steel plow allowed farmers to till their soil fast and more cheaply, as it didn't need to be repaired/replaced as often as the wooden plows did.



Transportation

There were great changes to transportation during the era of the Market Revolution. Railroads were being constructed and were being used to transport goods across the existing states and territories and would continue to be a major form of transportation right up until the invention of the automobile, but a major innovation to transportation during the Market Revolution era was the steamboat, invented by Robert Fulton in 1807. The steamboat truly revolutionized how products such as cotton and even food could be transported. Instead of putting the goods on ships and sailing down the Atlantic coast, or putting the goods on railroads, the steamboat allowed people to ship their goods by using the Mississippi River and transport them from the East to the West (what we today refer to as the Midwest).

Continuing with the topic of transporting goods via waterways, the Erie Canal located in New York State opened in 1825 and was used to transport goods and people. The Erie Canal was the first of several canals in the North that linked western farmers with eastern manufacturers, allowing the western farmers to have their raw materials produced.


Communication

Communication was starting to take off in various ways around this period as well. For example, newspapers and mail carriers were becoming more widespread, and the instant messaging of the day was invented as well--the telegraph, invented by Samuel F.B. Morse in 1835, as well as Morse Code. In 1858, the first transatlantic cable was laid between the U.S. and Europe, enabling rapid communication between the continents.


These innovations would give rise to a powerful economy and would propel the U.S. to become a wealthy nation. The Market Revolution would also give rise to the Cotton Kingdom and Southern Slavery. This era as a whole would lead to the changing of society and culture in the prebellum era.  

The Louisiana Purchase

It seems I have skipped over some vital information while writing this blog, so I'm going to go back in time a bit and talk about the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson was elected as the third president of the United States, after George Washington and John Adams. In 1803, Jefferson acquired land from France shortly after their revolution had ended in what was called the Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson authorized the  Captain Meriwether Lewis and Second Lieutenant William Clark expedition (aka the Lewis and Clark Expedition), which included Lewis and Clark as well as a select group of US Army volunteers who traveled through the newly acquired land from May 1804 to September 1806 to map out and explore the Louisiana Territory, as well as find a practical route across the territory to the Pacific Ocean, and to establish an American presence in the area before other European powers try to lay claim to it. Lewis and Clark were also aided in the expedition by a Shoshone Indian woman Sacagawea and her husband Toussaint Charbonneau. As a result of the Louisiana Purchase, the territory belonging to the US was doubled; and the Louisiana Purchase was the largest territorial gain in US history as the territory stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains (this territory would later be transformed to 15 states).

How did the US pay for the land? Jefferson paid $3 million in gold as a down payment and issued bonds to pay for the remainder to the French. The French, who were ruled by Napoleon Bonaparte at the time, needed the money as quickly as possible in order to finance the planned invasion of England which never took place. Through aiding the French, the US gained an expansive amount of land which would be at the forefront of history for years to come, especially when it came to the expansion of slavery into the western territories (the Trans-Atlantic slave trade had been deemed illegal in 1808 under Jefferson but the domestic slave trade still thrived and would continue to thrive until the presidency of Abraham Lincoln) as well as with the Indian Removal/Trail of Tears.

Slavery in America: Differences Between the North and South

During the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote the famous words that "all men are created equal" but it was evident that some men were more equal than others at the time the Colonies were trying to unite to form what would become the United States. It is no secret that 13 of the first 16 Presidents owned slaves, and as an agrarian society in the early days, the United States has a long history of slavery, which I will do my best to describe briefly in this blog post.

In previous blog posts, I mentioned that the first Africans came over to what would become the United States as indentured servants. As indentured servants, they would serve for a certain period of time and would then become free, and as a reward for their indenture they would receive land, clothing, tools, and even a musket. However, there was too much work and not enough indentured servants, so the Colonists turned to slavery. First, they tried to enslave the Native peoples, but that proved ineffective, so the Colonists had turned to African slavery. With African slavery, the Colonists who could afford to buy slaves could keep the slaves for life, as there was no limit placed on how long they had to serve before they would be free--because for the African slaves, most of them would never be free.

Many people are taught that slavery only existed in the South, but contrary to this popular belief, slavery was legal in all of the states at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, with the exception of Massachusetts. Did you know that there were almost as many slaves in New York as there was in Georgia? And did you know that New Jersey had nearly as many slaves as Delaware and Tennessee combined?

The North and South were very different, so it only makes sense that slavery in the North versus slavery in the South were very different.


