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Robert Remini, The preeminent historian of Jacksonian America, concludes his new book, Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars, with the following statement. "To his dying day on June 8th, 1845, Andrew Jackson genuinely believed that what he had accomplished rescued these people from inevitable annihilation. And although that statement sounds monstrous, and although no one in the modern world wishes to accept or believe it, that is exactly what he did. He saved the Five Civilized Nations from probable extinction." Establishing the truth of this statement is clearly of manifest importance to Remini. The reader, however, must question both the statement's accuracy, and the reasons for its importance to Remini. The statement has two component assertions. First, that Jackson "genuinely believed" in a backdrop of humanitarianism for his policy embodied in The Indian Removal Act. Secondly, that had removal not taken place, "probable extinction" of the tribes in question would have occurred. The first statement is of far more dubious importance than the second. Authors of historical acts of forced ethnic, religious, or racial segregation, removal, and or genocide almost uniformly believe that their actions are benefitting their nation, creed, victims, and or some higher purpose. Jackson's genuine belief in the humanitarianism of his policy is, therefore, hardly surprising. While worth noting as an historical fact, Remini's assertion of it is clearly meant to carry with it an exculpatory quality that it scarcely deserves. Remini=s second assertion is meant as an antidote, or at least a tempered revision of the commonly held belief that the Indian Removal Act was nothing but a land grab. "That is too simplistic an explanation," Remini argues. The author makes no attempt to cloak the horror of the Trail of Tears inflicted on the Cherokee Nation, his references to which is laced with suitable adjectives, "monstrous, unspeakable, "obscene," and so forth. Yet, as his conclusion indicates, Remini makes a strong case for the inevitability of extinction if the Indian Removal Act had not been imposed. Integration was not an option he argues because, "As racists, (whites) feared that integration with red people would ultimately lead to integration with blacks. And that possibility horrified them." The other relevant option, an attempt to enforce existent treaties, was equally unrealistic. "Jackson knew that such a policy was doomed from the start and had fifteen years of personal experience to attest to it's impossibility." Remini's argument that we should prefer the complexities of reality to the easy condemnation of simple minded popular history carries weight. But it would carry far more weight if his desire to whitewash Jackson's legacy wasn=t painfully apparent in the almost romantic overtones of such statements as "As Jackson predicted, they escaped the fate of many extinct eastern tribes, Cherokees today have their tribal identity, a living language, and at least three governmental bodies to provide for their needs. Would that Yamasees, Mohegans, Pequots, Delawares, and Narragansetts, and other such tribes could say the same." |
