deal of land in Georgia and Alabama. They were farmers. They had roads and
lived in houses. They had a written language and a weekly newspaper. Their
government was democratic. But white settlers wanted their land.
The land was promised to the Cherokee nation by treaty. Missionaries,
Congressman Henry Clay, and the Supreme Court all said that the Cherokees
had rights to their claims. Even so, the Cherokees were thrown off their
land. They were told to go to Oklahoma. With soldiers watching them, they
had little choice but to obey.
This journey lasted several months. Disease, hunger and cold brought
death to many. Over 4,000 Cherokees Were buried along the Trial of Tears
which stretched from Georgia to Oklahoma.
Jackson said that their removal was necessary. Without it, he said, the
Cherokees all would have been killed by white settlers looking for more
land. Jackson did agreat deal to make people feel a part of government. But
he was not ready to give equality to Native Americans. A slave holder, all
his life Jackson did not believe in equality for blacks either.
Yet in Jackson's time, some people were starting to oppose slavery. These
people were called abolitionists.
Jonh F. Kennedy
For many Americans the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy as the 35th
President of the United States in 1960 marked the beginning of a new era in
this country's political history. Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic and
the youngest man ever chosen Chief Executive. He was also the first person
bom in the 20th century to hold the nation's highest office.
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on May 29. 1917, Kennedy was
descended from two politically conscious, Irish-American families that had
emigrated from Ireland to Boston shortly after potato blight and economic
upheavals had struck their homeland in the 1840s. Kennedy's grandfathers,
Patrick J. Kennedy and John F. ("Honey Fitz") Fitzgerald, became closely
associated with the local Democratic Party; Kennedy served in the
Massachusetts legislature, and Fitzgerald won election as mayor of Boston.
In 1914 the marriage of Joseph P. Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald united the
two families. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was the second eldest of Joseph and
Rose Kennedy's four sons and five daughters.
Joseph P. Kennedy was an extraordinarily successful businessman.
Despite the relatively modest means of his family, Kennedy attended Harvard
College, and upon graduation in 1912 began a career in banking. During the
1920s he amassed a substantial fortune from his investments in motion
pictures, real estate, and other enterprises, and unlike many magnates of
his era he escaped unscathed from the stock market crash of 1929. Joseph
Kennedy himself was never a candidate for elective office, but he was
deeply interested in the Democratic Party. He made large contributions to
the presidential campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932; in return,
Roosevelt appointed him chairman of the recently established Securities and
Exchange Commission, where his business expertise proved especially helpful
in drafting legislation designed to regulate the stock market. In 1937
Roosevelt named Kennedy US ambassador to Great Britain.
Despite his wealth and political influence, the Democratic Irish-
Catholic Joseph Kennedy never won the acceptance of Boston's Protestant
elite. He deeply resented this, and determined that his sons' achievements
would equal, if not excel, those of their Brahmin counter-parts. Toward
this end he modeled their lives and education after those enjoyed by the
Yankee upper class.
John Kennedy, like his brothers and sisters, grew up in comfortable
homes and attended some of the nation's most prestigious preparatory
schools and colleges. He was enrolled at the age of 13 at Canterbury, a
Catholic preparatory school staffed by laymen, but transferred after a year
to the nonsectarian Choate School, where he completed his secondary
education before entering Princeton University. Illness forced him to leave
the college before the end of Ins freshman year. but the following'. autumn
he resumed his studies, at Hanard.
Kennedy's college years coincided with a time of world crisis 'The
future President had unusual opportunities to combine know ledge gained in
the classroom with his own firsthand observations. As a government major at
Harvard he benefited from the teachings of some of the nation's most
prominent political scientists and historians. men who in the late 1930s
were acutely aware of the growing menace of Nazism. Moreover, in 1938
Kennedy spent six months in London assisting his father. who was then
serving as US ambassador. "This slay in England gave the young student an
excellent opportunity to witness for himself the British response to the
Nazi aggression of the 1930s, and he used the insight gained from the
experience in writing his senior thesis. This thesis, in which Kennedy
attempted to explain England's hesitant reaction to German rearmament, was
extremely perceptive. and in 1940 it was published in expanded form in the
United States and 6reat Britain under the title Why England Slept.