The North

•  Even though some Northern states had more slaves that some Southern states, there were only about 40,000 slaves in the North as opposed to nearly 700,000 in the South at the time of the adoption of the Constitution.
• Most Northern slaves were domestic servants, not the laborers necessary to keep mills going or to cultivate fields like in the South.
• Massachusetts abolished slavery in 1780; Pennsylvania provided for gradual emancipation in 1780; states such as New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New Jersey would each abolish slavery; New York would declare that all children born to slaves after July 4, 1799 would be freed after a period of serving as apprentices, and would do away with slavery completely in 1827. 

The South

• With the introduction of the cotton gin in 1793, more slaves were needed in the South to plant and harvest the cotton, so there was an increase in the numbers of slaves being imported to America, and the domestic slave trade was booming as well as many plantation owners needed more and more slaves.
• Although at the time of the adoption of the Constitution the save population of the South was nearly 700,000, and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade would be abolished in 1807, slavery in the South quickly increased through natural reproduction.

Similarities

Despite the differences listed above, and many others, there were similarities between slavery in the North and the South. For example, neither slaves in the North nor slaves in the South had the right to vote, they were counted as less than a person in the census, slaves were considered as property, and many others. However, there were positive similarities when it came to slavery in the North and South (it's a bit weird to write "positive" and "slavery" in the same sentence, haha), such as the ability to be hired out and work for wages and that the slaves could buy their freedom or the freedom of their family members. This fact will come in useful later on when we get closer to discussing the events that led up to the American Civil War. 


This has been a short post, but we're still moving on throughout history nonetheless.

The Cherokee Removal

The Cherokee Removal was a part of the Trail of Tears; it was the forced relocation of the Cherokees from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Texas to Oklahoma. This resulted in the deaths of more than 4,000 Cherokee Indians.

Before the Removal took place in 1836, the Cherokees were split with what to do: should they refuse to leave, as they had assimilated to the Euro-American way of life, or should they relocate to the Oklahoma territory and have their own land?

There were two parties within the Cherokee Nation and both parties believed that they had the right idea for what to do concerning this problem.

• Treaty Party--the Treaty Party supported the Treaty of New Echota and believed that the Removal would be the key to self-government and for the Cherokee Nation to continue to build itself up.
• National Party--the National Party was against the Treaty of New Echota and they believed that they should not be removed from their ancestral lands.

What were the beliefs that led to the Cherokee Removal and what were the consequences of the Removal?

Post-War Fed Policy Towards Indian People

•  Early 1780s—treat then as defeated enemies (Cherokee—Treaty of Hopewell, 1785)
•    1790s—more peaceful approach; recognize each as a “sovereign independent nation

Internal Divisions

•  Cherokees struggle in post-revolutionary period—ongoing divisions not well-healed between Chickamauga and Cherokee
•   Intermarriage with traders; Cherokee women’s kin connections

Assumptions of Federal Civilization Policy

• Indians are inferior culturally
• Indians can change
• Indians must change or die out
• Indians (transformed culturally) can and should become US citizens—tribes will become relevant
• Government has  a role to play in helping this happen—cost savings, help them to “enlighten” rural backcountry whites at the same time and pit interest groups against one another
• Part of a larger state-building agenda—how to transform western frontiers into productive and taxable units, how to bond frontier Americans to the political life of the nation 

What Does “Civilization” Mean?

•  Not hunting
• Embracing economic of the marketplace—capital accumulation (savings), reinvestment
• Individual production for subsistence, selling of surplus goods
• Patriarchal control
• Political mechanisms for rule of law
• Christianity and American education
• External indications of assimilation

The Stuff of Civilization

• Tools
• Plows
• Draft animals (horses, oxen)
• Seeds (wheat, cotton seeds)
• Wheels
•  Looms
• Schools
• Mills
• Infrastructural support
• Churches

Cherokee Attitudes

• Enthusiastic
• Cherokees see the donation of goods and money as war reparations for the physical brutality and wanton destruction levied by Patriot militias
• They like missionaries because they teach reading and writing and English is useful. Most are not convinced of religious  ideologies to exclusion of their own ideas about creation, the afterlife, etc.; they see Christianity as a supplemental system, at best
• Willing to adopt all new technology and goods—they see it as a beneficial addition to their lifestyles
• Rebuild their homes; begin to have large families

1792-1810

• Cherokee women eagerly take up cotton seed, looms, and livestock as a means of economic empowerment—cloth production easily outstrips fur trade in economic significance within two years
• Cherokee Nation experience economic resurgence. They get the same cotton boom that everyone has. They sell corn and beef to slaveholders to feed their slaves, cloth to migrating families, grow/sell their own cotton for export
• Cherokee embrace economic help and a blended approach to cultural change
• Most are less enthusiastic about cultural pressure to replace Cherokee ideas with Anglo-American ideas

