A Member of Congress Speaks Out Against the Removal Policy
Digital History ID 669

Author:   Edward Everett
Date:1830

Annotation: One of the staunchest Congressional opponents of removal was the famous orator Edward Everett. Here he vehemently attacks Andrew Jackson's removal policy.

Document: The evil, Sir, is enormous; the inevitable suffering incalculable. Do not stain the fair fame of the country.... Nations of dependent Indians, against their will, under color of law, are driven from their homes into the wilderness. You cannot explain it; you cannot reason it away.... Our friends will view this measure with sorrow, and our enemies alone with joy. And we ourselves, Sir, when the interests and passions of the day are past, shall look back upon it, I fear, with self-reproach, and a regret as bitter as unavailing.

Source: Jeremiah Evarts, ed., Speeches on the Passage of the Bill for the Removal of the Indians Delivered in the Congress of the United States (Boston, 1830), 299.