Answer:
[A speedy removal] will relieve the whole State of Mississippi and the western part of
Alabama of Indian occupancy, and enable those States to advance rapidly in population,
wealth, and power. It will separate the Indians from immediate contact with settlements of
whites; free them from the power of the States; enable them to pursue happiness in their
own way and under their own rude institutions; will [slow down] the progress of decay,
which is lessening their numbers, and perhaps cause them gradually, under the
protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their
savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community. . . .
The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to
individual States, and to the Indians themselves. . . . It will place a dense and civilized
population in large tracts of country now occupied by a few savage hunters.
–President Andrew Jackson, 1830
Explanation:
In 1830 Henry Clay, one of the most prominent members of the House of Representatives,
spoke out against American Indian removal.
In this speech, he quotes from an 1814 statement by the US government that says American
Indians have a legal right to their lands and are not subject to US laws.
The United States stand charged with the fate of those poor children of the woods, in
the face of their common Maker, and in presence of the world. And as certain as the
guardian is answerable for the education of his infant [child], and the management of
his estate, will they be responsible here and hereafter. . . .
“The Indians [living] within the United States are so far independent that they live
under their own customs, and not under the laws of the United States; that their rights
upon the lands where they inhabit or hunt are secured to them by boundaries defined
in [friendly] treaties between the United States and themselves; and that whenever
those boundaries [are changed, they will] receive from the United States ample
[payment] for . . . the land ceded by them.”
–Henry Clay, 1830 Im sorry i am not much use but can i have brainliest please!!!
