Jacksonland: A Great American Land Grab
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thirteen colonies supported 37 newspapers … 1828 there were 802 All figures from the U.S. Post Office Department, as recorded by Simmonds, “Statistics of Newspapers in Various Countries,” pp. 120–22.
cheap “penny papers” … would vastly expand newspaper circulation Reynolds, Waking Giant¸ pp. 240–41.
Henry Clay once loaned an editor $1,500 The editor was Amos Kendall, who later went over to Andrew Jackson. Cole, A Jackson Man¸ p. 89.
a year and a half’s worth of issues According to Marsha Mullin, chief curator, the Hermitage. A receipt for 17 subscription payments is in Moulton, Papers of Andrew Jackson, May 1825, vol. 6, pp. 66–67.
first black-owned and black-operated newspaper Bacon, “The History of Freedom’s Journal,” p. 1.
Samuel Worcester … obtaining the necessary equipment Bass, Cherokee Messenger, pp. 78–79. Also Malone, “The Cherokee Phoenix: Supreme Expression of Cherokee Nationalism,” p. 165.
“Murder … not heard of the circumstances” Cherokee Phoenix, March 26, 1828, p. 3.
leaving the suspect “unmolested” Ibid., April 3, 1828, p. 2.
He was acquitted Ibid., June 11, 1828, p. 2.
“Subscribers who can only read the Cherokee language” Ibid., April 10, 1828.
population conservatively estimated at thirteen thousand … 46,700 hogs Ibid., May 14, 1828, p. 3.
“shall lay violent hands … to her consent” Ibid., p. 1.
“Resolved by the National Committee” Ibid., April 24, 1828, p. 1.
“I stood on Cape Montserado … degradation of the Africans” Ibid., March 6, 1828, p. 3.
receive copies of about a hundred other papers Perdue, ed., Cherokee Editor: The Writings of Elias Boudinot, p. 16.
“may very properly be regarded as something new” United States Telegraph, March 17, 1828.
religious journals that were the era’s most widely read publications Hershberger, “Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition,” p. 18.
a well with a windlass built into the porch Harriett Gold to Herman and Flora Gold Vaill, January 7, 1831, Gaul, To Marry an Indian, p. 172.
“Our water is so sweet & pure” Ibid.
“The Editor of this paper regrets” Cherokee Phoenix, April 8, 1829, p. 2.
the printer … A Methodist Elias and Harriett Boudinot to Herman and Flora Gold Vaill, January 23, 1829, Gaul, To Marry an Indian, p. 161.
“What is an Indian?” Boudinot’s 1826 speech is quoted in Gabriel, Elias Boudinot, p. 3.
“long lost tribes of Israel” Boudinot, Star in the West, p. iii.
“Latin, Greek … removal of the tribe to the West” Starr, History of Cornwall, p. 141.
“rash presumption & disobedience” Gaul, To Marry an Indian, p. 91.
Harriett’s own brother lit the fire Ibid., p. 1.
one-fourth of the entire Cherokee Nation had at least some white ancestry Kilpatrick and Kilpatrick, New Echota Letters, pp. 84–85.
“I remain your Indian Brother” Elias and Harriett Boudinot to Herman and Flora Gold Vaill, January 23, 1829, Gaul, To Marry an Indian, p. 161.
“AN IMITATION INDIAN” Cherokee Phoenix, July 2, 1828, p. 3.
“electioneering” letters Ibid., July 23, 1828, p. 2.
“Presidential Election” Ibid., December 3, 1828, p. 2.
The first was to take away … printing press John Macpherson Berrien to Jackson, June 25, 1830, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 8, p. 392.
Chapter Eighteen: This Is a Straight and Good Talk
“serene and mild” … “an immense concourse of spectators” Niles’ Weekly Register, vol. 36, 1829, p. 28.
“The barrier that had separated the people” Smith, First Forty Years of Washington Society, p. 294.
“carriages, wagons and carts” … “women and children, black and white” Ibid.
had to be wedged out of the house Meacham American Lion, p. 62.
“the present season is sacred to sorrow” Jackson to Francis P. Blair et al., January 1, 1829, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 7, pp. 3–4.
“It pleased God to take her from this world” Jackson to Katherine Duane Morgan, January 3, 1829, ibid., p. 5.
“abandon your just grief” Edward Livingston to Jackson, January 3, 1829, ibid., p. 6.
