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Wikipedia on Andrew Jackson (excerpts)
Land speculation and founding of Memphis
Further information: History of Memphis, Tennessee
In 1794, Jackson formed a business with fellow lawyer and planter John Overton, overtly buying and selling land which had been reserved by treaty for the Cherokee and Chickasaw.[25] Theirs was a frank avowal; they, like many of their contemporaries, would deal with lands within Indian territory. Most of the transactions involved grants made under the 'land grab' act of 1783 that briefly opened to claim by North Carolinians all of the Indian lands in that state's transmontane west. He was one of the three original investors who founded Memphis, Tennessee, in 1819.
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Creek Campaign & Treaty
...The campaign ended three weeks later with Red Eagle's surrender, although some Red Sticks such as McQueen fled to East Florida.[73] On June 8, Jackson accepted a commission as brigadier general in the United States Army, and 10 days later became a major general, in command of the Seventh Military Division.[74] Subsequently, Jackson, with Madison's approval, imposed the Treaty of Fort Jackson. The treaty required the Muscogee, including those who had not joined the Red Sticks, to surrender 23 million acres of land to the United States.[73] Though in ill-health from dysentery, Jackson turned his attention to defeating Spanish and British forces. Jackson accused the Spanish of arming the Red Sticks and of violating the terms of their neutrality by allowing British soldiers into the Floridas.[75] The first charge was true,[76] while the second ignored the fact that it was Jackson's threats to invade Florida which had caused them to seek British protection.[77] In the November 7 Battle of Pensacola, Jackson defeated British and Spanish forces in a short skirmish. The Spanish surrendered and the British fled. Weeks later, he learned that the British were planning an attack on New Orleans, which sat on the mouth of the Mississippi River and held immense strategic and commercial value. Jackson abandoned Pensacola to the Spanish
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First Seminole War
Following the war[of 1812], Jackson remained in command of Army forces on the southern border of the U.S. He conducted official business from The Hermitage.[94] He signed treaties with the Cherokee and Chickasaw which gained for the United States large parts of Tennessee and Kentucky.[95] The treaty with the Chickasaw, finally agreed to later in the year, is commonly known as the Jackson Purchase.[26]
Several Native American tribes, which became known as the Seminole, straddled the border between the U.S. and Florida. The Seminole, in alliance with escaped slaves, frequently raided Georgia settlements before retreating back into Florida. These skirmishes continually escalated, and the conflict is now known as the First Seminole War.[96] In 1816, Jackson led a detachment into Florida which destroyed the Negro Fort, a community of escaped slaves and their descendants.[97] Jackson was ordered by President James Monroe in December 1817 to lead a campaign in Georgia against the Seminole and Creek Indians. Jackson was also charged with preventing Spanish Florida from becoming a refuge for runaway slaves, after Spain promised freedom to fugitive slaves. Critics later alleged that Jackson exceeded orders in his Florida actions. His orders from President Monroe were to "terminate the conflict."[98] Jackson believed the best way to do this was to seize Florida from Spain once and for all. Before departing, Jackson wrote to Monroe, "Let it be signified to me through any channel ... that the possession of the Floridas would be desirable to the United States, and in sixty days it will be accomplished."[99]
Jackson invaded Florida on March 15, 1818, capturing Pensacola. He crushed Seminole and Spanish resistance in the region and captured two British agents, Robert Ambrister and Alexander Arbuthnot. After a brief trial, Jackson executed both British agents, causing a diplomatic incident with the British. Jackson's actions polarized Monroe's cabinet, some of whom argued that Jackson had gone against Monroe's orders and violated the Constitution, since the United States had not declared war upon Spain. Yet Jackson was defended by Secretary of State John Quincy Adams. Adams thought that Jackson's conquest of Florida would force Spain to finally sell the province, and Spain did indeed sell Florida to the United States in the Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819. A congressional investigation exonerated Jackson, but Jackson was deeply angered by the criticism he received, particularly from Speaker of the House Henry Clay.
