Andrew Jackson’s controversial policy divided America during the pre-civil-war era, writes Christina Snyder
Illustration: Dan Williams
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I N 1817, GENERAL Andrew Jackson invaded Florida, claimed by the Spanish empire but inhabited mostly by Seminole people. Jackson and his troops used scorched-earth tactics: destroying villages, burning cornfields and sacking storehouses, in the hope that terror and hunger would drive Seminoles to surrender. They killed warriors and civilians alike, and captured the Native leaders Hillis Harjo and Homathle Micco as well as Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister, two British citizens who had aided the indigenous communities. Jackson executed them all without proper due process.
The Florida raids were committed without approval from Congress, even though military affairs and relations with Native nations fell under federal jurisdiction, and a congressional investigation was launched. Some claimed that Jackson was simply extending the policies of previous administrations; James Monroe had warned European empires to stay out of America’s backyard, while Thomas Jefferson, an eager expansionist, facilitated the Louisiana Purchase so that the “Empire of Liberty” might eventually rule the continent.
Jackson’s defenders applauded his muscular approach to seizing land and exerting power over foreign people. But his critics warned that such an authoritarian approach to imperialism would sow the seeds of America’s ruin. Senator John Calhoun reminded his colleagues that the founding fathers saw their republic as an experiment in democracy not seen since the days of ancient Rome. He noted that, in Rome, Augustus Caesar had seized power from the Senate and, while the emperor “did not change the forms of the Roman Republic”, he “exercised a most despotic power over the laws, the liberty and the prosperity of the citizens.”
Our own historical moment has many parallels to the age of Jackson. Then, as now, some championed the assertion of raw power while others worried about the rule of law. Opponents of “King Andrew”, as they called Jackson, warned about the concentration of power in the executive branch. Their understanding of history suggested that unchecked power would lead to tyranny or the downfall of society.
Despite, or perhaps because of, such criticism, Jackson gained popularity among the electorate—at that time exclusively made up of white men. He rode his military fame to the presidency, winning over 55% of the popular vote in 1828. The cornerstone of his platform was what became known as the Indian Removal Act, which sought to deport all eastern Native Americans to a vaguely defined space called “Indian Territory”, west of the Mississippi River. Jackson and his allies aimed to provide more land to their constituents; they were especially eager to seize the rich cotton lands of the Deep South.
Though Americans largely agreed that their nation should expand, they disagreed over the scope of the imperial project and how it might be achieved. In the House, the Indian Removal Bill scraped through with 102 votes in favour and 97 against. Opposition was strongest in the north-east. The Christian Advocate, a weekly newspaper published in New York, warned that “Nations which establish themselves by acts of injustice toward others, which extend over them a cruel dominion merely because a stronger arm enables them to do so, need expect nothing less than the reaction of a retributive providence as a punishment for all such deeds of injustice.”
Some southern members of the House, including Davy Crockett, also voted against the bill. Crockett explained that he “had always viewed the native Indian tribes in this country as a sovereign people…recognised as such from the very foundation of the Government; and the United States were bound by treaty to protect them; it was their duty to do so.” Legally speaking, Crockett got to the heart of the matter: the United States had recognised the sovereign rights of Native nations in treaties, which identified and protected Native dominion over their lands. Forcing Native nations to give up land would violate these treaties, which are binding under the constitution.
If treaties can be ignored, so can federal laws and court decisions. Andrew Jackson knew this—he had personally negotiated many treaties with Native nations. But he viewed treaties as a relic of the founding era, when the United States was too weak to conquer Native nations. In the aftermath of the War of 1812, the United States emerged as a continental power. Jackson argued that Indigenous Americans should be treated as “subjects” not sovereigns.
Jackson’s approach to imperialism fractured the United States and compromised its place in the world. Ignoring Native treaties normalised the idea that law is optional when power is sufficient. With its new status and power, the country chose coercion over law, executive force over constitutional checks and balances, and conquest over treaty obligations.
Native nations experienced this not as an abstract theory but as a lived catastrophe. Even though the Indian Removal Act did not authorise the use of force, violence came from all directions to compel Native people to leave their homelands. Federal troops and state militias dragged people from their homes and imprisoned them in concentration camps. Ordinary Americans mimicked Jackson’s tactics, stealing property and possessions, burning houses, torching fields and using violence and the threat of famine to drive people away.
