Enter the number “21” into the “Year OR Congress” field to view the biographies of the members of the 21st Congress that voted on the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

About This Project   About the 21st Congress   About the Indian Removal Act    About Me

The 21st Congress that voted on the Indian Removal Act of 1830 was among the most illustrious in the antebellum period.  Among its membership could be counted a number of future presidents (John Tyler of Virginia, James Polk of Tennessee, and James Buchanan of Pennsylvania), a figure of frontier lore (David

Crockett of Tennessee), and perhaps the most famous orator in early American history (Daniel Webster of Massachusetts).  The 21st Congress housed five major parties, the largest of which was comprised of the newly-elected President Andrew Jackson’s supporters.  The majority of the new president’s supporters were congressman that had been born during and after the American Revolution, and many had spent their lives living in or traveling through the American frontier as it slowly expanded westward.  These men were among the first generation to espouse the popular democratic ideals that came to define Jackson’s presidency as an “Age of the Common Man” (see Arthur Schlesinger’s The Age of Jackson). More importantly for this project, however, these men linked their notions of democracy

to a rising sense of virulent white supremacism (see Robert Remini’s The Legacy of Andrew Jackson).  They had grown to maturity in a nation whose founding document explicitly protected the institution of slavery and had in their youth heard tales of or witnessed firsthand the ‘savagery’ of Indian attacks on the ‘peaceable inhabitants’ of the frontier.  They had also experienced the growing and increasingly volatile division of their nation between north and south as the nation - and its institutions - expanded westward across the North

American continent.  The composition of the body to which they were elected, then, was one of the most divided to that date.  The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was thus controversial not only because of its questionable nature, but also because the American republic of the time was simply becoming increasingly prone to controversy in general.  These divisions would have a profound impact on the individual characters of each member of the 21st Congress and are reflected in that body’s vote for the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

Divisions within the 21st Congress.

Charts based on raw numbers.

3 Slides Total

All charts and maps can be downloaded here.