Editing Indian removal (section)

=={{anchor|The Revolutionary background}}Background==

American leaders in the Revolutionary and early US eras debated about whether Native Americans should be treated as individuals or as nations.<ref name="Obie" />

===Declaration of Independence===
{{Main|United States Declaration of Independence}}

In the indictment section of the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], the Indigenous inhabitants of the United States are referred to as "merciless Indian Savages", reflecting a commonly held view at the time by the colonists in the United States.

===Benjamin Franklin===
In a draft "Proposed Articles of Confederation" presented to the [[Continental Congress]] on May 10, 1775, [[Benjamin Franklin]] called for a "perpetual Alliance" with the Indians in the nation about to be born, particularly with the six nations of the [[Iroquois]] Confederacy:<ref name="Franklin" /><ref name="Pommersheim2009" />

{{Blockquote|Article XI. A perpetual alliance offensive and defensive is to be entered into as soon as may be with the Six Nations; their Limits to be ascertained and secured to them; their Land not to be encroached on, nor any private or Colony Purchases made of them hereafter to be held good, nor any Contract for Lands to be made but between the Great Council of the Indians at Onondaga and the General Congress. The Boundaries and Lands of all the other Indians shall also be ascertained and secured to them in the same manner; and Persons appointed to reside among them in proper Districts, who shall take care to prevent Injustice in the Trade with them, and be enabled at our general Expense by occasional small Supplies, to relieve their personal Wants and Distresses. And all Purchases from them shall be by the Congress for the General Advantage and Benefit of the United Colonies.}}

==={{anchor|Early Congressional acts}}Early congressional acts===
The [[Congress of the Confederation|Confederation Congress]] passed the [[Northwest Ordinance]] of 1787 (a precedent for US territorial expansion would occur for years to come), calling for the protection of Native American "property, rights, and liberty";<ref name="LawHist" /> the US Constitution of 1787 (Article I, Section 8) made Congress responsible for regulating commerce with the Indian tribes. In 1790, the new US Congress passed the Indian [[Nonintercourse Act]] (renewed and amended in 1793, 1796, 1799, 1802, and 1834) to protect and codify the land rights of recognized tribes.<ref name="Clair&Lee" />

===George Washington===
President [[George Washington]], in his 1790 address to the [[Seneca Nation]] which called the pre-Constitutional Indian land-sale difficulties "evils", said that the case was now altered and pledged to uphold Native American "just rights".<ref name="NY-State" /><ref name="Region" /> In March and April 1792, Washington met with 50 tribal chiefs in Philadelphia—including the Iroquois—to discuss strengthening the friendship between them and the United States.<ref name="MalinowskiAbrams1995" /> Later that year, in his fourth annual message to Congress, Washington stressed the need to build peace, trust, and commerce with Native Americans:<ref name="Manweller2012" />

{{Blockquote|I cannot dismiss the subject of Indian affairs without again recommending to your consideration the expediency of more adequate provision for giving energy to the laws throughout our interior frontier, and for restraining the commission of outrages upon the Indians; without which all pacific plans must prove nugatory.  To enable, by competent rewards, the employment of qualified and trusty persons to reside among them, as agents, would also contribute to the preservation of peace and good neighbourhood.  If, in addition to these expedients, an eligible plan could be devised for promoting civilization among the friendly tribes, and for carrying on trade with them, upon a scale equal to their wants, and under regulations calculated to protect them from imposition and extortion, its influence in cementing their interests with our's [sic] could not but be considerable.<ref name="MillerCenter2016" />}}

In his seventh annual message to Congress in 1795, Washington intimated that if the US government wanted peace with the Indians it must behave peacefully; if the US wanted raids by Indians to stop, raids by American "frontier inhabitants" must also stop.<ref name="MillerCenter20167" /><ref name="MoquinDoren1973" />

===Thomas Jefferson===
In his ''[[Notes on the State of Virginia]]'' (1785), [[Thomas Jefferson]] defended Native American culture and marveled at how the tribes of Virginia "never submitted themselves to any laws, any coercive power, any shadow of government" due to their "moral sense of right and wrong".<ref name="Beyond" /><ref name="Onuf2000" /> He wrote to the Marquis de Chastellux later that year, "I believe the Indian then to be in body and mind equal to the whiteman".<ref name="Jordan1974" /> Jefferson's desire, as interpreted by [[Francis Paul Prucha]], was for Native Americans to intermix with European Americans and become one people.<ref name="Prucha1985" /><ref name="Prucha1997" /> To achieve that end as president, Jefferson offered US citizenship to some Indian nations and proposed offering them credit to facilitate trade.<ref name="Fraser2016" /><ref name="Letter" />

On 27 February 1803, Jefferson wrote in a letter to [[William Henry Harrison]]:<blockquote>In this way our settlements will gradually circumbscribe & approach the Indians, & they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the US. or remove beyond the Missisipi. The former is certainly the termination of their history most happy for themselves. But in the whole course of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. As to their fear, we presume that our strength & their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, & that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Founders Online: From Thomas Jefferson to William Henry Harrison, 27 February 1 ...|url=http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-39-02-0500|access-date=2021-10-27|website=founders.archives.gov|language=en|archive-date=July 26, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210726062145/https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-39-02-0500|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote>