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When my dad was still alive we would visit our family cemetary a couple of times a year. We're Creek, (the White name for our tribe) but Muscogee is our real name. Our cemetary is on what was my grandmother's allotment land. It's only our family and we still build the houses over the graves. Anyway, I never knew my two Aunties that were my dad's older sisters as they both passed from the TB epidemic in the 1930's. Standing over my Aunte Eloise's grave my dad would shake his head, grin, and tell me that she always said, "I'll meet Andrew Jackson in hell."
One more story on that dreadful Jackson. When my dad was in gradeschool they had a new teacher one year. She wasn't from Oklahoma, and she wasn't Indian. LOL, one day she was teaching history and discussed Andrew Jackson. Apparently, she spoke highly of him. The next day she returned to an empty school house. None, not one of the kids returned. When she asked why and what happened it was explained to her about Andrew Jackson.
We Creeks hate that man like the Jewish hate Hitler. He was just as bad as Hitler, and I certainly would not boost this heinous man in any way, shape or form. Either way, thought you guys might enjoy my two mini stories.
And so I did. Thanks.
But I wonder if Jackson intended to have the Indians treated the way they were. After all, he gave the following speech, which I found rather poignant.
Quote:
Friends and Brothers – By permission of the Great Spirit above, and the voice of the people, I have been made President of the United States, and now speak to you as your Father and friend, and request you to listen. Your warriors have known me long You know I love my white and red children, and always speak with a straight, and not with a forked tongue; that I have always told you the truth ... Where you now are, you and my white children are too near to each other to live in harmony and peace. Your game is destroyed, and many of your people will not work and till the earth. Beyond the great River Mississippi, where apart of your nation has gone, your Father has provided a country large enough for all of you, and he advises you to remove to it. There your white brothers will not trouble you; they will have no claim to the land, and you can live upon it you and all your children, as long as the grass grows or the water runs, in peace and plenty. It will be yours forever. For the improvements in the country where you now live, and for all the stock which you cannot take with you, your Father will pay you a fair price
We should remember that The Indian Removal Act was an act passed by both houses of Congress. Close, but it passed. I have no doubt that many of the men who voted in favor of the act had no inkling of what it would become.
And there is the fact that the Creeks around Tennessee sided with The British during the Revolutionary War. As a young boy Jackson was taken prisoner and beaten by The British. He had a brother who died as a result of that encounter.
And Ft Mims:
Quote:
On August 30, 1813, Red Sticks led by Red Eagle William Weatherford attacked Fort Mims, where white settlers and their Indian allies had gathered. The Red Sticks captured the fort by surprise, and carried out a massacre, killing men, women and children. They spared only the black slaves whom they took as captured booty. After the Indians killed nearly 250 at the fort, settlers across the American southwestern frontier were in a panic.
Jackson was not alone in his fear of Indians. The battle cry "Remember Ft Mims" was heard for many years.
Hitler, Saddam, Chavez, Papa Doc, Pinochet, Stalin, Mao, Qaddafi, Castro, Hirohito, Ceausescu . . .should I go on?
No doubt there have been many evil patriots. But if you're implying these people and Jackson are of the same ilk the comparison is inaccurate. Jackson was an elected official in a representative form of government. He implemented policies that were initiated by a freely elected congress and when his terms of office were over he stepped down.
870,000 ounces of gold is hardly meager. That's over a billion dollars, at today's gold price. That would be about $20,000 for each Native American removed.
I'm interested in your source. I've studied gold and do recall some significant gold mining in Georgia.
No doubt there have been many evil patriots. But if you're implying these people and Jackson are of the same ilk the comparison is inaccurate. Jackson was an elected official in a representative form of government. He implemented policies that were initiated by a freely elected congress and when his terms of office were over he stepped down.
Not at all. I was implying that you cannot make a villain any less a villain by merely dressing him in the clothes of a patriot as well.
Incidentally, the Trail of Tears occurred after Jackson's term of office had expired, and as the ex-president, he dedicated even more of his life and energy to his single-minded goal of Indian removal.
Andrew Jackson was a president for the common (white) man. Before anyone was to gain their rights and a voice in a government "by the people", there had to be a first step on that long road. That's what Jackson did when he faced down the banks, it really was the first civil rights move by a president. I'm sure the Cherokee may not agree.
The judicial branch was much weaker in the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Supreme court rulings were treated more like suggestions if the ruling went against popular opinion at the time......such as the "separate but equal" ruling in 1896.
The court may have sided with the Cherokee but when the president, congress and popular opinion wants you removed in the world of 1832.....you better go. Not every enemy would give you a year to pack up and offer you a new territory partitioned especially for you, one that was still somewhat productive where you could get on with living. Many times in history with a group or an individual.........pride goes bofore a fall. The Cherokee that moved to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) before the deadline did not suffer on the trail of tears, although the journey must have been bitter and unpleasant none the less. If your proud enough to stay, for the sake of your wife and kids you have to know there's a good chance you can win. If you don't, then you must accept the "trail of tears" and be thankful that your enemy did not use your pride to kill you. Some Cherokee died but many lived and are here today because Jackson's America was NOT the most evil enemy you could have had for an enemy.
Jackson's treatment of the Indian sometimes overshadows all that he did for the working man. He did a lot to shape America into a place where a poor, white man who was willing to work hard could get ahead. He pushed democracy forward, but it was only for whites and men. One could argue, however, that the ideas he championed grew to encompass minorities and women, so in an offhand way, Jacksonianism did eventually benefit all Americans. Too bad about the Indians. I can see why they hate him. He did have an adopted Indian son, so it wasn't entirely personal -- he was just building a nation, and unfortunately, nations are built on the backs of other nations more often than not.
Undoubtedly, the same way he handled the Cherokee problem Which is the same way other great presidents handled the Philippines problem and the Vietnam problem. Kill them all until there is nobody left but us white European Christians.
He would start by idiotically believing all the shrill screeching morons who are tellling him that there IS a Muslim problem, and then just murder every Muslim, a million at a time, until they are "put in their place", presumably somewhere there is none of the oil that Americans so richly deserve and are natually entitled to.
You do remember, don't you, that the reason Jackson expelled the Cherokees was because "our" gold was discovered on "their" land.
To the victors go the spoils.
American Indians didn't believe in land ownership.
Hitler, Saddam, Chavez, Papa Doc, Pinochet, Stalin, Mao, Qaddafi, Castro, Hirohito, Ceausescu . . .should I go on?
Patriot
–noun
1. a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion.
Oh please!
Look at what happened to the countries of those who you named.
Then look at America after Jackson.
Patriot describes him to a tee!
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