1824 James Monroe - "Voluntary" Indian Removal

During President Monroe's final year as president, he abandoned the "Indian Civilization" program and any hope of ever incorporating the Indians into the United States in any form.  He now advocated for the removal of all native tribes from within the boundaries of the United States.  He suggested it was for their own good, and that they could be lured away by establishing civil governments and schools among the tribes currently residing in the lands west of the Mississippi.  Rather than force them to remove, he asked Congress to appoint commissioner's who could negotiate generous treaties with the tribal leaders and convince their tribes to move out voluntarily. 

On January 27th, during President James Monroe last few weeks as president, he delivered a special message to Congress declaring that he was now convinced the Indians must be removed from lands East of the Mississippi for their own good.  Monroe stated that he was now "deeply impressed with the opinion" that the Indians had to be removed from  the lands "within our acknowledged boundaries" and that it could be accomplished in a manner that would promote the best interest of the tribes.  In the case of Georgia, there was no choice. In exchange for purchasing what is now Alabama and Mississippi, the United States government promised in the Compact of 1802 with Georgia to extinguish all American Indian Land titles whenever peaceably possible.  Monroe said that now was the time to fulfill this compact, but he wanted the United States to "act with a generous spirit.  By generosity, President Monroe seems to have meant that the tribes would be foolish not to accept any offer of the United States to give up their land in Georgia for lands west of the Mississippi.  Perhaps Monroe was naive, perhaps he failed to understand the value the tribes placed on the land of their forefathers, but nevertheless, he suggested his plan would be viewed as being in the best interest of the Indians.

"From the view which I have taken of the subject I am satisfied that in the discharge of these important duties in regard to both the parties alluded to the United States will have to encounter no conflicting interests with either. On the contrary, that the removal of the tribes from the territory which they now inhabit to that which was designated in the message at the commencement of the session, which would accomplish the object for Georgia, under a well-digested plan for their government and civilization, which should be agreeable to themselves, would not only shield them from impending ruin, but promote their welfare and happiness."

For years, some like Thomas Jefferson, had hoped the Indians would eventually become "civilized" and could assimilate in to American culture, but those days were now gone.   Monroe believed that experience has shown that it was now "impossible to incorporate them in such masses, in any form whatever, into our system".  Furthermore, it was also evident, that if the Indians were not removed, then it would be impossible to protect them from degradation and eventual extermination by the white settlers who now surrounded them, and for their own good they had to be removed.   Monroe asked that Secretary of War John C. Calhoun to create a plan to negotiate with each tribe, a tract of land west of the Mississippi that would be adequate for their needs.   The plan should obtain the consent to be removed, help set up a system of government that would protect their property from invasion, and assist in the continual process of civilizing the Indians preventing them from degenerating back to a savage way of life.  The plan devised by the Secretary of War, would bring together several tribes in a bond of friendship under a suitable government, and develop a relation with the United States as their benefactor so that  wars between the tribes and the U.S. would cease.  Monroe made it sound so good, and all that was needed was to sell the plan to the chiefs of the tribes.   All that was needed was for Congress to appoint a "suitable number of commissioners who shall, under the direction of the President, be authorized to visit and explain to the several tribes the objects of the Government, and to make with them, according to their instructions, such arrangements as shall be best calculated to carry those objects into effect."   And so it was, the Indian Removal program was to officially begin as a voluntary program through a series of  treaties.  These early treaties were managed by the new Bureau of Indian affairs established by Secretary of War, John C. Calhoun.  Calhoun appointed Thomas McKenny as the first head of the bureau, and tasked him with overseeing the treaty negotiations.  While some small groups of Indians did cross the Mississippi River to take up residence, most remained in their homes unwilling to give up their ancestral lands. 

Just one month earlier, during Monroe's final State of the Union address, he gave a preview of this message.  In this address, he spoke the words "unless tribes be civilized they can never be incorporated into our system in any form whatever".  That word "unless" was not included in his special address one month later.  In his special address, it was changed to "in their current state".  Perhaps only a slight change, but it represents the final shift in policy from the days of Thomas Jefferson's Civilization Program to Indian Removal.  American had given up on trying to assimilate the "aborigines within our limits", and one way or another they needed to be expelled.  President Monroe did not want this done by force: "To remove them from it by force, even with a view to their own security and happiness, would be revolting to humanity and utterly unjustifiable."   Instead he suggested that, if the United States would establish territory divided into districts with schools for "schools for every branch of instruction in literature and the arts of civilized life, that all the tribes now within our limits might gradually be drawn there". 

"The condition of the aborigines within our limits, and especially those who are within the limits of any of the States, merits likewise particular attention. Experience has shown that unless the tribes be civilized they can never be incorporated into our system in any form whatever. it has likewise shown that in the regular augmentation of our population with the extension of our settlements their situation will become deplorable, if their extinction is not menaced.
Some well-digested plan which will rescue them from such calamities is due to their rights, to the rights of humanity, and to the honor of the nation. Their civilization is indispensable to their safety, and this can be accomplished only by degrees. The process must commence with the infant state, through whom some effect may be wrought on the parental. Difficulties of the most serious character present themselves to the attainment of this very desirable result on the territory on which they now reside. To remove them from it by force, even with a view to their own security and happiness, would be revolting to humanity and utterly unjustifiable. Between the limits of our present States and Territories and the Rocky Mountains and Mexico there is a vast territory to which they might be invited with inducements which might be successful. It is thought if that territory should be divided into districts by previous agreement with the tribes now residing there and civil governments be established in each, with schools for every branch of instruction in literature and the arts of civilized life, that all the tribes now within our limits might gradually be drawn there. The execution of this plan would necessarily be attended with expense, and that not inconsiderable, but it is doubted whether any other can be devised which would be less liable to that objection or more likely to succeed."

It was one last attempt led by the Bureau of Indian Affairs to lure the tribes out of the United States, but in the end it would prove to be a failure, and set the stage for the forced removal of Indians from their ancestral lands known as the "Trail of Tears".   By Andrew Jackson's second term, he viewed the tribes as obstacles to American expansion, and the bureau of Indian affairs along with the military were tasked with forcibly removing more than 30 tribes to the lands west of the Mississippi.

References

Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2017). James Monroe: Eighth Annual Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29466 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2017].

Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2017). James Monroe: Special Message. [online] Available at: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=66430 [Accessed 15 Dec. 2017].

Nationalhumanitiescenter.org. (2017). The Effects of Removal on American Indian Tribes, Native Americans and the Land, Nature Transformed, TeacherServe, National Humanities Center. [online] Available at: http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/tserve/nattrans/ntecoindian/essays/indianremovalc.htm [Accessed 15 Dec. 2017].

U-s-history.com. (2017). Bureau of Indian Affairs. [online] Available at: http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3577.html [Accessed 15 Dec. 2017].

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