History of the United States I / Unit 10 USH1 1394 review, 2 to 3 minutes
Worcester v. Georgia
The idea
Samuel Worcester was a Christian missionary and the federal postmaster at New Echota. He broke a Georgia law by living on Cherokee land without state authorisation, lost his federal position, was arrested, and was sentenced to four years' hard labour. He appealed, and in eighteen thirty-two Chief Justice John Marshall ruled for him. The Cherokee Nation, Marshall held, is a distinct community occupying its own territory, with boundaries accurately described, in which the laws of Georgia can have no force. Georgia's actions were repugnant to the Constitution, laws and treaties of the United States. The Cherokee had asked a federal court to hold a state to a federal treaty, and the highest court in the country agreed with them.
In practice
A missionary's conviction overturned, and with it Georgia's whole claim to jurisdiction over Cherokee land.
Where people slip
Enforcement proved impossible, and that is the entire lesson. A constitutional holding is not self-executing. The Court had no army, the president who did have one had staked his presidency on removal, and the ruling changed nothing on the ground. Six years later the army evicted the Cherokee anyway. This is the strongest theme 10 material in the course, stronger than a commerce case would be, because it shows a constitutional right won in court and then ignored in fact, which is the exam's own framing of the changing role of government. Note also what Marshall did not say. He did not hold the Cherokee a foreign nation, having refused that in entry 1393. He held them a distinct community under federal protection, which is a narrower ruling and a more durable one, and it remains the foundation of federal Indian law today.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it · Sources for History of the United States I