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Indian Removal Policy (as President)
Throughout his eight years in office, Jackson made about 70 treaties with Native American tribes both in the South and the Northwest.[131] Jackson's presidency marked a new era in Indian-Anglo American relations initiating a policy of Indian removal.[129] Jackson himself sometimes participated in the treaty negotiating process with various Indian tribes, though other times he left the negotiations to his subordinates. The southern tribes included the Choctaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Seminole and the Cherokee. The northwest tribes include the Chippewa, Ottawa, and the Potawatomi.[132]
Relations between Indians and Americans increasingly grew tense and sometimes violent as a result of territorial conflicts.[129] Previous presidents had at times supported removal or attempts to "civilize" the Indians,[133] but generally let the problem play itself out with minimal intervention. There had developed a growing popular and political movement to deal with the issue, and out of this policy to relocate certain Indian populations. Jackson, never known for timidity, became an advocate for this relocation policy in what many historians consider the most controversial aspect of his presidency.[129]
In his First Annual Message to Congress, Jackson advocated land west of the Mississippi River be set aside for Indian tribes. On May 26, 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, which Jackson signed into law two days later. The Act authorized the President to negotiate treaties to buy tribal lands in the east in exchange for lands farther west, outside of existing state borders.[131] The act specifically pertained to the Five Civilized Tribes in the South, the conditions being that they could either move west or stay and obey state law.[134]
Jackson, Eaton, and General Coffee negotiated with the Chickasaw, who quickly agreed to move.[135] Jackson put Eaton and Coffee in charge of negotiating with the Choctaw. Lacking Jackson's skills at negotiation, they frequently bribed to the chiefs in order to gain their submission. The tactics worked, and the chiefs agreed to move. The removal of the Choctaw took place in the winter of 1831 and 1832, and was wrought with misery and suffering.[136] The Seminole, despite the signing of the Treaty of Payne's Landing in 1832,[137] refused to move. In December 1835, this dispute began the Second Seminole War. The war lasted over six years, finally ending in 1842.[132] Members of the Creek Nation had signed the Treaty of Cusseta in 1832, agreeing to move their tribe.[138] However, the Creeks later resisted, leading to a second Creek War.[139] A common complaint was that the men who had signed the treaties did not represent the whole tribe.
The state of Georgia became involved in a contentious dispute with the Cherokee, culminating in the 1832 Supreme Court decision in Worcester v. Georgia. In that decision, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall, writing for the court, ruled that Georgia could not forbid whites from entering tribal lands, as it had attempted to do with two missionaries supposedly stirring up resistance amongst the tribespeople.[140] Jackson is frequently attributed the following response: "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." The quote, apparently indicating Jackson's dismissive view of the courts, was attributed to Jackson by Horace Greeley, who cited as his source Representative George N. Briggs. Remini argues that Jackson did not say it because, while it "certainly sounds like Jackson...[t]here was nothing for him to enforce." This is because a writ of habeas corpus had never been issued for the missionaries.[141] The Court also did not ask federal marshals to carry out the decision, as had become standard.[142]
A group of Cherokees led by John Ridge negotiated the Treaty of New Echota. Ridge was not a widely recognized leader of the Cherokee, and this document was rejected by some as illegitimate.[143] Another faction, led by John Ross, unsuccessfully petitioned to protest the proposed removal.[144] The treaty was enforced by Jackson's successor, President Martin Van Buren, who sent 7,000 troops to carry out the relocation policy. Due to the infighting between political factions, many Cherokees thought their appeals were still being considered when the relocation began.[145] Subsequently, as many as 4,000 Cherokees died on the "Trail of Tears" in 1838.[146] More than 45,000 American Indians were relocated to the West during Jackson's administration, though a few Cherokees walked back afterwards or migrated to the high Smoky Mountains.[147] The Black Hawk War took place during Jackson's presidency in 1832 after a group of Indians crossed into U.S. territory.
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