The government's attitude towards the Cherokee at this time had a condescending tone. Andrew Jackson described American Indians as "children in need of guidance" (Satz, American Indian Policy in the Jacksonian Era) and "Established in the midst of another and a superior race and without appreciating the causes of their inferiority or seeking to control them, they must necessarily yield to the force of circumstances and ere long disappear" (McCloughlin, page XII).
A lot of the public's attitude also had an anti-Cherokee slant as evidenced by the lyrics of this popular song of the era:
"All I ask in this creation
Is a pretty little wife
And a big plantation
Way up yonder in Cherokee Nation" (Hunter, The Cherokee Nation in the 1820s).
"All I ask in this creation
Is a pretty little wife
And a big plantation
Way up yonder in Cherokee Nation" (Hunter, The Cherokee Nation in the 1820s).