In their anti-Removal memorial of 1832, leaders of the Muscogee Nation drew on history. They reminded Congress that all settlers were immigrants. Europeans came to North America “few in number and feeble in strength”, but Native people gave these newcomers “land on which to live” and “food to supply their hunger”. Now that the United States had become powerful, Muscogees asked, “For which of our services to you…are we subjected to the penalties of forfeiture?” Native leaders called on American citizens to remember their own past and to consider the future, keeping in mind the precarious nature of political power.
These warnings remain relevant. Jacksonian imperialism wasn’t a regrettable aberration but an early stress test for American democracy. Perhaps cowed by his popularity, Congress chose not to censure Jackson over Florida. Empowered, he continued to push the boundaries of the presidency and was eventually censured by the Senate in 1834 for removing federal deposits from the Second Bank of the United States without its approval. Reminding ourselves of America’s first experiment with empire reveals a worrying truth: when power expands faster than law, the United States sacrificed constitutional restraint, treated some as expendable “subjects” and risked descending into Augustus Caesar’s Rome. ■
논증 분석
유형: causal
핵심 주장
Andrew Jackson의 Indian Removal Act는 법치주의를 무시한 무제한적 팽창주의의 전례로, 권력이 법보다 빠르게 확장될 때 민주주의가 어떻게 붕괴되는지를 보여주는 역사적 경고다.
논리구조
- 전제: Andrew Jackson은 1817년 의회 승인 없이 Florida를 침공하고, 적법한 절차 없이 포로들을 처형하는 등 법적 권한을 초월한 군사 행동을 감행했다.
- 논거: 일각에서는 Jackson의 행동이 Thomas Jefferson의 Louisiana Purchase나 James Monroe의 Monroe Doctrine 등 이전 행정부의 팽창주의 정책의 연장선이라고 옹호했으나, 비판자들은 이러한 권위주의적 제국주의가 공화국의 몰락을 초래할 것이라고 경고했다.
- 논거: Senator John Calhoun은 Augustus Caesar가 로마 원로원으로부터 권력을 빼앗은 전례를 들어, 공화국의 형식은 유지하면서 독재적 권력을 행사하는 것의 위험성을 경고했다.
- 진단: Indian Removal Act는 하원에서 102대 97의 근소한 차이로 통과되었으며, 특히 북동부에서 강한 반대가 있었다. Davy Crockett을 포함한 일부 남부 의원들도 원주민 부족의 주권과 조약 의무를 근거로 반대표를 던졌다.
- 진단: 미국은 원주민 부족과의 조약에서 그들의 주권과 토지를 헌법상 구속력 있게 인정했음에도, Jackson은 1812년 전쟁 이후 미국의 대륙 강국화를 이유로 원주민을 주권자가 아닌 ‘신민(subjects)‘으로 취급해야 한다고 주장하며 조약을 무력화했다.
- 진단: Indian Removal Act는 무력 사용을 명시적으로 승인하지 않았음에도, 연방군과 주 민병대가 원주민을 강제 추방하고 수용소에 억류하는 등 실질적인 폭력과 재앙이 초래되었다.
- 논거: 1832년 Muscogee Nation 지도자들은 의회에 제출한 반-추방 청원에서, 유럽 이주민들이 약할 때 원주민이 그들을 도왔음을 상기시키며 미국이 강해진 뒤 조약 의무를 저버리는 것은 역사적 배신임을 지적했다.
- 반론: 의회는 Jackson의 인기에 눌려 Florida 침공에 대한 비난 결의를 하지 않았고, 이로 인해 Jackson은 더욱 대통령 권한의 경계를 밀어붙였으며, 결국 1834년 Second Bank of the United States 연방 예금 무단 이전으로 상원의 비난을 받았다.
- 결론: 조약을 무시함으로써 법이 선택 사항이라는 관념을 정상화한 Jacksonian 제국주의는, 권력이 법보다 빠르게 확장될 때 헌법적 견제가 희생되고 민주주의가 Augustus Caesar의 로마처럼 전락할 수 있음을 보여주는 초기 경고였다.
결론
Indian Removal Act로 대표되는 Jacksonian 팽창주의는 단순한 역사적 일탈이 아니라 미국 민주주의의 첫 번째 스트레스 테스트였으며, 오늘날에도 권력 집중과 법치 무시의 위험성에 대한 유효한 역사적 교훈으로 남아 있다.
Christina Snyder is the McCabe Greer Professor of the American Civil War Era at The Pennsylvania State University.
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