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Chapter VII - The Mob Celebrates, The Indians Surrender
The Mob Celebrates, The Indians Surrender 1829
"No one who was at Washington at the time of General Jackson's inauguration is likely to forget [it] to the day of his death," commented one observer of Andrew Jackson's inaugural address in 1829. Indeed, the circumstances of Jackson's unprecedented ceremony foreshadowed the ways in which he would roughly grapple with problems that faced him during the years of his presidency. From 1829 until 1836, Jackson would be called upon to resolve the ever-present "Indian problem," the question of the proper division of sovereignty between state and federal governments and the thorny issue of territorial expansion and slavery.
The new president, a recent widower in poor health who was plagued by a persistent cough and severe headaches, began his two terms of office as the seventh president of the United States on March 4, 1829. Nicknamed "0ld Hickory" after the toughest American hardwood, Jackson was a rough-and-tumble, ambitious man who rose from humble beginnings in North Carolina to become a wealthy planter and slave owner in Tennessee. This first American president not born into comfortable circumstances was considered by many conservative politicians, including "lame duck" president, John Quincy Adams, to be the leader of commoners or "King Mob." The elite of Washington were snobbishly appalled when Jackson invited this mob to celebrate his inauguration. Horrified servants watched helplessly as unruly guests upset punch bowels, rudely snatched ice cream before it could be served and stood on furniture with muddied boots. One observer noted that the disorderly scene was like the invasion "of the northern barbarians into Rome." Senator Daniel Webster remarked, "I never saw such a crowd here, and they really seem to think that the country is rescued from some dreadful danger."
The rowdy celebration over, Jackson immediately had to face the burdensome "Indian problem." Many politicians agreed with Senator Henry May who said that the disappearance of Indians "from the human family would be no great loss to the world." Jackson, however, had a typically western, somewhat less radical attitude and merely considered Indians barbaric hindrances to social and economic progress. He firmly believed that a "just, humane, liberal policy" toward Indians required moving them into the barren plains west of the Mississippi. With the assistance of the federal government, between 1830 and 1835 Jackson shamelessly expelled thousands of Native Americans from their "ancient haunts" and indifferently placed them in territory which many regarded as fit only for "horned toads and rattle snakes."
The majority of Northern tribes were too vulnerable to resist the underhanded offers of Indian commissioners who frequently used bribery and alcohol to seduce the disenfranchised chiefs. Also, Americans unmercifully stamped out any Indian resistance to their demands, as evidenced by the Black Hawk Wars. Facing utter famine, the Sauk and Fox tribes desperately attempted to recover their lands. The Illinois militia responded by wiping out over three hundred Indian men, women and children as they sought to retreat from the murderous gunfire by crossing the river at Bad Axe in Michigan territory. After this battle, known to some as the Massacre of Bad Axe, Chief Black Hawk finally surrendered, sadly confessing of himself:
His heart is dead and no longer beats quick in his bosom. He is now a prisoner to the white man; they will do with him as they wish. But he can stand torture and is not afraid of death.
Ironically, among the men of the Illinois militia who contributed to the slaughter was a young lieutenant named Lincoln who would later write the Emancipation Proclamation which technically freed thousands of slaves during the Civil War.
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