Andrew Jackson: Lawbreaker Or Maverick President?

Andrew Jackson's legacy is marred by his treatment of Native Americans, particularly the Cherokee Nation. As President, Jackson refused to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling in Worcester v. Georgia, which stated that Georgia could not seize Cherokee land. Jackson's refusal to enforce the ruling led to the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation from their land, a journey known as the Trail of Tears, during which thousands of Cherokees died. Jackson's actions towards the Cherokee Nation raise the question of whether he broke the law and, if so, why he was not held accountable.

Andrew Jackson's defiance of the Supreme Court's ruling on Worcester v. Georgia

The specific issue in Worcester v. Georgia was a Georgia state law that required state authorization to be on Indian lands. This law was part of a series of laws passed by the state designed to evict Native Americans. Samuel Worcester, a preacher, had violated this law and been convicted. The Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice John Marshall, invalidated the law, stating that state laws did not apply on Indian lands, and that Native Americans were under the protection of the federal government and beyond the reach of state law.

Andrew Jackson, who was President at the time and had passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, did not abide by the Supreme Court's ruling. He is famously quoted as saying, "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!" This quote first appeared twenty years after Jackson's death and is likely apocryphal. However, both Georgia and Jackson ignored the Supreme Court's decision.

The reasons for Jackson's defiance are complex and rooted in political and ideological differences. Jackson and his party, descendants of Jefferson's, disagreed with the power asserted by the Supreme Court and held anti-Native American views. Additionally, the Supreme Court's ruling conflicted with Jackson's Indian Removal policy.

The consequences of Jackson's defiance are significant. It set a precedent for the executive branch to disregard judicial rulings, undermining the power of the Supreme Court. Furthermore, it led to the forced removal of the Cherokee and other Native American tribes from their lands, a tragic event known as the Trail of Tears.

Jackson's refusal to enforce the law in Worcester v. Georgia

Worcester v. Georgia was a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Samuel Worcester and held that the Georgia criminal statute that prohibited non-Native Americans from being present on Native American lands without a license from the state was unconstitutional. The opinion is most famous for its dicta, which laid out the relationship between tribes, state, and federal governments.

Samuel Austin Worcester was a missionary to the Cherokee, a translator of the Bible, a printer, and a defender of the Cherokee's sovereignty. Worcester and eleven other missionaries met and published a resolution in protest of an 1830 Georgia law prohibiting all white men from living on Native American land without a state license. Worcester reasoned that obeying the law would, in effect, be surrendering the sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation to manage their own territory. Once the law took effect, Governor George Rockingham Gilmer ordered the militia to arrest Worcester and the others who signed the document and refused to get a license. After two series of trials, all eleven men were convicted and sentenced to four years of hard labor. Nine accepted pardons, but Worcester and Elizur Butler declined their pardons, so the Cherokee could take the case to the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice John Marshall laid out in this opinion that the relationship between the Indian Nations and the United States is that of nations, consistent with the principles of the law of nations. He reasoned that the United States, in the character of the federal government, inherited the legal rights of The Crown. Those rights, he stated, included the sole right to negotiate with the Indian nations of North America, to the exclusion of all other European powers. This did not include the rights of possession of their land or political dominion over their laws. He acknowledged that the exercise of conquest and purchase can give political dominion, but those are in the hands of the federal government, and individual states had no authority in American Indian affairs. Georgia's statute was therefore invalid.

President Andrew Jackson refused to enforce the ruling, thus allowing states to enact further legislation damaging to the tribes. The U.S. government began forcing the Cherokee off their land in 1838. In what became known as the Trail of Tears, some 15,000 Cherokee were driven from their land and were marched westward on a grueling journey that caused the deaths of some 4,000 of their people.

In a popular quotation that is believed to be apocryphal, Jackson reportedly responded: "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!". This quotation first appeared twenty years after Jackson's death in newspaper publisher Horace Greeley's 1865 history of the U.S. Civil War, The American Conflict. It was reported in the press in March 1832 that Jackson was unlikely to aid in carrying out the court's decision if his assistance were to be requested. In an April 1832 letter to John Coffee, Jackson wrote that "the decision of the Supreme Court has fell stillborn, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate.".

Jackson's treatment of Native Americans

Andrew Jackson's treatment of Native Americans was complex and often brutal. Jackson's attitude towards Native Americans was paternalistic and patronizing. He described them as children in need of guidance and believed that his removal policy was beneficial to them. He did not hate Indians as a race and was friendly with many individual Indians. However, Jackson did believe that Indian civilization was lower than that of whites, and that for their own survival, tribes who were pressed by white settlement must assimilate as individuals or remove to the west out of harm's way.

Jackson was a forceful proponent of Indian removal. In 1814, he commanded the U.S. military forces that defeated a faction of the Creek nation, resulting in the Creeks losing 22 million acres of land in southern Georgia and central Alabama. Jackson was also instrumental in negotiating nine out of eleven treaties that divested the southern tribes of their eastern lands in exchange for lands in the west.

Jackson's refusal to enforce the Supreme Court's ruling in Worcester v. Georgia is well-known. In this case, the Court invalidated a Georgia law that required state authorization to be lawfully present on Indian lands, stating that state laws did not apply on Indian lands and that Indians were under the protection of the federal government. Jackson is famously quoted as responding: "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." While this quote is probably apocryphal, both Georgia and Jackson ignored the decision.

The Trail of Tears

The majority of the Cherokee tribe followed Principal Chief John Ross in an attempt to hold onto their land. However, in 1838, under the threat of force from federal troops and the Georgia state militia, the tribe was forced to leave. It is estimated that between three and four thousand out of the fifteen to sixteen thousand Cherokees died en route from the brutal conditions of the Trail of Tears.

Jackson's use of threats and bribery to procure cessions of land

Andrew Jackson's use of threats and bribery to procure cessions of land was evident in his dealings with the Chickasaw and Cherokee tribes.

In 1818, Jackson, along with ex-Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby, negotiated the purchase of Chickasaw land east of the Mississippi River through several treaties, including the Treaty of Tuscaloosa. The Chickasaws were represented by their chiefs, headmen, and warriors, including Levi Colbert, George Colbert, Chinubby, and Tishomingo. The United States agreed to pay the Chickasaw $300,000 annually for 15 years in return for their land.

Jackson's actions towards the Cherokee tribe, however, were more contentious and had longer-lasting repercussions. The Cherokee nation had acquired attributes of white civilization, including a written language, a newspaper, and a constitution of government. They claimed sovereign authority over their territory in Georgia and adjoining states under treaties with the federal government. However, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi countered by asserting state jurisdiction over Cherokee domains.

Jackson supported the states' claims and refused to uphold the Supreme Court's ruling in Worcester v. Georgia (1832), which stated that Georgia laws seizing Cherokee lands violated federal treaties. Jackson infamously responded, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." He also backed the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which authorized him to establish new Indian homelands west of the Mississippi River and exchange them for current tribal holdings.

Jackson gave the Cherokee a choice: submit to state authority or emigrate beyond the Mississippi River. While some tribes submitted, the Cherokees resisted, and their forced removal westward under Jackson's successor, Martin Van Buren, became known as the "Trail of Tears."

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