One of the sharpest issues dividing the parties of the Jackson era was Indian
policy. The most dramatic confrontation arose from the expropriation and
forced migration of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Choctaw,
Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole. White settlers in Alabama, Georgia, and
Mississippi demanded that these Indians be dispossessed of lands that had
been guaranteed to them by treaty. The state governments, disregarding the
treaties, asserted sovereignty over the Indian lands. When Andrew Jackson
entered the White House, he avowed his sympathies with the white settlers.
A bill to commence arrangements for Indian removal, backed by the adminis-
tration, occasioned the following speech by one of the president's opponents.

Theodore Frelinghuysen ( 1787-1862) was an attorney and senator from
New Jersey. He later served as mayor of Newark and in 1844 was Henry
Clay's vice-presidential running mate. The following speech caused William
Lloyd Garrison, always a friend to nonwhites, to cite him as a "patriot and
Christian." ( Frelinghuysen was a very active lay churchman and temperance
advocate.) In their defense of the Indians, Frelinghuysen and his allies failed;
the removal bill narrowly passed Congress. The United States Supreme Court
under Chief Justice John Marshall vindicated the right of the Indians to their
lands in 1832, but Jackson simply defied the court. Most of the Indians were
rounded up and driven by the army to what is now Oklahoma. Some,
especially the Seminoles, managed to escape into impenetrable areas from
which they waged guerrilla warfare.

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