Cultivating Good Relations with the United States

• Trade with American in-migrants and rent them land
• Accept placement of Christian missionaries in their territories
• Form their own brigade in Creek War of 1813-1814, march with Andrew Jackson
• The men who are in the position of negotiating with outsides agree with much of the policy that favors slaveholders and protects slaveholders’ property

Elite Cherokees

• Elite Cherokees are more often bi-racial—Cherokee mothers, British/Scottish/US fathers
• Planters, storekeepers, ferry masters. Nearly all are slaveholders
• Most likely to accept Christian teachings
• Become influential in Cherokee politics—realize the importance of developing American-style political institutions
• About 300-500 people who are enthusiastic about possibilities of full assimilation (see themselves on the white side of the color line)

Gendered Changes

• Changing ideas about the position of women in a republic
• Women were growing more economically powerful; often make more cash than their husbands
• Patriarchy seen as civilized

Tensions in Cherokee Society

•  Patriarchal vs. Matriarchal
• College educated in north vs. educated locally
• Slaveholding plantation owners vs. subsistence farmers
• Investors and full participants in global capital markets vs. non-commercial reinvestment in local institutions
• Treaty Party (pro-Removal Cherokees) vs. National Party (anti-Removal Cherokees)

Cherokee Constitution of 1827

·         Reasons to have a Constitution

o   Government was already dividing into three branches

o   It seemed “civilized” and “logical”

o   Saw themselves as future US citizens, and the US had a Constitution

o   “…in order to establish justice, ensure tranquility, promote our common welfare, and secure to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of liberty…”

·         Who formed the Constitution?

o   Wealthy, “civilized”, Christian, well-educated Cherokees

·         Who is a Cherokee according to the Constitution?

o   Cherokee mother, Cherokee father

o   Cherokee father, white mother (changed from Cherokee mother, white father)

o   Cannot be Afro-Cherokee or mulatto

o   Must live in the boundaries of the Cherokee Nation

o   No duel-citizenship between Cherokee Nation and Georgia

·         Who can vote?

o   Free man, age 18

o   Cherokee or Cherokee-white

·         Who can’t vote?

o   Cherokee women

o   Afro-Cherokees and mulattos

o   Freed Africans

·         Changing rights of women

o   No longer able to vote

o   No longer have control over their own property

o   No more matrilineal descent—slow transition to patrilineal descent

·         Differences between Cherokee and US Constitutions

o   Slavery is explicitly mentioned

o   No direct election of the Principal Chief

o   Must believe in a god to hold office—not necessarily the Christian god, but a god of some sort

o   Chief’s cabinet is picked for him by the Council

o   Different age limits—Councilmember at 25, Judge at 30, Principal Chief at 35

The Pressure to Remove Cherokees Increases

·         Local settlers in the state of Georgia wanted the Cherokees to move for a variety of reasons

o   Wanted the land

§  Gold was found in Georgia and they needed the Cherokee off the land so the gold can be mined

§  Wanted to sell the land to more settlers

§  Market Revolution urged people to be more productive, and land was needed to farm food, cash crops (like cotton and tobacco), and raise animals for textile production

§  Believed the land was theirs and the Cherokees were in their way and problematic

o   Believed Cherokee were inferior and backward

§  There were some very well-educated Cherokee—but many whites, like Lewis Cass, believed that the only educated Cherokees were “half-breeds”

§  Believed that a lot of people couldn’t, or wouldn’t, read

§  Believed that Cherokee were spending money on foolish things—like having a newspaper—instead of doing positive things like helping the poor

§  Believed Cherokee were easy to take advantage of and were stupid

o   Believed Cherokee were poor

§  Cherokee lived very modestly, but others were very wealthy as well—just like white society (but the focus was not on the wealthy Cherokees)

o   To Give Cherokee a Place of Their Own

§  Cherokee would be able to practices their own culture without the influence of the whites if they were removed from Georgia

§  Believed this was philanthropic to remove the Cherokee from Georgia and put them on reservations elsewhere  

The Cherokees were forcibly removed from their land in Georgia, as many would refuse to voluntarily leave. The U.S. Army would march the Cherokees from their homes. There would be political turmoil that resulted from the Cherokee Removal, and that turmoil would lead to the assassinations of the leaders who belonged to the Treaty Party and wanted the removal off of the ancestral lands to the Oklahoma territory. However, it is important to note that the Cherokee who lived on privately owned land and not communal land were not subject to the Removal and were not forced to live on reservations like those who did live on communal land; white men and women who married in or were adopted into Cherokee society also were not subject to the Indian Removal Act.

In 2004, Kansas Republican Senator Sam Brownback introduced a joint resolution which would “offer an apology to all Native Peoples on behalf of the United States” for past “ill-conceived policies” by the United States Government regarding Indian Tribes. It passed in the U.S. Senate in 2008.