Jeremiah Evarts Argumentative Essay

The United States in the 19th Century was at the finest moment in their history as they entered into a new political, economic, and social movement that would build America to what it is today. In the early parts of the century, we had purchased incredible amounts of vast land, won a war against the most powerful country in the world, and started an early landmark movement called the Industrial Revolution, the start to what would be known as manifest destiny later in the century. Andrew Jackson’s election to presidency in 1828 also ushered a political movement that would be like no other president prior to him. He was the “people’s president” who embodied democratic ideal throughout the United States, but was nationalist who symbolized and …show more content…
It is known that ever since England step foot on this country, there has countless treaties made between the white people and the natives, for peace. “Treaties are declared in the constitution to be the supreme law of the land, as whole volume these supreme laws is to be once avowedly and utterly disregarded?” To add to that, “United States are firmly bound by treaty to protect the Indians from force and encroachments on the part of the state.” Therefore, “the sacred obligations of treaties and laws have been disregarded- the promises of Washington and Jefferson have not been …show more content…
“Congress had passed acts to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indians; which treated them as a nation.” Sovereignty was a word that was thrown around quite a bit but was always denied of a definition. Sovereignty, by definition, is the power of a state to do everything necessary to govern itself such as making, executing, and applying laws; imposing and collecting taxes; making war and peace; and forming treaties or engaging in commerce with foreign nations. Therefore, the question being, were the native nations sovereign or not?
This is one aspect of history that is forgotten or never really talked about. What is left out of discussion is how much effort the Natives put in to be “sovereign”. Andrew Jackson was not the first president to deal with Indian policy and most certainly not the last. George Washington sought out with Henry Knox a proposal for a cultural transformation of the Native Americans. They formulated a policy that encouraged the civilization process that included a different economic structure, social structure shift, development of a Constitution, (very similar to the United States) and much