ight and nullification was illegal. After hearing Jackson, most of America was on his side.Jackson's harsh treatment of Indians needed backing from the Constitution, or else he would seem like a tyrant. Jackson thought progress was inevitable and the Indian land was needed to bring civilization to those areas. Twelve million whites were more important than "a few thousand savages"(Pessen 318). The main Indians being persecuted were the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, and the Chickasaws. They lived in the south. Defenders of these tribes said that the policy of white farmers having the right to take the land of the savage was okay as long as they were savage, but these tribes were not savage. They were skilled in the art of white civilization. Many had intermarried with white wives, lived in white man's houses, and had adopted the white man's dress. The Cherokee Nation had built roads, schools, and churches, they had even invented their own written language. Some even owned slaves. They thought that they were protected by rights given to them by treaties with the United States. The state of Georgia refused to recognize any special quality about the Cherokees except that they were red men and the fact that they owned land which the white men wanted. In 1829 the Georgia legislature passed a law extending its authority over the Indian territory within the borders of the state. Then, a Cherokee named Corn Tassel, killed another Cherokee in the territory. He was taken before a Georgia court, found guilty, and then sentenced to be hanged. The Cherokee Nation appealed to United States Supreme Court on the grounds that Georgia lacked jurisdiction. The case was named Cherokee Nation v. Georgia and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at that time was John Marshall. The lawyer for the Cherokee Nation was William Wirt, who had previously been passed over for the job of U.S. Attorney General by Jackson because he distrusted Wirt ...
