[Andrew] Jackson himself compared Indian removal favorably to white westward migration. White settlers, he said, "remove hundreds and almost thousands of miles at their own expense, purchase new lands they occupy, and support themselves at their new homes from the moment of their arrival. Can it be cruel in the Government, when, by events which it cannot control, the Indian is made discontented in his ancient home - to purchase his lands, to give him a new and extensive territory, to pay the expense of his removal, and support him a year in his new abode? How many thousands of our own people would gladly embrace the opportunity of removing to the West on such conditions." (193) The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West (1987) |