A History of the American People

he brought forward an ingenious measure which progressively reduced the tariff to 20 percent by

1842. This was not as much as South Carolina wanted but it was enough to save its face. Jackson
      signed both the Force Act and the Compromise Tariff on March 1, 1833, and immediately
      afterwards South Carolina withdrew its Nullification Law. Needless to say, Clay got no thanks
      from either Jackson or Calhoun for getting them off their respective hooks. But the pending
      conflict between North and South was put off for another two decades and the power, strength,
      and rights of the Union publicly vindicated. The South was never quite the same again after this
      enforced climb-down by its most extreme state.' The fact is, Jackson had asserted, as president,
      that the Union could not be dissolved by the unilateral action of a state (or group of states), and
      the challenger had been forced to comply, implicitly at least.
      If Jackson's democratic America was implacable with Southern separatism, it was even more
      relentless in destroying the last remnants of Indian power and property east of the Mississippi. Of
      course Jackson was not alone. White opinion-and black for that matter: the blacks found the
      Indians harsher masters than anyone-were virtually united in wanting to integrate the Indians or
      kick them west, preferably far west. Jackson had destroyed Indian power in the Southeast even
      before he became president. And, under Monroe, Indian power south of the Great Lakes was
      likewise annihilated by General Lewis Cass (1782-1866), hero of the 1812 War and governor of
      Michigan Territory 1813-21. In August 1825 Cass called a conference of 1,000 leaders of all the
      Northwest tribes at Prairie du Chien and told them to settle their tribal boundaries. Once this was
      done, he made compulsory deals with each tribe separately. In 1826 he forced the Potawatomi to
      hand over an enormous tract in Indiana. The Miami handed over their lands in Indiana for
      $55,000 and an annuity of $25,000. Other separate tribal deals were similar. In the years 1826-30
      the Indians were forced to surrender not only their old land but their new reservations, as the
      settlers poured in to take over. There was a substantial Indian uprising in 1829, but it was put
      down by overwhelming force, Washington for the first time using steam gunboats on the Great
      Lake! just as the British were using them to build up their empire all over the world. As a result
      of this Gunboat Diplomacy,' the Indians were pushed across the Mississippi, or left in small pockets, an 190,879,370 acres of their lands passed into white hands at a cost of a little over $70 million in gifts and annuities.' Cass was a sophisticated man, who later held high posts in diplomacy and politics. He was one of the few Indian-fighters who actually set down his views on the subject-an essay entitledThe
      Policy and Practice of the United States and Great Britain in their Treatment of Indians,'
      published in the North American Review, 1827. He said he could not understand why the Indians,
      after 200 years of contact with the white man, had not improved.' It was amoral phenomenon-
      it had to be-since a principle of progressive improvement seems almost inherent in human nature.' Butthe desire to ameliorate their condition’ did not seem to exist in the constitution of our savages. Like the bear and deer and buffalo in his own forests, the Indian lives as his father lived, and dies as his father died. He never attempts to imitate the arts of his civilised neighbors. His life passes away in a succession of listless indolence, and of vigorous exertion to provide for his animal wants or to gratify his baleful passions ... he is perhaps destined to disappear with the forests.' In fact the Indians varied enormously. The Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles, who bore the brunt of white aggression, had long been known as theFive Civilized
      Tribes.' John Quincy Adams, who was always hostile to Indians, had to admit that a delegation
      of Cherokees who came to see President Monroe in 1824 were most civilised.'These men,' he
      recorded, `were dressed entirely according to our manner. Two of them spoke English with good