3. John Quincy Adams and the conflict with the state of Georgia
During the Presidency of John Quincy Adams, for the first time in American history, the mid-term elections led to the opposition party achieving firm control of Congress. Adams thus found himself unable to obtain legislation which supported his ambitious agenda in domestic affairs, as the Jacksonian Democrats stood in opposition to the President. The Jacksonians supported Indian Removal west of the Mississippi, and when Adams learned of a treaty with the Muscogee Indians which had been imposed upon them by the Governor of Georgia, George Troup, he used his office to suspend the treaty and dispatched negotiators which arrived at a new treaty, allowing the Muscogee to remain in Georgia.
The Governor of Georgia refused to accept the new treaty, accusing the President of abuse of power which interfered with the rights of his state and exhorted the citizens of Georgia to ignore the federal treaty and evict the Muscogee from their tribal lands. Adams insisted that the right to negotiate treaties was assigned to the President under the Constitution, and a looming showdown with Georgia and the other states of the South (which favored Indian Removal), appeared. It was averted when yet another treaty with the Muscogee was reached. The Indians were removed to what later became Alabama, and the issue of Adams’ abuse of power cost him the support of the South and some western states during the election of 1828, leading to his defeat.