“I have this day got my dear Mrs. J Tomb” Jackson to Coffee, January 17, 1829, ibid., pp. 12–13.
inventory of ninety-five slaves Ibid., pp. 8–10.
“Every one of the public men” Smith, First Forty Years of Washington Society, p. 259.
“Shoot the damned rascal!” Truth’s Advocate and Monthly Anti-Jackson Expositor, April 1828, pp. 121–27.
A special edition of the Kentucky Reporter: A tattered copy of it is found in Dyas Collection—John Coffee Papers.
“a degraded female … National morals” Truth’s Advocate and Monthly Anti-Jackson Expositor, January 1828, p. 4.
“the planters of the South” Howe, What Hath God Wrought, pp. 279–80.
one Caleb Atwater of Ohio Atwater to Jackson, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 7, pp. 44–45.
“The curse of God will afflict a Sabbath-breaking nation” Charles Coffin to Jackson, January 21, 1829, ibid., pp. 16–17.
“distinguish himself as a patriot” From Ezra Stiles Ely to Jackson, transcribing a note from Beecher, ibid., p. 21.
“decent pretext” H. M. Breckenridge to Jackson, February 4, 1829, ibid., pp. 29–30.
“I … shall be the last to cry out treason” Draft of inaugural address, undated, ibid., p. 76.
“First, the removal of the Indians” Van Buren, Autobiography, p. 275.
“No Indian, and no descendant”Cherokee Phoenix, December 3, 1828, p. 3.
“expulsion” Ibid., p. 2.
“The course pursued by Georgia” Jackson to Overton, June 8, 1829, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 7, pp. 270–71.
“Friends & Brothers … hear his counsel” Jackson to the Creek Indians, March 23, 1829, ibid., pp. 112–13.
“I return herewith the resolutions” Ross to the National Committee, October 29, 1828, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 145.
only an oblique mention of his dead child He referred only to “the sudden manner in which I was called home,” Ross to Lewis Ross, October 30, 1828, ibid.
“the present U.S. agent … does not … inspire … confidence” Ross to Jackson, March 6, 1829, ibid., p. 157.
“the tribe established an independent government” John Eaton to Ross, April 18, 1829, ibid., pp. 162–63.
“the soil shall be yours, while the trees grow or the streams run” Jackson quoted in ibid.
“much longer than desired or anticipated” Ross to Jeremiah Evarts, May 6, 1829, ibid., p. 164.
“What will be the result” Ibid.
Chapter Nineteen: The Blazing Light of the Nineteenth Century
“Gentlemen … : I send for your paper” National Intelligencer, August 1, 1829.
“I shall not agree with the present Executive” Ibid.
Evarts was the one who helped to have a press sent from Boston Bass, Cherokee Messenger, pp. 78–79.
“I could hear some words distinctly … ; but could not keep the connexion” Evarts to Henry Hill, March 5, 1829, cited in Oliphant, Through the South and West with Jeremiah Evarts in 1826, p. 50.
“a direct collision between the national and state authorities” Evarts quoted in ibid., p. 49.
“No relief can be hoped” Evarts, March 10, 1829, quoted in ibid., p. 53.
“they may be copied into semi-weekly papers, if their Editors see fit”National Intelligencer, August 1, 1829. Tracy, Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., p. 33.
“the greatest kindness … shall have passed away”National Intelligencer, August 5, 1829.
“There sat Evarts, in a plain rustic garb” Tracy, Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., p. 11.
“In my leisure moments” Ibid., p. 33.
From 1810 to 1821 he edited the Panoplist: Ibid., p. 55.
“the entire subjugation of the world to Christ” Ibid., p. 64.
“a stupid contempt of death” Ibid., p. 77.
$3.235 billion Ibid.
“I was never in a place where so many people might give largely” Ibid., p. 117.
“exceedingly disconsolate, much as if they were led to execution” Journal extract, from ibid., p. 114.
“Black men will at last be free” Ibid., p. 84.
a journey of 768 miles Oliphant, Through the South and West with Jeremiah Evarts in 1826, p. 117.
He stayed for days at Brainerd … admiring the sun setting Evarts journal reproduced in Tracy, Memoir of the Life of Jeremiah Evarts, Esq., pp. 120–21.
twenty-five-acre compound … John McDonald Moulton, John Ross, Cherokee Chief, p. 7.
