From “Undoing Manifest Destiny: Settler America, Christian Colonists, and the Pursuit of Justice” by L. Daniel Hawk
In 1828, the people of the United States elected Andrew Jackson to the presidency on a platform that advocated Indian removal. On taking office, Jackson immediately got to work on a bill that would authorize the president to implement an exchange of Indian land. The bill precipitated a year of fiery debate in Congress and in the news media, letter writing and petitions from those opposing removal, and a full-court press from Southern politicians. Northerners, most of whom opposed removal, pointed to the success of the civilization program and asserted that Indians should be treated with dignity. They pointed to the nation’s moral and legal obligation to honor treaties and decried the immorality and injustice of coercing Indigenous nations to leave their ancestral homelands.
Southerners retorted that whatever level of advancement the Indians attained was due to the White blood that coursed through the veins of many of their leaders. They questioned the validity of making treaties with Indian nations as equals. They pointed to the deceitful character of federal treaty making in general. And they accused Northerners of hypocrisy, since Northerners too inhabited land taken from Indian nations. After months of impassioned debate, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in April 1830, by a vote of 28 to 19 in the Senate and 103 to 97 in the House of Representatives. Jackson signed the bill into law on May 28.