How would you characterize the position of each historical actor? How specifically did each actor support his or her position? Ultimately, why was there an Indian Removal crisis?

Elias Boudinot Editorializes in the Cherokee Phoenix (1831)

The Cherokees’ national newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, was a source of national pride and an important tool in their resistance to removal. The inaugural issue appeared in February 1828. Subscribers included not only Cherokees but also citizens of the United States and even Europeans. Printed in both English and the recently constructed Cherokee written language, the newspaper kept its readers informed about national and international events, and it published biblical passages and human interest stories. Laws passed by the Cherokee National Council, advertisements, and notices also appeared in its columns. Most important, the Cherokee Phoenix conveyed information to the Nation’s citizens about the crisis confronting the Cherokees.

As an official organ of the Cherokee Nation, the Cherokee Phoenix presented the Nation’s case against removal. Elias Boudinot, a man of mixed Cherokee and European ancestry who had been educated at Christian missionary schools in Connecticut, was the paper’s editor. Boudinot printed correspondence from the president and secretary of war, messages from Principal Chief John Ross, and anti-removal editorials. President Jackson and Secretary of War John Eaton made it very clear that the individual states had ultimate title to the land and that if Indians wanted to live on land claimed by the states, they had to obey state, rather than Cherokee, law. In the two editorials below, Boudinot passionately defended the Cherokee cause.

February 19, 1831

This week we present to our readers but half a sheet—the reason is, one of our printers has left us; and we expect another (who is a white man) to quit us very soon, either to be dragged to the Georgia penitentiary for a term not less than four years, or for his personal safety, to leave the [Cherokee] nation, and us to shift for ourselves as well as we can. And, our friends will please to remember, we cannot invite another white printer to our assistance without subjecting him to the same punishment; and to have in our employ one who has taken the oath to support the laws of Georgia which now oppress the Cherokees, is utterly out of the question….

But we will not give up the ship while it is afloat. We have intelligent youths in the nation, and we hope…to make up our loss. In the mean time our patrons will bear with us & have patience—let them bear in mind that we are in the woods, and, as it is said by some, in a savage country, where printers are not plenty, and a substitute not easily obtained when one of our hands leave us or become indisposed…. Our readers will please not expect to receive the Phoenix very regularly for a while. We shall do the best we can.

We have already noticed the late law of Georgia, making a high misdemeanor, punishable with four years imprisonment at hard labour in the penitentiary, for any white man to reside, after the 1st of March, within the limits of the Cherokee nation … unless he takes the oath of allegiance, and obtains from the Governor’s agent a permit to continue his residence until further orders. We cannot help alluding again to that law as being extremely unjust, without saying any thing of its oppressive tendency, both to the whites and Cherokees. It is certainly oppressive on the whites, even admitting that the state of Georgia has an undoubted jurisdiction over the Cherokee territory. Why is it that it is required of them to take the oath, when by the extension of that jurisdiction, they were admitted as citizens of the state? Is such requirement made of other citizens? Do the constitution and the laws recognize such a distinction? But what becomes of the liberty of conscience in this case? –Here a white man cannot enjoy that liberty without going to the penitentiary.

What are the effects of this law on the Cherokees? Disastrous. Just such effects as were intended the law should produce. The design appears to be to bring them back to their old station—carry them back twenty years hence. Deprive them of their means of improvement, and remove all the whites, and it is thought by some, the great obstacle is taken out of the way, and there will be no difficulty to bring the Cherokee to terms. If this is not the design it may possibly be the tendency of the law. Now let the reader consider. If we introduce a minister of the Gospel to preach to us the way of life and salvation, here is a law of Georgia, a Christian law too it is said, ready to seize him and send him to the Penitentiary, in violation of the constitution of the state itself….If we bring in a white man to teach our children, he is also arrested and suffers a similar punishment. If we wish a decent house built, and invite a carpenter into the nation to do the work, here is a law which forces him from our employ and soon numbers him with culprits. If we introduce a Blacksmith, or any other mechanic, it is the same. Is it not natural to suppose that the tendency of such a law on the Cherokees would be disastrous? It forces from them the very means of their improvement in religion and morals, and in the arts of civilized life.

