United States policy towards Native Americans under President John Adams
1797-1800
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65074/t669tt27Keywords:
John Adams - United States policy - Native Americans - American treatiesAbstract
This study examines the policy of the United States toward Indigenous Peoples during the presidency of John Adams (1797–1800) by analyzing three interconnected dimensions: the president’s political stance, the treaties concluded with several tribes, and the congressional legislation that regulated borders, trade, and federal authority. The study argues that Adams’s administration did not introduce a substantially new Indigenous policy compared to the Washington era; instead, it remained largely marginal and limited, despite general promises of fairness and humanity in Adams’s inaugural address. The research further shows that treaties with the Mohawk, Seneca, and Cherokee were primarily designed to formalize land cessions and compensation mechanisms under federal supervision, reinforcing an institutional imbalance of power between the federal government and tribal communities. In addition, congressional acts between 1798 and 1800 marked a shift toward stronger legal centralization by regulating frontier order, licensing trade, criminalizing violations within tribal territories, and reaffirming that Indigenous land transfers could only occur through formal treaties. Overall, the study concludes that the Adams presidency consolidated administrative and legal instruments of federal control over Indigenous affairs, even without adopting an explicit rights-based framework for Indigenous Peoples within the early American republic.
References
Scott E. Casper, Constructing American Lives: Biography and Culture in Nineteenth-Century America, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999, PP. 77–80.
( ) Paul Leicester Ford , Thomas Jefferson Writings, Volume 6, New York, G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1899, P. 94.
( ) Joseph J. Ellis, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, New York, Vintage Books, 2002, PP. 121 – 123.
( ) صمويل آدامز: زعيم سياسي أمريكي وأحد أبرز قادة الثورة الأمريكية، وُلد في 27 أيلول 1722 بمدينة بوسطن في مستعمرة خليج ماساتشوستس، وتخرج في جامعة هارفارد عام 1740 بدراسة الفلسفة والعلوم السياسية. برز كمنظم أساسي لحركة المعارضة ضد السياسة البريطانية، وساهم في تأسيس لجنة المراسلات التي لعبت دوراً محورياً في تنسيق المقاومة بين المستعمرات. شارك في تنظيم احتجاجات "حزب الشاي في بوسطن" عام 1773، وانتُخب عضواً في الكونغرس القاري حيث وقع على إعلان الاستقلال عام 1776. شغل منصب حاكم ولاية ماساتشوستس بين 1794 و1797، وعُرف بدفاعه عن الحقوق الفردية ومبدأ السيادة الشعبية. توفي في 2 تشرين الأول 1803 في بوسطن. للمزيد من التفاصيل انظر :
Mark Puls, Samuel Adams: Father of the American Revolution, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, PP. 134–139.
( ) باتريك هنري: خطيب ومحامٍ وسياسي أمريكي بارز، وُلد في 29 أيار 1736 في مقاطعة هانوفر بولاية فرجينيا، تلقى تعليماً أساسياً في المنزل ثم اتجه إلى التجارة قبل أن يدرس القانون ويبدأ ممارسة المحاماة عام 1760. اكتسب شهرة واسعة بخطابه الناري ضد قانون الطوابع البريطاني عام 1765، كما عُرف بخطبته الشهيرة في آذار 1775 التي تضمنت عبارته الشهيرة "أعطني الحرية أو أعطني الموت". انتُخب عضواً في مجلس النواب عن فرجينيا، وكان من أوائل المطالبين بالانفصال عن بريطانيا. تولى منصب أول حاكم منتخب لولاية فرجينيا بين عامي 1776 و1779 ثم عاد إلى المنصب في مدة لاحقة من 1784 إلى 1786. عُرف بدفاعه عن حقوق الولايات، وانتقد الدستور الفدرالي الجديد قبل إقراره. توفي في 6 حزيران 1799 في مقاطعة كامبل بفرجينيا. للمزيد من التفاصيل انظر :
Jon Kukla, Patrick Henry: Champion of Liberty, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017, PP. 201–207.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright and Licensing:
For all articles published in Journal of Studies in History and Archeology, copyright is retained by the authors. Articles are licensed under an open access Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, meaning that anyone may download and read the paper for free. In addition, the article may be reused and quoted provided that the original published version is cited. These conditions allow for maximum use and exposure of the work.
Reproducing Published Material from other Publishers: It is absolutely essential that authors obtain permission to reproduce any published material (figures, schemes, tables or any extract of a text) which does not fall into the public domain, or for which they do not hold the copyright. Permission should be requested by the authors from the copyrightholder (usually the Publisher, please refer to the imprint of the individual publications to identify the copyrightholder).
Permission is required for: Your own works published by other Publishers and for which you did not retain copyright.
Substantial extracts from anyones' works or a series of works.
Use of Tables, Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks if they are unaltered or slightly modified.
Photographs for which you do not hold copyright.
Permission is not required for: Reconstruction of your own table with data already published elsewhere. Please notice that in this case you must cite the source of the data in the form of either "Data from..." or "Adapted from...".
Reasonably short quotes are considered fair use and therefore do not require permission.
Graphs, Charts, Schemes and Artworks that are completely redrawn by the authors and significantly changed beyond recognition do not require permission.
Obtaining Permission
In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the publication process, you should start obtaining permissions as early as possible. If in any doubt about the copyright, apply for permission. Al-Adab Journal cannot publish material from other publications without permission.
The copyright holder may give you instructions on the form of acknowledgement to be followed; otherwise follow the style: "Reproduced with permission from [author], [book/journal title]; published by [publisher], [year].' at the end of the caption of the Table, Figure or Scheme.
