Interpret the Evidence and Put It in Context

Document Links:

Document 10.1 ANDREW JACKSON, Second Annual Message (1830)

Document 10.2 Petition of the Women’s Councils to the Cherokee National Council (1831)

Document 10.3 JOHN MARSHALL, Majority Opinion, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831)

Document 10.4 Andrew Jackson as the Great Father (c. 1835)

Document 10.5 JOHN ROSS, On the Treaty of New Echota (1836)

INTERPRET THE EVIDENCE

  1. How does Andrew Jackson’s argument for Indian removal (Document 10.1) reflect his vision of an ideal America? How does he characterize Indians, and what role does he see them playing in the nation’s future?

  2. Why, according to the Women’s Councils (Document 10.2), was Indian removal unjust? How did these women consider their gender when making their argument?

  3. According to Chief Justice John Marshall’s opinion in Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (Document 10.3), what standing did the Cherokee Nation have in the eyes of the Supreme Court? What do Andrew Jackson’s address and Marshall’s opinion tell us about how the different branches of the federal government viewed the Cherokee Indians? What do these documents reveal about the relationship between the Cherokee Indians and the state governments?

  4. Do you think the artist of the lithograph Andrew Jackson as Great Father (Document 10.4) would be more inclined to agree with Andrew Jackson’s or John Ross’s (Document 10.5) vision of Indian removal? What artistic techniques reveal his political intentions?

  5. Why did John Ross (Document 10.5) dispute the validity of the Treaty of Echota? How did he appeal to American traditions in forming his critique? What do we learn about Ross’s conception of the rights of citizenship from this document?

PUT IT IN CONTEXT

  1. Did Indians have more in common with slaves or with free whites in terms of their rights and their relationship to the federal government?

  2. How did race and ethnicity shape the ways in which Americans experienced westward expansion?