“disappearance from the human family would be no great loss to the world” Clay’s remark described in Adams diary entry, December 21, 1825, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. 7, pp. 89–90.
“The Cherokees are human beings”National Intelligencer, August 8, 1829.
Some forty other newspapers reprinted his essays Portnoy, Their Right to Speak, p. 26.
“The Letters … of WILLIAM PENN” National Intelligencer, October 14, 1829, quoted in ibid., p. 27.
even John Marshall … read and approved of them Oliphant, Through the South and West with Jeremiah Evarts in 1826, p. 55.
Part Six: State of the Union, 1829–1830
Chapter Twenty: They Have Been Led to Look Upon Us as Unjust
“Every Indian … principal occupations of an Indian” Cass, “Removal of the Indians,” p. 75.
“We speak of them as they are” Ibid., p. 74.
the magazine published a rebuttal Portnoy, Their Right to Speak, p. 26.
“We believe, if the Indians do not emigrate … they must perish” Banner, How the Indians Lost Their Land, p. 209.
“not an improvable breed” Adams diary entry, December 21, 1825, Memoirs of John Quincy Adams, vol. 7, p. 90.
“free from the mercenary influence … control over their interests” Jackson to James Gadsden, October 12, 1829, Owsley et al., Papers of Andrew Jackson, vol. 7, pp. 491–92.
“the condition of the Indians within the limits” Ibid., pp. 609–10.
“a power which should be placed in the hands of no individual” Eaton draft of first annual message, ibid., p. 623.
“our ancestors found them the uncontrolled possessors of these vast regions” Jackson’s first annual message as delivered, December 8, 1829, Journal of the Senate, 21st Cong., 1st Sess., p. 6.
“A crisis seems to be fast approaching” Ross, Annual Message, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 172.
Chapter Twenty-one: The Expediency of Setting Fire
it was rumors of gold that lured Hernando de Soto Williams, Georgia Gold Rush, p. 8.
the first public announcement was a news article Ibid., p. 24.
“whites, Indians, halfbreeds” Ibid., p. 26.
boomtown that would be called Dahlonega Ibid., p. 25.
“idle, profligate people … loosed from the restraints of the law” Governor George Gilmer, cited in ibid., p. 26.
“almost all had departed” Cherokee Phoenix, April 7, 1830, p. 2.
Over the course of 1830 … $212,000 worth of gold to the U.S. Mint Williams, Georgia Gold Rush, p. 28.
“could not for a moment think of seeing [the paper] stopped” Ross to National Committee and National Council, November 4, 1829, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 176.
from Ross’s own pocket Ibid.
“With the view of preventing erroneous impressions” All text of letter from Ross to Boudinot, February 13, 1830, ibid., pp. 184–87.
The Indian agent did try to warn them offCherokee Phoenix, March 11, 1829, p. 3, and December 30, 1829, p. 2.
“such person shall forfeit the protection of the United States” Ross, Annual Message, Moulton, Papers of Chief John Ross, vol. 1, p. 172.
“arrogated to themselves … from their houses” Cherokee Phoenix, April 7, 1830, p. 2.
“Some of the officers of the United States … enrol themselves for the Arkansas”: From statement by settlers, March 19, 1830, reprinted in ibid.
Chapter Twenty-two: Sway the Empire of Affection
“distressing and disastrous consequences … I was greatly excited” Beecher, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions, p. 62.
charitable organizations that promoted public virtue Hershberger, “Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition,” pp. 18–19.
“by no means excluding females” Lincoln to the editor of the Sangamo Journal, June 13, 1836, Speeches and Writings, 1832–1858, p. 5.
“The present crisis” This and the following Beecher quotes from Ladies’ Circular as printed in “Circular Addressed to Benevolent Ladies of the United States,” Connecticut Courant, December 29, 1829, p. 1.
“The circular was to be printed” Beecher, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions, p. 63.
“It seemed as if I had a decided genius” Ibid., p. 13.
“the busiest of all creatures in doing nothing” Ibid., p. 26.
Catharine refused to accept this as a certainty White, The Beecher Sisters, p. 6.
she developed her own book Beecher, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions, pp. 28–29.
“but the more intelligent and influential women came to my aid … ever since” Ibid., p. 33.
Women started recruiting husbands, sons, and brothers Portnoy, Their Right to Speak, p. 26.
One young man … organized opposition at Andover Hershberger, “Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition,” p. 40.
