On December 6th, 1831 President Andrew Jackson delivered his State of the Union Address to Congress. In his letter he wrote that Indian removal was off to a good start in Ohio and that the same measures would be extended to Indiana. It would be just a few more years and the U.S. Government will have extinguished the Indian title to all lands with the Sates of the Union. Thirty-five years earlier, the Indians were pushed to land that was unwanted by the states or the federal government, now they were being pushed further to lands across the Mississippi. Soon, Ohio and the rest of the United States would no longer be "embarrassed with the Indian population".
note: The word "embarrassed" in Jackson's time meant to be hindered by someone or something, especially among nations. It did not mean to be humiliated as it does today.
"During the present year the attention of the Government has been particularly directed to those tribes in the powerful and growing State of Ohio, where considerable tracts of the finest lands were still occupied by the aboriginal proprietors. Treaties, either absolute or conditional, have been made extinguishing the whole Indian title to the reservations in that State, and the time is not distant, it is hoped, when Ohio will be no longer embarrassed with the Indian population. The same measures will be extended to Indiana as soon as there is reason to anticipate success. It is confidently believed that perseverance for a few years in the present policy of the Government will extinguish the Indian title to all lands lying within the States composing our Federal Union, and remove beyond their limits every Indian who is not willing to submit to their laws."
Jackson described these lands owned by the Indians as "considerable tracts of the finest lands" in the "powerful and growing state of Ohio". Of course, those tracts of land were not mentioned by name, but it was likely an area of the Northwest corner of Ohio, known as the Great Black Swamp. The Treaty of Greenville in 1795 treaty squeezed the Indians into that uninviting land that no one wanted 36 years prior to Jackson's address. It was a wetland of more than 1500 square miles about 25 miles wide and 100 miles long that the Indians eventually learned to hunt and grow crops in. The land became habitable, but not what one might think of when they hear "tracts of the finest lands". What changed?
In 1825, the Maumee-Western Reserve Road was completed, and the state of Ohio began to focus on additional environmental changes in the Northwest region including canals which altered the landscape. The Canal Commission Board of Ohio then selected and approved sites for the Miami and Erie Canal. The original plan was to go from Cincinnati to Dayton, but in 1830 the state legislature approved funds to extend the canal up to Lake Erie through Northwest Ohio. To support the funding of the canals, the federal government had granted over one million acres of congressional land in Northwest Ohio for the use of the state government’s internal improvement projects. The land was surveyed and sold to the public to raise funds for the canal. This brought more white settlers to Northwest Ohio, increasing the funds and demand for further expansion of the canal. Then, as the Canal expanded, more cheap land became accessible, and more settlers and now investors flocked to the opportunity. The Shawnee, Wyandot, Seneca and Ottawa tribes in the area now were viewed as an impediment to internal improvements and expansion efforts.
After Jackson signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act, James Gardiner was appointed as a commissioner to Ohio for the specific purpose of obtaining removal treaties from the Shawnee, Wyandot, Seneca, and Ottawa villages that remained in Northwest Ohio. Under pressure from the federal government and white settlers, the tribes began to cede their land beginning with the Seneca. In 1831, the Sandusky River Seneca gave up 40,000 acres of land for 67,000 acres across the Mississippi river. It was at this time, and under this context that Jackson delivered his State of the Union Address describing the success of Indian removal in Ohio.
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Third Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/third-annual-message-3 [Accessed 19 Aug. 2019].
Bogart, D. (2015). “MY GREAT TERROR, THE BLACK SWAMP” NORTHWEST OHIO’S ENVIRONMENTAL BORDERLAND. Master of Arts, Department of HIstory. Miami University, Oxford Ohio. [online] Available at: https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=miami1429966484 [Accessed 19 Aug. 2019].
Ohiohistorycentral.org. (2019). Miami and Erie Canal - Ohio History Central. [online] Available at: http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Miami_and_Erie_Canal [Accessed 19 Aug. 2019].
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