Date of Award

Summer 1963

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Education

Abstract

Since the day the white man first set foot upon the soil of the New World, the enigma of its aboriginal inhabitants has virtually defied successful solution. Refusing to adapt to European customs and concepts of government the redman waged nearly two centuries of vicious warfare against his white brothers before consenting to dwell with them in peaceful co-existence. One of the solutions proposed for the always present, ever-growing problem of the Indians was that of complete separation of the races as a result of the removal of the savages to a distant section of the continent. The idea did not originate as has been commonly asserted, with Andrew Jackson, but with Thomas Jefferson. Previous to Jefferson's presidential administration, the plan received no official sanction, largely because a lack of available territory rendered its success highly improbable. The purchase of the Iouisiana Territory from France in 1803, changed this impracticality to a workable plan of action. The importance of the Iouisiana Purchase cannot be stressed sufficiently for it modified, totally, the tenor of the government's relationships with the Indian tribes. The concept of removal was no doubt spontaneous and original with Jefferson for prior to his suggested amendment to the Constitution at the time of the Louisiana Purchase, his correspondence, both official and private, stated that the only solution to the Indian riddle was consolidation or amalgamation..

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