Newspapers reprinted the women’s circular For example, Connecticut Courant, December 29, 1829, p. 1.
editors were uncertain of its propriety Hershberger, “Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition,” p. 18.
public meetings were held in every city Beecher, Educational Reminiscences and Suggestions, p. 64.
that delicacy of feeling Petition from Farmington, Maine, February 22, 1830. National Archives, Box HR 21A-G-7.1 to HR 21A-G-8.2.
“I was asked one day by an outsider” Ibid.
“I suddenly found myself utterly prostrated” Ibid., p. 65.
“We affirm, that every slaveholder is a man-stealer” Grimké, Letters to Catharine E. Beecher, p. 4.
“petitions to congress” Beecher, Essay on Slavery and Abolitionism, p. 104.
“thousands of petitions, signed by more than a million” Lumpkin, Removal of the Cherokees from Georgia, p. 47.
thousands of signatures Petitions to Committee on Indian Affairs, 1830–31, National Archives, Box HR 21A-G-8.2, Box HR 21A-G-8.2 (cont’d), Box HR 21A-G-7.1 to HR 21A-G-8.2, Box HR 21A-G-9.1. In studying them the author was following the example of Alisse Portnoy, author of Their Right to Speak.
“no disrespect … unbenevolent males” Hershberger, “Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition,” p. 29.
Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont Petitions to Committee on Indian Affairs, as above.
activists concluded that if Indian removal was wrong Hershberger, “Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition,” pp. 35–37.
“eternal infamy” Ibid., p. 36.
reprinted articles from the Cherokee Phoenix: Ibid., p. 36.
Part Seven: Checks and Balances, 1830–1832
Chapter Twenty-three: Legislative
“My life has never been free from care and responsibility” All of Lumpkin’s speech from Lumpkin, Removal of the Cherokees from Georgia, pp. 57–74.
“such tribes or nations of Indians as may choose to exchange the lands” American State Papers, Senate Bill 102, 21st Cong., p. 1.
he had arrived in 1827 with something like this in mind Lumpkin, Removal of the Cherokees from Georgia, p. 42.
first dozen miles Niles’ Weekly Register, May 2
2, 1830, p. 232.
what is now Wisconsin It was Fort Winnebago. Monroe and McIntosh, eds., Papers of Jefferson Davis, pp. 129–67.
In 1830 Lyman Beecher’s Boston church burned Hayward, Lyman Beecher, p. 47.
Second Lieutenant Robert E. Lee: Thomas, Robert E. Lee, p. 57.
“White men, beware … mighty chasms” Lepore, In the Name of War, p. 202.
on February 1, 1830, when a man in the Creek NationNiles’ Weekly Register, June 5, 1830, vol. 38, p. 270.
roughly the same route General Lafayette had taken Both were likely on or near the federal road described in Benton, Very Worst Road.
Believing the Creek man was drunk Details of the incident as reported by the Mobile Register and reprinted in Niles’ Weekly Register, June 5, 1830, vol. 38, p. 270; also Stuart, Three Years in North America, p. 166.
Two troops of cavalry, along with a troop of volunteers Stuart, Three Years in North America, p. 168.
“has thrown the whole country into commotion” Mobile Register, reprinted in Niles’ Weekly Register, June 5, 1830, vol. 38, p. 270.
“on account of the delinquency of one individual” Stuart, Three Years in North America, p. 168.
“It may be contended, with much plausibility” Ibid., p. 174.
“handsomely dressed … not too nearly inspected” Ibid., p. 168.
“cheerfully … the example of the white man” American State Papers, Register of Debates, 21st Cong., 1st Sess., May 15, 1830, p. 993.
“incorporate with us as citizens of the United States” Jefferson to William Henry Harrison, February 27, 1803. Prucha, Documents of United States Indian Policy, p. 22.
“Georgia will yield … the horrors of civil war” Speech printed in Evarts, Speeches on the Passage of the Bill for the Removal of the Indians, p. 29.
Moving tens of thousands of Indians would cost many times more Speech printed in ibid., pp. 290–94.
“Several of my colleagues got around me” Crockett, Narrative, pp. 205–6.
“I have been told I will be prostrated” Evarts, Speeches on the Passage of the Bill for the Removal of the Indians, p. 253.
“has an elasticity and buoyancy of spirit” Margaret Bayard Smith to Mrs. Boyd, Spring 1829, Smith, First Forty Years of Washington Society, pp. 285–86.