1 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2015
    1. It is, therefore, a duty which this Government owes to the new States to extinguish as soon as possible the Indian title to all lands which Congress themselves have included within their limits. When this is done the duties of the General Government in relation to the States and the Indians within their limits are at an end. The Indians may leave the State or not, as they choose. The purchase of their lands does not alter in the least their personal relations with the State government. No act of the General Government has ever been deemed necessary to give the States jurisdiction over the persons of the Indians. That they possess by virtue of their sovereign power within their own limits in as full a manner before as after the purchase of the Indian lands; nor can this Government add to or diminish it. May we not hope, therefore, that all good citizens, and none more zealously than those who think the Indians oppressed by subjection to the laws of the States, will unite in attempting to open the eyes of those children of the forest to their true condition, and by a speedy removal to relieve them from all the evils, real or imaginary, present or prospective, with which they may be supposed to be threatened.

      In this paragraph Jackson is saying that although they are taking away the Indian's land, because they bought the land the Indians and America can stay on good terms. its also saying that the Indians can stay in the states if they want but they are not part of the government and that America sees no reason to make them apart of the government. In the second paragraph Jackson is telling the Americans to let the Indians know that this is for their own good. In truth this passage shows that Jackson is a liar and even though he saying that its for the Indians own good and that they can stay if they want he is really just kicking them out and gaining the help of the Americans to make the Indians lives harder until they leave.