Lewis Cass Justifies Removal
Introduction:
By the
mid-1820s, Lewis Cass, governor of
Cass made his
reputation outside of government circles through a series of essays published
in national magazines. The North American Review, one of the nation’s leading
literary journals, published several of his essays. Written as extended reviews
of books and articles about Indians, Cass used these essays to put forth his
opinions about Indian policy and
What does
Cass think of the “civilization” policy now? Notice Cass’s claims to expertise,
his tone, his range of arguments and his use of
evidence. What do his readers who are not experts learn from him? How does he
explain and justify Indian removal? What are his assumptions about the
Constitution, state sovereignty, and the relations between state and federal
governments? How does he deal with the reputation of the Cherokees as a
“civilized” people? And how does all of this lead him to interpret the
political and territorial rights of the Cherokees and all other tribes east of
the
LEWIS CASS
“Removal of the Indians”
January 1830
Article III: Documents and Proceedings relating to
the Formation and Progress of aBoard in the City of
The destiny of the Indians, who inhabit the
cultivated portions of the territory of the
It would be miserable affectation to regret the
progress of civilization and improvement, the triumph of industry and art, by
which these regions have been reclaimed, and over which freedom, religion, and
science are extending their sway. But we may indulge the wish, that these
blessings had been attained at a smaller sacrifice; that the aboriginal
population had accommodated themselves to the inevitable change of their
condition, produced by the access and progress of the new race of men, before
whom the hunter and his game were destined to disappear. But such a wish is
vain. A barbarous people, depending for subsistence upon the scanty and
precarious supplies furnished by the chase, cannot live in contact with a
civilized community. As the cultivated border approaches the haunts of the
animals, which are valuable for food or furs, they recede and seek shelter in
less accessible situations…
…Distress could not teach them providence, nor want
industry. As animal food decreased, their vegetable productions were not
increased. Their habits were stationary and unbending; never changing with the
change of circumstances. . . . There is a principle of repulsion in ceaseless
activity, operating through all their institutions, which prevents
them from appreciating or adopting any other modes of life, or any other habits
of thought or action, but those which have descended to them from their
ancestors…
…From an early period … various plans for their
preservation and improvement were projected and pursued. Many of them were
carefully taught at our seminaries of education, in the hope that principles of
morality and habits of industry would be acquired, and that they might
stimulate their countrymen by precept and example to a better course of life.
Missionary stations were established among various tribes, where zealous and
pious men devoted themselves with generous ardor to the task of instruction, as
well in agriculture and the mechanic arts, as in the principles of morality and
religion... . Unfortunately, they are monuments also of unsuccessful and
unproductive efforts. What tribe has been civilized by all this expenditure of
treasure, and labor, and care? …
The cause of this total failure cannot be
attributed to the nature of the experiment, nor to the character,
qualifications, or conduct, of those who have directed it. The process and the
persons have varied, as experience suggested alterations in the one, and a
spirit of generous self-devotion supplied the changes in the other. But there
seems to be some insurmountable obstacle in the habits or temperament of the
Indians, which has hereto fore prevented, and yet prevents, the success of
these labors…
We have made the inquiry respecting the permanent
advantage, which any of the tribes have derived from the attempts to civilize
them, with a full knowledge of the favorable reports that have been circulated
concerning the Cherokees. Limited as our intercourse with those Indians has
been, we must necessarily draw our conclusions respecting them from facts which
have been stated to us, and from the general resemblance they bear to the other
cognate branches of the great aboriginal stock.
Those individuals among the Cherokees have acquired
property, and with it more enlarged views and juster notions of the value of
our institutions, and the unprofitableness of their own, we have little doubt.
And we have as little doubt, that this change of opinion and condition is
confined, in a great measure, to some of the half-breeds and their immediate
connexions. These are not sufficiently numerous to affect our general
proposition…
…But, we believe, the great body of the people are
in a state of helpless and hopeless poverty. With the same improvidence and
habitual indolence, which mark the northern Indians, they have less game for
subsistence, and less peltry for sale. We doubt whether there is, upon the face
of the globe, a more wretched race than the Cherokees, as well as the other
southern tribes, present…
We are as unwilling to underrate, as we should be
to overrate, the progress made by these Indians in civilization and
improvement. We are well aware, that the constitution of the
Cherokees, their press, and newspaper, and alphabet, their schools and police,
have sent through all our borders the glad tidings, that the long night
of aboriginal ignorance was ended, and that the day of knowledge had dawned.
Would that it were so. None would rejoice more sincerely than we should. But
this great cause can derive no aid from exaggerated representation; from
promises never to be kept, and from expectations never to be realized. The
truth must finally come, and it will come with a powerful reaction. We hope
that our opinion upon this subject may be erroneous. But we have melancholy
forebodings. That a few principal men, who can secure favorable cotton lands,
and cultivate them with slaves, will be comfortable and satisfied, we may well
believe. And so long as the large annuities received from the
The relative condition of the two races of men, who
yet divide this portion of the continent between them, is a moral problem
involved in much obscurity. The physical causes we have described, exasperated
by the moral evils introduced by them, are sufficient to account for the
diminution and deterioration of the Indians. But why were not these causes
counteracted by the operation of other circumstances? As civilization shed her
light upon them, why were they blind to its beams? Hungry or naked, why did
they disregard, or regarding, why did they neglect, those arts by which food
and clothing could be procured? Existing for two centuries in contact with a
civilized people, they have resisted, and successfully too, every effort to
meliorate their situation, or to introduce among them the most common arts of
life. Their moral and their intellectual condition have been equally
stationary. And in the whole circle of their existence, it would be difficult
to point to a single advantage which they have derived from their acquaintance
with the Europeans. All this is without a parallel in the history of the world.
That it is not to be attributed to the indifference or neglect of the whites,
we have already shown. There must then be an inherent difficulty, arising from
the institutions, character, and condition of the Indians themselves.
…It is difficult to conceive that any branch of the
human family can be less provident in arrangement, less frugal in enjoyment,
less industrious in acquiring, more implacable in their resentments, more
ungovernable in their passions, with fewer principles to guide them, with fewer
obligations to restrain them, and with less knowledge to improve and instruct
them. We speak of them as they are; as we have found them after a long and intimate
acquaintance; fully appreciating our duties and their rights, all that they
have suffered and lost, and all that we have enjoyed and acquired.
…The Indians are entitled to the enjoyment of all
the rights which do not interfere with the obvious designs of
There can be no doubt, and such are the views of
the elementary writers upon the subject, that the Creator intended the earth
should be reclaimed from a state of nature and cultivated; that the human race
should spread over it, procuring from it the means of comfortable subsistence,
and of increase and improvement. A tribe of wandering hunters, depending upon
the chase for support, and deriving it from the forests, and rivers, and lakes,
of an immense continent have a very imperfect possession of the country over
which they roam. That they are entitled to such supplies as may be necessary
for their subsistence, and as they can procure, no one can justly question. But
this right cannot be exclusive, unless the forests which shelter them are
doomed to perpetual unproductiveness. Our forefathers, when they landed upon
the shores of this continent, found it in a state of nature, traversed, but not
occupied, by wandering hordes of barbarians, seeking a precarious subsistence,
principally from the animals around them. They appropriated, as they well might
do, a portion of this fair land to their own use, still Leaving to their
predecessors in occupation all that was needed, and more than was used by them….
‘We have
already expressed our convictions, founded on some knowledge of the Indian
character, and of the efforts which have been formerly and recently made to
change their condition and institutions, that so long as they retain positions
surrounded by our citizens, these efforts will be unproductive, and that the
Indians themselves will decline in numbers, morals, and happiness. If “these
things are so,” no just views of policy or humanity, require on their part the
assertion of such a right, or the acknowledgment of it on ours. A false
conception of their own interest, or a temporary excitement, which may have
operated on some of their influential men, and led to the present state of
things, ought not to affect our views or decision. This demand is now made, for
the first time, since the discovery of the continent. Writers upon natural law,
courts of high character arid jurisdiction, the practice of other nations, are
all adverse to it. We can discern no advantages which either party can
reasonably anticipate from such a measure.
There can be none to the Indians; for if they are
anxious and prepared for a stable government, which shall protect all and
encourage all, such governments they will find in the states where they reside.
What has a Cherokee to fear from the operation of the laws of
But if it is difficult to perceive the advantages
which the Indian tribes would derive from these independent governments, it is
not difficult to foresee the mischiefs they would produce to the states and
people, within whose limits they might be formed.
The progress of improvement would be checked.
Extensive tracts of land would be held by the Indians in a state of nature. The
continuity of settlements, and the communication between them, would be
interrupted. Fugitives from labor and justice would seek shelter, and sometimes
find it, in these little sovereignties…
Many excellent men believe,
that the Indians have advanced, and are advancing in knowledge and improvement,
and that they have both the right and ability to reorganize their political
institutions, and assume a station which shall be coequal with the state
governments.
Erroneous as such an opinion is, both in principal and
policy, still something is due to the feelings and motives of those who
entertain it. In the practical assertion of jurisdiction, which circumstances
now require some of the state governments to make, their authorities will no
doubt accommodate their measures to the helpless, defenseless, and sometimes,
we fear, hopeless condition of the Indians; taking care that such checks and
limitations are imposed, as their ignorance and the superior intelligence of
the whites may render necessary….