Indian Removal Act DBQ

In an attempt to concoct a new nation in the midst of the 1800s, the United States found itself adjusting to the needs of its infancy. While some policies were passed in order to better the premature Union, struggles ensued when the nation found itself conforming to desires of the South. The Southern states were fixed on an agrarian society, and thus it instituted slavery. The desire to expand west was driven by the desire to acquire more land while increasing the amount of slaves. The North, on the other hand, conscious of what slavery meant by the standards of liberty, outlawed slavery. Thus, the nation was divided as it failed to impose justice on all individuals. In creating a new nation, the United States failed to achieve its intentions …show more content…
The goal of allowing all people to be ruled by the laws of the country was evidently a failure. To further show this, Indian Removal Act shows the extent at which the goal was forgotten. Established under the Jackson administration in 1830, the Indian Removal Act enacted the government 's financial aid in the uprooting of the “Five civilized tribes”- Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. Previously, tribes like the Cherokee attempted to assimilate to the Western life by forming schools, and even adopted the nation’s government model. The government believed that the Indian Removal was a way of saving Indians and their culture from western settlers and their influences. The Native Americans viewed the Indian Removal as a the U.S. expansion intended to get rid of them, and their land that belonged to their ancestors. The Cherokees were very much like white settlers, they even had slaves to complement their farming, but they weren’t white. In a time plagued with inequality, the nation failed to meet up to the preamble premise of justice. Indians were not considered to be American citizens which restricted them of land and a voice in government. Nonetheless, the Indians had civil rights, the government’s choice to abridge these rights showed the nation 's lack of respect for the preamble outline. It tweaked the meaning of “establish justice” to apply only to whites. The federal government favored the land of Native Americans over the Native Americans themselves. It goes to show how justice was not the priority of the nation at the time, but rather the expansion of the nation’s economic power. Along that idea, the Fugitive Slave Act took on a similar path. It was a law that required slaves to be returned to their master upon capture and further forced citizens to aid efforts to