Lesson 83: Jackson and Van Buren

     After Jackson had served two terms as president, it was time for a knew president to be elected. The man who won the election was Martin Van Buren, the former Secretary of State.  Like Jackson, president Van Buren valued the rights of individual people in the Unites States and so was against large monopolistic businesses squelching an individual's success.
 Van Buren had many similarities to former president, but unlike him, Van Buren was against the use of slaves and the removal of Indians.  But, because of pressures from Jackson and the people of the United States, Van Buren was unable to do anything about it.  He allowed the forced removal of the Cherokee Indians from their home land to Oklahoma.

Lesson 82: The Indian Removal Act

     In order to quell oposition to federal protection of Indians, president Jackson requested that a bill be passed that allowed him to move the natives across the Mississippi.  He insisted that the land that the Indians had lived on be bought at fair prices and that the government would pay to have them moved.
 Congress passed the "Indian Removal Act" which basically made the Indians to move to what is now Oklahoma.  The removal was supposed to be voluntary, but really the Indians were forced from their homes.
 Some tribes revolted and fought bloody wars with the states, others went peaceably, and some even tried to petition the American courts to plead their case, but in the end it came to nothing and the indians were forced to move.

Lesson 81: Native Americans and the New Republic

      Although America was prospering by exploring and settlling the western frontier, they were pushing native Indian tribes out of their homes.
 This did ourtrage some tribes, but rather than retaliate, they focused on preserving their native culture.
 I think it was wrong of the American government to force natives from their homes, I think they all should have worked together to form a more free society.

Lesson 80: Jackson and the Bank War

     To the western frontier businesses, the second Bank of the US was an enemy that was stealing their financial resources.  They believed their business was their own and they were free to do what they wanted with it.  

 President Jackson, agreed with the westerners, that they should not be dictated by a bank and vowed that if he was re-elected the Bank's charter would not be renewed.  But, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster sent a bill through congress that was supposed to renew the Bank's charter right then in an attempt to hurt Jackson politically.  If he signed the bill, he would lose western support, but if he did not sign, he would lose the wealthy eastern business support. 

 The bill passed Congress but Jackson refused to sign it, Saying the Bank was unconstitutional, even though the Courts ruled that it was.  Thus he earned the nickname "King Andrew I" because he was considered to have misused his power to stop the Bank.