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Thomas Jefferson was the first U.S. President to propose the idea of a formal Indian Removal plan.〔Miller, 2006: (p. 90 )〕〔Drinnon, 1997: 〕 Andrew Jackson is often erroneously credited with initiating Indian Removal, because Congress passed the Indian Removal Act in 1830, during his presidency, and also because of his personal involvement in the forceful extermination and removal of many Eastern tribes. But Jackson was merely legalizing and implementing a plan laid out by Jefferson in a series of private letters that began in 1803, although Jefferson did not implement the plan during his own presidency.〔 ==Acculturation and assimilation== The rise of Napoleon in Europe, and rumor of a possible transfer of the Louisiana Territory from the Spanish empire to the more aggressive French, was cause for consternation amongst some people in the American republic. Jefferson advocated for the militarization of the Western border, along the Mississippi River. He felt that the best way to accomplish this was to flood the area with a large population of white settlements.〔 Still recovering from the American Revolutionary War, the U.S. federal government was unable to risk starting a broad conflict with the powerful Native American nations that surrounded their borders. They were worried that this would cause a broader Indian War, and which would perhaps be joined by the other European nations.〔Rockwell, 2010: (pp. 38-39 )〕 In his instructions to Meriwether Lewis, Jefferson emphasized the necessity for treating all Indian tribes in the most conciliatory manner.〔Harry W. Fritz (2004). "''(The Lewis and Clark Expedition )''". Greenwood Publishing Group. p.13. ISBN 0313316619〕 Jefferson wanted to expand his borders into the Indian territories, without causing a full-scale war. Jefferson's original plan was to coerce native peoples to give up their own cultures, religions, and lifestyles in favor of western European culture, Christian religion, and a sedentary agricultural lifestyle.〔〔 Jefferson's expectation was that by assimilating the natives into a market-based, agricultural society and stripping them of their self-sufficiency, they would become economically heavily dependent on trade with white Americans, and would thereby be willing to give up land that they would otherwise not part with, in exchange for trade goods or to resolve unpaid debts.〔Owens, 2007: (pp. 76-77 )〕〔Sheehan, 1974: (p. 171 )〕〔Rockwell, 2010: (p. 88 )〕 In an 1803 private letter to William Henry Harrison, Jefferson wrote: :To promote this disposition to exchange lands, which they have to spare and we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare and they want, we shall push our trading uses, and be glad to see the good and influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop them off by a cession of lands.... In this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe and approach the Indians, and they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the United States, or remove beyond the Mississippi. 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 and their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, and that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. Should any tribe be foolhardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe, and driving them across the Mississippi, as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation.〔 Jefferson believed that this strategy would ''"get rid of this pest, without giving offence or umbrage to the Indians"''. He stated that Harrison was to keep the contents of the letter ''"sacred"'' and ''"kept within 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Jefferson and Indian removal」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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