Classicalla wrote:
I'm also surprised that Andrew Jackson was rated 13th since he was responsible for one of the worst things to happen in American history - The Trail of Tears. With my Cherokee heritage, I have always had bad feelings towards this man even though he died many, many years before I was born.
Martin Van Buren made the list at 31 and 30. At least he was low on the list, but should he be even lower? He put out an extermination order on an entire religious group. And what kind of person orders the lawful murder of so many people?
I'm puzzled by a couple of things. The Trail of Tears - the forced ejection of the Cherokee Nation from Georgia to Oklahoma to get them away from the newly discovered Georgia gold deposits - began in 1838, during Martin Van Buren's administration. While Andrew Jackson's antipathy towards native Americans is well documented and his racism is evident to any casual student of his life, I don't understand why he's blamed for this tragic event.
I also don't know what religious group Martin Van Buren ordered to be exterminated. I haven't found any mention of that in the quick looking I've done since I read your post. The closest I've come is a mention of Van Buren refusing to help the Mormons when they were forced out of Missouri in 1839, but I don't think that's what you meant. Can you clarify that for me? I want to know the truth.