After receiving his B.S. degree cum laude from Harvard in 1940, Kennedy
briefly attended ihe Stanford University Graduate School ot Business, and
then spent several months traveling through South America. Late in 1941,
when the United States' entry into World War II seemed imminent. Kennedy
joined the US Navy. As an officer he served in the South Pacific Theater,
where he commanded one of the small PT or torpedo boats that patrolled off
the Solomon Islands.
On April 25. 1943, Kennedy assumed command of P 1 -109, the vessel on
which, only a little more than four months later, his courage and strength
were put to their first serious test. On the night of August 2, 1943, the
Japanese destroyer Amagiri rammed PT-109. The force of the destroyer sliced
the American craft in half and plunged its 11 -man crew into the waters of
Ferguson Passage. Burning gasoline spewed forth from the wrecked torpedo
boat, setting the waters of the passage aflame: but Lieutenant Kennedy
retained his composure, directed the rescue of his crew, and personally
saved the lives of three of the men. Kennedy and the other survivors found
refuge on a small unoccupied island, and during the days that followed he
swam long distances to obtain food and aid for his men. Finally, on the
sixth day of the ordeal the crew was rescued.
Kennedy's bravery did not go unnoticed. For his deeds in August 1943 he
subsequently received the Purple Heart and the Navy and Marine Corps Medal.
Injuries sustained during his courageous exploits and an attack of malaria
ended Kennedy's active military service, however. Later in 1943 he returned
to the United States, and in 1945 he was honorably discharged from the
navy.
After leaving the navy, Kennedy, like many other young men who had
served their country during World War II. had to make a decision about his
literature career. At Harvard he had become increasingly interested in
government. but he did hot originally plan to seek public office. Members
of the Kennedy family had expected that the eldest son. navy pilot Joseph
P. Kennedy Jr., would enter politics - a hope cut short when he was killed
in a plane crash during the war Deeply affected by his older brother's
death. Jonh Kennedy in 1945 compiled a memorial volume. As We Remember Joe.
which was privately printed. Shortly afterwards he determined to pursue the
career that had been the choice of his late brother
Appropriately. Kennedy sought his first elective office in Easl Boston,
the low-income area with a large immigrant population that several decades
before had been the scene of both his grandfathers political activities.
Announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the US House of
Representatives in the 11th Congressional District early in 1946, Kennedy,
with the assistance of his family and friends, campaigned hard and long
against several of the party's veterans and won the primary. Since the
district was overwhelmingly Democratic, Kennedy's victory in the primary
virtually guaranteed his election in the November contest. As expected, on
November 5, 1946, he easily defeated his Republican rival and at the age of
29 began his political career as a member of the House of Representatives.
East Boston voters returned Kennedy to Congress in 1948 and 1950, and
for the six years he represented the 11th District he continuously worked
to expand federal programs, such as public housing, social security, and
minimum wage laws. that benefited his constituents. However, in 1952 the
young politician decided against running for another term In the House.
Instead he sought the Senate seat held by the Republican Henry Cabot Lodge.
The incumbent Lodge was well known and popular throughout
Massachusetts; in contrast, Kennedy had almost no following outside of
Boston. But from the moment he announced his candidacy for the Senate,
Kennedy, assisted by his family, friends, and thousands of volunteers,
conducted a massive and intense grassroots campaign. This hard work brought
results: on November 4, 1952, when the landslide presidential victory of
Dwight D. Eisenhower carried hundreds of other Republican candidates into
local, state, and federal offices throughout the nation, the Democratic
Kennedy defeated Lodge by a narrow margin to become the junior senator from
Massachusetts.
On September 12,1953, Kennedy married the beautiful and socially
