Jeremiah F. Evarts Fights Indian Removal
Jeremiah F. Evarts was the one of America’s earliest leaders against the removal of Native Americans from their traditional lands.
Jeremiah F. Evarts
Jeremiah F. Evarts grew up during the American Founding.
After a childhood in Vermont, Jeremiah studied at Yale and became a lawyer during the Jefferson Administration.
He married Mehitabel Sherman Barnes, making him a son-in-law of ultra-Signer Roger Sherman.
Together, the family would become one of the leading religious couples in the young United States.
The American Board
Before even passing the bar, Evarts became editor of The Panoplist, a religious publication on which he worked for fifteen years.
By 1812 Jeremiah became the Treasurer of the American Board of Commissioners fo Foreign Missions. This organization was dedicated to spreading Christianity around the world and his efforts as Treasurer were singularly important.
In 1821 he moved over two Secretaries, spending a decade corresponding with missionaries around the world.
Fighting Removal
Jeremiah’s time with the American Board drew him into the debate surrounding Andrew Jackson and the Indian Removal Act.
The Cherokee Nation (whom Jackson wanted to remove) was one of the peoples the missionaries were trying to convert.
Evarts was very much in favor of assimilating the Cherokee into American culture instead of forced removal.
Jeremiah undertook a strenuous, though unsuccessful, lobbying campaign in an attempt to have Congress vote against the Act.
Although his efforts failed (and his untimely teeth from tuberculosis halted the movement), Evarts’ moral arguments against removal would be taken up by the abolitionists in the decades leading to the Civil War.
William M. Evarts
An interesting footnote to Jeremiah’s life is that of his son.
William M. Evarts would become an important politician in his own right.
He would serve as a Senator from New York, US Attorney General and Secretary of State.
Want to read more about religion during the early republic?
Great! Check out these articles:
William Williams Supports a Religious Test
Pierpont Edwards Organizes the Toleration Party
If you’d like to read more about Evarts’ fascinating life, check out ‘From Revival to Removal’.
Pick up a copy through the Amazon affiliate link below…
