IT'S TWO CENTURIES LATER:

American historiography refers to the period following Andrew Jackson's 1828 presidential victory as "the era of the common man," marking a turning point in the balance of power within American white settler society. Prior to Jackson's rise, the levers of power were pulled by figures who came from the older, privileged segment of that society. This group mostly lived in large cities in the northeastern regions of the United States, yet the population it represented was decreasing in numbers.

Meanwhile, the United States saw the rise of new social groups -- such as young farmers and immigrants from Europe who settled in the Western regions, in the so-called "American frontier" -- who demanded a seat at the table. They advocated a policy of unlimited expansion, which did not recognize the alliances made and treaties signed with the Native Americans, and demanded that the federal government support their takeover of more native land using force and capital. In other words, the younger settler groups -- who did not belong to the old guard that had already established itself on conquered lands -- wanted to continue colonization to serve their own interests.

The rise to power of Jackson -- a Tennessee farmer who was considered a self-made man and the embodiment of the American entrepreneur -- was seen as an expression of "democratization" and a victory for the masses against the aristocratic establishment. This image was, of course, a product of the narrow confines of white American settler society, while "the people" that Jackson claimed to represent, being part of that society, felt entitled to the spoils and privileges that derived from dispossessing the native population.

Indeed, Jackson flaunted his violent record for this purpose: whether as a U.S. Army commander or as president, he was directly responsible for the land expropriation and forced population transfer of native tribes, and actively undermined the validity of treaties that the federal government had previously signed.

The most prominent expression of this brutal policy was the expulsion of the Cherokee, which was carried out in blatant disregard of an explicit ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court -- viewed by Jackson as one of the symbols of the old elite -- which had affirmed the validity of the federal treaties. In 1838, during the tenure of his successor, Martin Van Buren, the U.S. Army expelled 18,000 Cherokees from their land in Georgia. They were forced to walk thousands of miles on foot, without supplies or food, beyond the Mississippi River, on what would come to be known as the "Trail of Tears." Thousands died in the death march.

In this context, even the natives, the direct victims of the supremacist regime, are sometimes compelled to pin their hopes on the old guard and its most prized institutions, since they recognize what is arguably a more serious danger in the anti-elite settlers. The patterns of settler violence are different: while the established elite represents "respectable violence," which becomes regulated through agreements with the natives, the new elite promotes the violence of the individual, the settler pushing further out west, whose ultimate symbol is the sheriff -- the man who enforces "law and order" against the native's resistance to colonization.

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