On Indian Removal

Content Warning: This section references ethnic cleansing and racial prejudice.

Concession is a rhetorical device that involves acknowledging the merits of a counterargument. It typically heightens the perceived strength of the speaker’s own argument by broadcasting that they have considered their position carefully. Jackson uses concession in this way when he allows, “Doubtless it will be painful [for Indigenous Americans] to leave the graves of their fathers” (4), signaling that he has weighed the negative consequences of his proposed policy. What’s more, he uses this concession to pivot towards further arguments in favor of his position, reasoning that the grief the relocated tribes will experience is no different than the grief the first European colonists experienced in leaving their homes (ignoring the voluntary nature of the latter migration).

Juxtaposition involves placing two things (words, characters, images, etc.) side by side to highlight the similarities and differences. Jackson juxtaposes white and Indigenous Americans several times throughout his speech to contradictory ends. The comparison is most commonly meant to emphasize the supposed difference in their natures: the “savage” Indigenous tribes versus the “civilized” and Christian white settlers who, Jackson argues, would by their very nature put tribal lands to much better use.