Liberty collection point
Missionary and Advocate for Native Americans
Dates: 1781–1831
Quote: The Cherokees are neither savages, nor criminals … their only offense consists in the possession of lands which their neighbors covet. [134]
Quote credit: Jeremiah Evarts, 1829
Image credit: Print Collection, The New York Public Library
Synopsis copy: Jeremiah Evarts was the leading national opponent of President Andrew Jackson’s policy of Indian removal. Evarts’s essays were carried by major newspapers to over 500,000 readers, influencing public opinion and officials.
Image credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Body copy: Evarts was a leader of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the primary agency responsible for establishing missions and schools among the Cherokee and other southern tribes.
Image caption: Early 19th-century woodcut of the Brainerd Mission to the Cherokee
Image credit: University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Body copy: Under the pseudonym Willam Penn, Evarts wrote 24 essays on the rights of Native Americans. They were considered “the holy writ, the reference work, and the legal brief of the many preachers, congressmen, and lawyers.”
Image caption: Essays on the present crisis in the condition of the American Indians by Jeremiah Evarts, 1829
Image credit: Queen’s University Library via Internet Archive
Body copy: Evarts worked with Cherokee leaders like Chief John Ross to oppose the Indian Removal Act, Congressional legislation supporting Jackson’s proposal to relocate Native Americans to territory west of the Mississippi.
Image caption: Lithograph of Cherokee Chief John Ross, 1843
Image credit: Getty Images
Body copy: Despite support from congressmen like Davy Crockett, the outcome in 1830 was a narrow four-vote victory for Jackson’s policy in the U.S. House of Representatives—101 votes in favor of removal, 97 against.
Image caption: The Indian Removal Act, May 28, 1830
Image credit: General Records of the U.S. Government, National Archives
Body copy: With Congressional backing, Jackson implemented forced relocation of the Cherokee from their ancestral lands to a reservation in Oklahoma. Their “Trail of Tears” journey resulted in the deaths of at least 3,000 Cherokee.
Image caption: Harper’s Weekly illustration of Native Americans being displaced, 1870
Image credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Ally to the Cherokee
Bubble copy: This letter from Evarts to Cherokee Chief John Ross on July 20, 1830, urges him to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Evarts’s moral and legal arguments against removal later positively influenced Chief Justice John Marshall.
Image credit: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Bubble copy: While your friends were at Washington, I did all in my power to assist them and promote their cause, which I considered the cause of truth and justice.
Source: N/A
Image credit: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Bubble copy: You may be assured, that if you get your case fairly before the Supreme Court, your rights will be defended. It is so clear a case, that the Court cannot mistake it. All the great lawyers in the country are on your side.
Source: N/A
Image credit: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Bubble copy: P.S. This is a serious time with you. May the Lord bring you out of all your troubles. Trust your cause with him.
Source: N/A
Image credit: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Question/alignment statement: Do you think that doing the right thing often requires standing up against the majority and fighting for a “lost cause”?
Image credit: Sarin Images / GRANGER
Scripture: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing …
Scripture credit: Exodus 20:17
Image credit: Print Collection, The New York Public Library Related changemakers: Richard Allen, Beechers, Tappan Brothers
