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Andrew Jackson Speech

Decent Essays

Andrew Jackson’s Speech to Congress: Indian Removal The chosen document was written by former president Andrew Jackson on December 6, 1830. Andrew Jackson was a less educated political figure, he was fairly illiterate but he did make major changes to the united states. The purpose of this speech was to justify, to the American people and to congress; the removal policy already established by the Indian Removal Act of May 28, 1830. During this speech, Andrew Jackson gives his reasoning for why the Indians should be relocated. He states that the Removal Act will, “separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their own way and under their own rude institutions..” (Jackson) This is an absurd statement, because even though relocating the Indian tribes and communities did help expand the land of the United States, this act left many of Indians without any ties to the land they were forced to move to. Just because the Indians wanted to keep their land and would do anything to defend it, didn’t mean that they were a threat to the white civilizations. Though, of course, these arguments are the exact reason why Jackson gave this speech. Throughout this document, Jackson keeps giving explanations as to why the Removal act improves both the Indian and white societies, in his point of view anyway. Jackson does assume that most people understand the meaning of words like “abode” and “discontented.” Of course, this speech was given over almost 188 years ago, when the intended audience was made up of mainly highly educated men of political standpoints. So, naturally, this document is easy to believe if the reader can adopt the mental state of this time period: where mostly men occupied the educated population; most rights that our societies abuse and take for granted today did not exist; and even be able to ignore the immoral way that Americans during this time period thought. These early Americans thought that they could just roll onto a new land, and say claim to have any right to conquer it, without caring too much for the societies that they destroyed along the way. This speech was supposed to be defending the

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