Doctrine of Discovery Primary Sources Document 5^06
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Palm Beach Atlantic University *
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MISC
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History
Date
Jan 9, 2024
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docx
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3
Uploaded by AmbassadorDonkey1458
Name ___________________________________________________
Date _____________
Doctrine of Discovery Primary Sources
Document 5: Johnson v. McIntosh, Feb. 28, 1823
In this Supreme Court case, Johnson had purchased a tract of land from the
Plankeshaw Indians prior to the creation of the United States. McIntosh
purchased the same land from the United States government approximately
forty years later. Johnson’s descendants sued McIntosh in court for trying to
take the title of the land from them. The case reached the Supreme Court,
where Chief Justice John Marshall and the entire court ruled against Johnson.
The court’s decision stated that the U.S. government was the sole original
title holder of land in the United States and that Native Americans could not
sell land. Marshall’s reasoning is as stated:
They (the Plankeshaw Indians) were admitted to be the rightful occupants of
the soil, with a legal as well as just claim to retain
possession of it, and to use
it according to their own discretion
; but their rights to complete sovereignty
as independent nations were necessarily diminished, and their power to
dispose of the soil at their own will to whomsoever they pleased was denied
by the original fundamental principle that discovery gave exclusive title to
those who made it.
So early as the year 1496, her monarch granted a commission to the Cabots
to discover countries then unknown to Christian people and to take
possession of them in the name of the King of England. Two years
afterwards, Cabot proceeded on this voyage and discovered the continent of
North America, along which he sailed as far south as Virginia. To this
discovery the English trace their title.
Vocabulary Terms:
Retain -
To keep hold of
Discretion -
personal judgement
Sovereignty -
Being an independent country
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Date _____________
1.
Why does the Supreme Court say the indigenous people do not have
the right to own their land?
2.
According to this document, what can indigenous people do on their
land? What can indigenous people not do on their land?
3.
How does this document view indigenous people?
Document 6: Justice Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution
of the United States, 1833
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Date _____________
“…the title of the Indians was not treated as a right of propriety
and
dominion; but as a mere right of occupancy . As infidels
, heathen
, and
savages, they were not allowed to possess the prerogatives
belonging to
absolute, sovereign and independent nations. The territory, over which they
wandered, and which they used for their temporary and fugitive
purposes,
was, in respect to Christians, deemed, as if it were inhabited only by brute
animals.”
Vocabulary Terms:
Propriety -
Property
Infidels/heathens -
Non-Christians
Prerogatives -
The right to do something
Fugitive
- Fleeing away from
1.
Does the author of Document 6 support or counter the views held in
Document 5? How so?
2.
How does this document view indigenous people?
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