The Congress eventually followed suit by enacting the Indian Removal Act which was greeted by the newly elected President Andrew Jackson. Americans should feel no regret for the disappearance of Indians from the face of the earth, Jackson argued. "Philanthropy could not wish to see this continent restored to the condition in which it was found by our forefathers," he said to Congress in his State of the Union Address. "What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic" (Perdue & Green 120). Many Anglo-Americans opposed the Indian Removal Act. Missionaries especially were appalled at the plan to evict the Cherokee Indians by force. A Baptist Reverend, writing under the pseudonym of "William Penn," argued that the United States had no right to use force and evict the Cherokee of their ancestral lands. He cited Americans laws and provisions of agreements signed by both the U.S. Government and the Cherokee tribal government. He argued that "the removal of any nation of Indians from their country by force would be an instance of gross and cruel oppression . . . And therefore entirely unjustifiable" (Perdue & Green 98). On the contrary, Penn argued, the Unites States was bound to protect the Cherokee nation from any form of eviction.

The rights of the Cherokee to the land were also upheld by the United States Supreme Court. But the government of Jackson ignored the Court's decision, allowing many Georgians to enter the Cherokee territory. In the face of this pressure and a feeling of powerlessness, a minority group among the Cherokee, under the leadership of Elias Boudinot and John Ridge, decided to negotiate with the U.S. government. The group became known as the Treaty Party,...

Article 1 of the treaty stated that "The Cherokee nation hereby cede relinquish and convey to the United States all the lands owned claimed or possessed by them east of the Mississippi river" (Perdue & Green 140). That was a blueprint for physical removal of the Cherokee people.
The "Trail of Tears" was a horrific experience. Baptist missionary Even Jones, a witness to the removal, wrote in a letter: "The Cherokees are nearly all prisoners. They have been dragged from their houses, and encamped at the forts and military posts, all over the nation. . . . Well-furnished houses were left a prey to plunderers, who, like hungry wolves, follow in the train of the captors. . . . Females, who have been habituated to comforts and comparative affluence, are driven on foot before they bayonets of brutal men. Their feelings are mortified by vulgar and profane vociferations. It is a painful sight" (Perdue & Green 165). A Cherokee child later recalled that, on their way to the West, "there was much sickness among the emigrants and a great many little children died of whooping cough" (ibid 169). These recollections show the tragedy of the "Trail of Tears."

The Indian Removal was not an act that took place all of a sudden. There were several events that eventually led to the forceful removal of the Cherokee nation. But ultimately, it was a racist and immoral act -- at the time opposed by conscientious Americans -- that remains to be one of the most tragic moments in American history.

Works Cited

Perdue, Theda & Michael D. Green. The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents. Boston:…