Analysis: President Chester Arthur: Indian Policy Reform

Date: December 6, 1881

Author: Chester A. Arthur

Genre: speech; address

Summary Overview

In 1881, Republican president Chester A. Arthur, during his first annual address to Congress, presented a series of reform proposals designed to improve relations between white settlers and American Indians. The “Indian question” was one of the most divisive issues facing the federal government in the latter nineteenth century, as military and humanitarian policy proposals abounded; complicating the matter, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the primary body tasked with addressing American Indian tribal issues, was hampered by corruption. Arthur's proposals to Congress included extending protections for reservations, promoting Indian agriculture, creating “Indian schools,” and, most significantly, breaking up larger Indian-owned territories and reservations. The latter proposal, known as “severalty,” would greatly enhance settlers' ability to negotiate land purchases as white frontiersmen continued their westward expansion.

Defining Moment

In the aftermath of the Civil War and Reconstruction, one of the most pressing security issues facing the federal government was the “Indian question.” As settlers ventured westward and into Indian Territory, distrust, deceit, and violence between Indians and settlers were becoming more prevalent. Prior to the Civil War, the Bureau of Indian Affairs was transferred from the War Department to the Department of the Interior; after the Civil War, many in Congress called for the bureau's return to the War Department. Two clear factions existed: those who advocated for a peaceful solution to the Indian question and those who sought military action.

In 1869, a policy emerged to bring citizenship and cultural assimilation peaceably to the Indians. The Peace Policy, as it was known, established reservations on which Indians would reside as “wards” of the federal government as they worked toward economic independence and equal political rights with other Americans. Two years later, Congress altered the Peace Policy by changing the manner by which treaties with the various warring tribes were negotiated. Instead of addressing each nation individually, the United States would establish agreements with Indians as a collective, although individual land deals and treaties would remain intact.

By the 1870s, however, the Peace Policy was largely undermined by both corruption in the Bureau of Indian Affairs and an inability of white settlers and nomadic Indians to peacefully coexist. With the Peace Policy faltering, the militaristic faction returned to the fore. President Rutherford B. Hayes seemed torn, publicly calling for reforms to the federal government's Indian relations program that would restore peaceful options to both sides, while at the same time suggesting that military action against aggressive Indian groups was also acceptable in certain situations.

In 1880, the unlikely pairing of Republicans James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur as presidential and vice presidential candidates, respectively, brought the two to Washington, DC. Garfield and Arthur were ardently anti-corruption, and Garfield focused some of that sentiment on the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Unfortunately, an assassin took Garfield's life before the end of his first year as president. Arthur also took aim at corruption in the bureau, but he also advocated reforms to the system itself. Arthur called for a humanitarian approach to the Indians, although he also agreed with the policy of severalty. In 1881, as one of his first acts as president, Arthur presented his ideas for Indian policy reform to Congress, calling upon legislators to enact laws that would strengthen Indians' rights, enhance Indians' education (particularly with regard to agriculture), and facilitate more peaceful land agreements.

Author Biography

Chester A. Arthur was born on October 5, 1829, in Fairfield, Vermont. An 1848 graduate of Union College in New York, he taught school while studying for the bar. In 1854, Arthur, a strong abolitionist, began practicing law in New York City, taking on a number of civil rights cases. At the start of the Civil War, he was appointed quartermaster general of the state of New York. In 1871, he continued his political rise as collector of the port of New York.

In 1880, Arthur became Garfield's vice presidential candidate. Garfield's presidency was cut short when he was assassinated. Because of a kidney condition known as Bright's disease, Arthur served only one term as president. Leaving Washington, DC, in 1885, he moved back to New York and into private practice. A year later, in 1886, he succumbed to his illness.

Document Analysis

Arthur first references Indian policy to date, which, he argues, has been largely ineffective, marred by makeshift agreements, violence, and “unsatisfactory” results. The problems the US government has faced with regard to Indian relations date to the government's infancy, and yet, more than a century later, few solutions have been offered, Arthur states. The fundamental approach to the issue is flawed, he asserts. By dealing with each tribe as though it were a separate nation and, through treaties, assigning them to vast reservations, these tribes are left isolated from American civilization. As a result, he says, Indians are left to continue their own antiquated and “savage” way of life.

Arthur cites the fact that his recent predecessors have begun to see the folly of past Indian-relations policies. Too much money has been spent and too many lives have been lost over the last half century, he states, without improvement. However, the new approach—pursuing the assimilation of Indians into American civilization—offers great promise, he argues. It is, therefore, vital that the White House and Congress move collectively toward reform.

Having outlined the failings of the past and discussing the positive attributes of assimilation, Arthur presents his reform proposals. First, he states that the laws of the states and territories in which Indian reservations were located would apply to the people on those reservations as well (the only exception would be the territory of the so-called Five Civilized Tribes of what is modern-day Oklahoma—this territory comprised tribes that had largely adopted “civilized” practices and whose territory was by treaty left safe from additional white settlement). As a result of Arthur's proposal, Indians would enjoy the same protections under those laws as white settlers. Second—and, in his opinion, most important—Arthur called for passage of a law allowing for severalty. Indians, he believed, would benefit from such arrangements because severalty would provide them with opportunities to own land that is legally bound and free from additional (and disputable) settlement.

Arthur continues by suggesting that Indians could—in return for the government's “considerate action” of severalty and legal protection—take advantage of their new status as landowners and take a step away from an outdated nomadic hunting culture. Indeed, Arthur says, the fact that they would be entitled to a piece of property would almost certainly lead Indians to grow crops from it and live an agrarian lifestyle. Furthermore, passage of severalty and the adoption of agriculture would likely influence American Indians to disregard their tribal bonds and the “savage life” it promotes. Arthur states that many Indians have already expressed an interest in moving in such a direction, and the United States has an opportunity to educate American Indians on the benefits of American citizenship.

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Dehler, Gregory J. Chester Alan Arthur: The Life of a Gilded Age Politician and President. Hauppauge: Nova, 2007. Print.

Heidler, David Stephen, & Jeanne T. Heidler. Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Modern America: From the Indian Wars to the Vietnam War. Westport: Greenwood, 2007. Print.

Sturgis, Amy H. Presidents from Hayes through McKinley: Debating the Issues in Pro and Con Primary Documents. Westport: Greenwood, 2003. Print.

Wooster, Robert. The Military and United States Indian Policy, 1865–1903. Lincoln: U of Nebraska P, 1995. Print.