Big Government Jacksonians

Abstract

Andrew Jackson helped expand the scope of national administrative authority by expanding the federal government's authority over American Indians and by extending U.S. authority and jurisdiction in land and trade issues westward. It is Jackson who utilized the power of the federal government as coordinator and executor of a policy to remove American Indians from their homes east of the Mississippi, a policy founded in part on his experiences as military officer, Indian treaty commissioner, and governor of Florida territory. It is Jackson who used the authority and influence of the presidency to design and secure passage of the removal bill, and then to execute the policy. It is Jackson who sought and won vast new authority for the executive branch over the West and the dispensation of lands and privilege there. It is Jackson and his progeny who extended the scope of the federal government, on the heels of the factory system and in tandem with western expeditions, expansion policy, and Indian affairs. The Removal era may be the most infamous time in the development of U.S.–Indian relations. Andrew Jackson's leadership of the drive to remove Indians from their homes, by force if necessary, remains a bellwether example of inhumanity in two centuries of U.S. relations with American Indians. The removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from the Southeast was not the only example of this particular federal policy, nor was removal confined to the Jacksonian era.