The Cultural Marxists who wish to efface Andrew Jackson from American history naturally revise that history to promote their agendas. One of the most pervasive myths they've circulated centers on the Indian Relocation of 1838. They've even given colorful names to this incident such as 'The Trail of Tears'. And they employ the usual rhetoric such as 'genocide' and 'a Winter death-march'. It never occurs to those hearing this propaganda that, if Jackson had really intended genocide, a more efficient method than marching people to death would have been employed.
But no matter, their goal is to discredit American heroes, not focus on the truth. And it's time the truth came out about this, since we'll never hear it from today's Academic Establishment.
The events leading up to Relocation were rooted in the War of Independence. The British government had forbidden Americans to settle west of the Appalachians to protect vested interests exploiting the resources there. During the War, Lord Cornwallis formulated a plan to incite an Indian uprising against the Patriots. The plan never materialized thanks largely to the energetic initiative of another now-forgotten Dead White Male---George Rogers Clark. Clark captured the entire territory between Appalachia and the Mississippi with a handful of soldiers and won it for America.
The American government pursued a policy of peaceful co-existence with the Indians, especially in the Southeast One of the Northern tribes, the Shawnees, refused to recognize the new government and were a source of problems. But the 'Five Nations' in the south were semi-autonomous regions. They issued passports, trade treaties and had local governments.
The British coveted their lost territory and saw an opportunity to put Cornwallis' plan in motion. Before the War of 1812 began, they were in contact with the Shawnees who secretly built an alliance. The Five Nations betrayed the Americans; and in 1812, the West exploded into a mass Indian uprising. The Indians not only betrayed the Americans, they were guilty of some of the most hideous atrocities against American nationals---equal in their barbarity to anything perpetrated by the Japanese in WW2. The River Raisin, Fort Mims, and other places no longer remembered were the scenes of these horrors. Two future presidents---William Henry Harrison and Andrew Jackson put the uprising down through some extraordinary efforts.
The War of 1812 more than anything changed American attitudes towards the Indians; which before had been one of respect. Presidents Monroe and Adams restored the Five Nations, but public pressure was deeply against it. Clashes between settlers and Indians became more frequent and more violent; political leaders worried---not without reason---about the Indian homeland as a security threat. Jackson shared in that concern, but sought to do justice to the Indians. In 1835 a treaty between the US and the Five Nations stipulated that the Indians would cede the Southeast in exchange for a gift of land beyond the Mississippi. The Indians agreed, and the territory would be ceded by 1838. (As a side note, Jackson's fears of a 'security risk' came true: the Five Nations later joined the Confederacy in the Civil War).
By 1838, 3/4 of the Indians had already moved. The Jackson Administration took the former territories by Right of Eminent Domain. General Winfield Scott was ordered to remove the remaining Indians to the new territory. Scott brought wagon trains with him. The only actual marching done on the Trail of Tears were Scott's soldiers. The Indians rode in wagons.
Scott hoped to reach the Mississippi River before Winter, where our oppressive government had contracted steamships at taxpayer expense to ferry the Indians across. But in the Fall of 1838, an epidemic broke out. Scott was forced to set up camp and over-winter while Jackson rushed in medical supplies, provisions, and reinforcements. By Spring 1839, the plague subsided and Scott moved on to the Mississippi without further incident. One of the steamships conveying the Indians had a boiler explosion and sank---despite Scott's rescue efforts several lives were lost. But in the end, Scott was commended for his management of the mission, which was an extremely complicated one.
So the vast majority of deaths in the infamous winter death march came from a plague and a riverboat disaster that claimed more than a few dead white males as well. There is not one authentic account or verifiable proof that Scott committed any atrocities whatsoever.
What isn't in any doubt is that the Indian 'activists' of today follow the same patterns as their forefathers: living tax-free on free government land; sucking down every government handout available---then paying us back by selling out to our enemies, the Cultural Marxists, and complaining constantly about the raw deal they think they're getting. And the histories written and revised about them by Left-Wing Academia portrays the Indian about as realistically as this:
In their never-ending quests to destroy American cultural icons and distract Ameroboob attention from serious issues, the Cultural Marxists have decided to remove Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill. It might make more sense to talk about the devaluation of the dollar; considering that a $20 dollar bill in 2016 has the buying power of 83 cents in 1913, the year that Federal Reserve Notes were first issued.
But most Americans are as ignorant of Economics as they are of History. The Academic Mafia has re-defined Jackson beyond anything resembling the truth. Jackson was a man who was orphaned at the age of 13 during the Revolutionary War; survived brutal treatment in a British POW camp; taught himself to read and write; became a prominent lawyer and community leader and captain of a local National Guard unit. His military skills soon elevated him to general. When the War of 1812 broke out, he commanded the US forces in the South. Afterwards he was elected a senator, and eventually the 7th President of the United States. Jackson retired from politics and spent his declining years actively engaged in supporting missionary activities and promoting religious causes both at home and abroad.
Some anecdotes about Jackson illustrate his character. He married a woman named Rachael Robards, a devout and lovely woman who had been forced into an early marriage with a brutal thug. Jackson basically rescued her, in spite of the social stigma surrounding divorced women then. Jackson was never apologetic for it; defended her reputation boldly and she was introduced and accepted into the social circles in which he travelled.
Another anecdote of note: during the War of 1812, the Indians had cut Jackson's supply lines and his troops were reduced to starvation rations. A mutiny was threatening and a soldier approached Jackson as representative of the discontented soldiers. Jackson took a pouch from his pocket, containing about a dozen acorns, and offered the soldier six of them. That, he said, was half of his own rations. The mutiny collapsed when the soldiers saw their commander shared in their plight.
When Jackson was dying, a European general offered him a gift of an ancient Roman sarcophagus for his burial. Jackson politely declined, saying that it would set a bad example in America---where all men were equal---for an American leader to be eulogized like an Emperor.
White, Christian, Heterosexual, and Male----no wonder the Radical Left can't stand the sight of him.
Among Jackson's now-forgotten services to the country were:
1. Fighting in the War of Independence;
2. Saving countless American settlers' lives by securing Southern forts in the War of 1812;
3. Saving New Orleans---on his own initiative and with a brilliant strategy---from a treacherous plot between British forces and American traitors to put control of the Mississippi into British hands;
4. Ending a corrupt electoral system based on personality cults and political connections and establishing a party system;
5. Breaking up a plan to monopolize the bank system; and also establishing the first Gold Standard (this is why he was put on the $20 bill in the first place);
6. Stopping the Supreme Court from legislating from the Bench (the boundaries he established held for nearly 140 years);
7. Breaking up a Secessionist plot and averting a civil war;
8. Aiding the War of Independence in Texas;
9. Building some the nation's first interstate road systems and canals.
This is the truth about Andrew Jackson. A leader, soldier, writer, and husband who makes his effete detractors look like the jealous pygmies they are---standing in his shadow and throwing canards.
Today's trendy, politically-correct Academics and their fake Think-Tanks only remember or teach about Andrew Jackson in connection with the so-called 'Trail of Tears' or Indian Relocation of 1838. This is one of the most distorted and egregious mythologies in American pop culture, and will be the subject of Part II.
