Advanced Placement-Style United States History
  Question of the Day--Answer and Explanation

"Trail of Tears" by Robert Lindneux, 1942
depicting the Cherokee removals
 Images Source: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Question 961:

The 1832 Worcester v. Georgia decision concluded that

    (A)  states needed to admit federal troops to collect tariffs
    (B)  states could not govern Indian tribes
    (C)  the removal of Indians to the trans-Mississippi West was constitutional
    (D)  Indians were not citizens
    (E)  the Maysville Road veto was unconstitutional

Answer:
        (B)  states could not govern Indian tribes

Explanation:

The Worcester v. Georgia case concerned missionaries who supported the Cherokee Indians in Georgia and were sentenced to four years of hard labor for refusing to obtain a license required to live in Cherokee territory. The Supreme Court ruled that the Cherokee nation was a distinct community with its own government and that the laws of Georgia had no force. Georgia ignored the ruling and refused to release Worcester from jail. President Andrew Jackson commented "the decision of the supreme court has fell still born, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate." Three years later a group of Cherokees signed the Treaty of New Echota which was used by the federal government as justification for the removal of the Cherokees beginning in 1836 in what became known as the Trail of Tears.
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