On Indian Removal

Content Warning: This section references ethnic cleansing and racial prejudice.

In the first half of the 19th century, the newly established United States was experiencing growing pains. National identity encompassed the democratic ideals on which the country had been founded as well as the broadly Christian beliefs of its settlers, but there was also a growing strain of expansionism. Self-reliance and independence were seen as part of the American spirit; Jackson’s speech, for instance, celebrates the desire to “range unconstrained in body or in mind, developing the power and facilities of man in their highest perfection” (4). Combined with the colonialist impulse to “civilize” the “savage” wilderness, this encouraged the continual expansion of territory westward.

The belief that white Americans should (and inevitably would) colonize the rest of the continent came to be known as “Manifest Destiny,” and it underpins much of Jackson’s speech. The crux of his argument in support of the Indian Removal Act rests on the belief that American ideals require additional territory in which to flourish. Jackson repeatedly reiterates the importance of a “civilized population” inhabiting all areas within and bordering the United States to “repel future invasions” (2)—i.e., to ensure the survival of the country in its current form.