November 12, 1831

It has been customary to charge the failure of attempts heretofore made to civilize and christianize the aborigines to the Indians themselves. Whence originated the common saying, “An Indian will still be an Indian.” –Do what you will, he cannot be civilized—you cannot reclaim him from his wild habits—you may as well expect to change the spots of the Leopard as to effect any substantial renovation in his character…. Such assertions, although inconsistent with the general course of providence and the history of nations, have nevertheless been believed and acted upon by many well meaning persons. Such persons do not sufficiently consider that causes, altogether different from those they have been in the habit of assigning, may have operated to frustrate the benevolent efforts to reclaim the Indian. They do not, perhaps, think that as God has, of one blood, created all the nations of the earth, their circumstances, in a state of nature, must be somewhat the same, and therefore, in the history of mankind, we have no example upon which we can build the assertion, that it is impossible to civilize and christianize the Indian. On the contrary we have instances of nations, originally as ignorant and barbarous as the American natives, having risen from their degraded state to a high pitch of refinement—from the worst kind of paganism to the knowledge of the true God.

We have on more than one occasion remarked upon the difficulties which lie in the way of civilizing the Indians. Those difficulties….are not to be found in the “nature” of the Indians….It is not because they are, of all others, the most degraded and ignorant that they have not been brought to enjoy the blessings of a civilized life. –But it is because they have to contend with obstacles as numerous as they are peculiar.

With a commendable zeal the first Chief magistrate of the United States undertook to bring the Cherokees into the pale of civilization, by establishing friendly relations with them by treaties, and introducing the mechanic arts among them. He was indeed a “father” to them—They regarded him as such—They placed confidence in what he said, and well they might, for he was true to his promises. Of course the foundation for the improvement which the Cherokees have since made was laid under the patronage of that illustrious man. His successors followed his example and treated their “red children” as human beings, capable of improvement, and possessing rights derived from the source of all good, and guarantied by compacts as solemn as a great Republic could make. The attempts of those good men were attended with success, because they believed those attempts were feasible and acted accordingly.

Upon the same principle have acted those benevolent associations who have taken such a deep interest in the welfare of the Indians, and who may have expended so much time and money in extending the benign influence of religion. Those associations went hand in hand with the Government—it was a work of co-operation. God blessed their efforts. The Cherokees have been reclaimed from their wild habits—Instead of hunters they have become the cultivators of the soil—Instead of wild and ferocious savages, thirsting for blood, they have become the mild “citizens,” the friends and brothers of the white man—Instead of the superstitious heathens, many of them have become the worshippers of the true God. Well would it have been if the cheering fruits of those labors had been fostered and encouraged by an enlightened community! But alas! no sooner was it made manifest that the Cherokees were becoming strongly attached to the ways and usages of civilized life, than was aroused the opposition of those from whom better things ought to have been expected. No sooner was it known that they had learned the proper use of the earth, and that they were now less likely to dispose of their lands for a mess of pottage, than they came in conflict with the cupidity and self-interest of those who ought to have been their benefactors—Then commenced a series of obstacles hard to overcome, and difficulties intended as a stumbling block, and unthought of before. The “Great Father” of the “red man” has lent his influence to encourage those difficulties. The guardian has deprived his wards of their rights—The sacred obligations of treaties and laws have been disregarded—The promises of Washington and Jefferson have not been fulfilled. The policy of the United States on Indian affairs has taken a different direction, for no other reason than that the Cherokees have so far become civilized as to appreciate a regular form of Government. They are now deprived of rights they once enjoyed—A neighboring power is now permitted to extend its withering hand over them—Their own laws, intended to regulate their society, to encourage virtue and to suppress vice, must now be abolished, and civilized acts, passed for the purpose of expelling them, must be substituted.—Their intelligent citizens who have been instructed through the means employed by former administrations, and through the efforts of these benevolent societies, must be abused and insulted, represented as avaricious, feeding upon the poverty of the common Indians—the hostility of all those who want the Indian lands must be directed against them. That the Cherokees may be kept in ignorance, teachers who had settled among them by the approbation of the Government, for the best of all purposes, have been compelled to leave them by reason of laws unbecoming any civilized nation—Ministers of the Gospel, who might have, at this day of trial, administered to them the consolations of Religion, have been arrested, chained, dragged away before their eyes, tried as felons, and finally immured in prison with thieves and robbers.

Is not here an array of difficulties? –The truth is, while a portion of the community have been, in the most laudable manner, engaged in using efforts to civilize and christianize the Indian, another portion of the same community have been busy in counteracting these efforts. Cupidity and self-interest are at the bottom of all these difficulties—A desire to possess the Indian land is paramount to a desire to see him established on the soil as a civilized man.

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