Simultaneously, the territory of Arkansas petitioned to enter the Union as two separate states: the eastern portion to be the State of Arkansas and the western portion to be the state of Jefferson. The president and his party would not support the addition of two slave states at once, which would have upset the slave/free state balance in the Senate and thrown out the Missouri Compromise of 1820.  At the same time, they did not want all of the territory to become one state. Ultimately, the two sides compromised: the road would stay on Colfax’s original route, north of the Ohio, and Arkansas Territory would be split in two - though only Arkansas would be granted statehood at that time - formally entering the Union in 1828. Republicans in Congress also got an increase in funding for the Third National Road so that work could go faster. The other proposed roads - one going from Franklin to Atlanta, one from Franklin to Chicago, one from St. Louis to New Orleans, and one from Charleston to Mobile - would never leave the drawing board as the President and Congress became increasingly at odds over the continued presence of Native American peoples in the southern states.

The admission of Arkansas also demanded the adding of another free state in order to keep balance in the Senate. The only territory that could possibly fit that need was the territory of Iowa, but much of the area was still sparsely populated at that time, especially in the northern two-thirds of the territory. Congress also wasn't sure if it wanted to create such a large state. In the end, a compromise was reached with this issue as well: the upper sections of Iowa Territory would be broken off to form Minnesota Territory, while the lower section of the territory would become the State of Iowa, officially admitted to the Union in 1830, bringing the total number of states up to 26. 

Throughout the early 1820s, there had been growing tension between the white citizens of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi over the presence of the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, and Chickasaw native nations. Locals complained that the continued existence of these semi-sovereign entities within their states undermined their states’ authority. They demanded that the native peoples either leave or be fully assimilated (ending communal property ownership and dissolving the tribal governments and their laws, in addition to fully converting to Christianity and adopting English). In 1828, the State of Georgia decided to act and passed a series of laws that would strip “non-citizen residents” who did not speak English or practice some form of the Christian faith of any right to own land. The Cherokee Nation immediately filed suit in the federal courts over this law in what became known as the Cherokee Nation v. Georgia case. The lawsuit would go through lower courts before ultimately being heard by the United States Supreme Court in 1830. In one of the last major decisions of the Marshal Court, the court ruled 5-2 in favor of the Cherokee - the states did not have the power to enforce laws on members of native nations. That power remained solely with Congress, in its power to negotiate with foreign governments. The court’s ruling also stated that the Federal Government needed a more permanent solution to end the current “dual jurisdiction” of the sovereign native nations and the states.

Southern Republicans were outraged at the ruling. Senator Calhoun of South Carolina introduced legislation requiring the so-called “civilized tribes” to either fully integrate or be removed to territory west of the Mississippi River. This bill was defeated - narrowly - due to a lack of support from either the Federalists or most Democrats. More daringly, Georgia Governor Clarence Hinds announced a month after the ruling that the state would not enforce the court’s decision and further announced a plan to establish “proper counties” in Cherokee Country and the planned division of the land to “proper landowners.” The Cherokee Nation cried foul and petitioned President Hamilton to act. The president’s cabinet was split over what to do but ultimately backed the Supreme Court’s ruling. Accordingly, on April 12, 1830, President Hamilton ordered federal forces into Georgia to keep the peace and prevent Georgia officials from trying to seize native lands. The southern states and Franklin were now on a collision course.

As the Summer of 1830 began, Federal troops were standing off with Georgia militiamen on the border of Cherokee Country. Meanwhile, the Cherokee were starting to arm themselves, preparing for a possible invasion. The whole country held its breath, fearing the outbreak of what would amount to a civil war. Firebrands in the South called on Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and even the Carolinas to rise against the Federal government. At the end of May, as reports started circulating of militiamen getting past army patrols and setting fire to Cherokee towns, delegates from the states of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia gathered in Savannah to discuss the issue. What resulted was the “Savannah Declaration,” which called on the Federal Government to remove the troops by September 1st and, in the meantime, to pass legislation to remove the natives west of the Mississippi River. The declaration's wording echoed the old Hartford Resolution, implying that if the government in Franklin did not meet these demands, the states would “have to reconsider their relationship with the Union of States.” To make matters worse, a Georgia militia group slipped past the Federal troops. It attacked the Cherokee capital at New Echota, and the Cherokee retaliated by attacking several white settlements near the border. War seemed inevitable.

President Hamilton summoned Southern leaders to Washington House to try and defuse the situation. He made it clear that he would not support the wholesale removal of the native peoples from their ancient homelands. That said, he would support the reduction in native land and compensate the states for losing their lands. The leaders from the southern states initially balked at the proposal, being in an “all or none” state of mind. Senator Giles Brandon of Georgia eventually convinced his fellow compatriots to consider the president’s proposal seriously. After several weeks of negotiation, the Franklin Indian Treaty was signed on September 1st, 1830. The Cherokee and Creek would be forced into an area roughly one-fourth the size of the Cherokee’s pre-1830 land claim, mostly on land within the State of Georgia, with a small part coming from Alabama. Then, the Choctaw and Chickasaw would have a similarly sized section of land in northern Mississippi. The natives living outside those new districts (The Cherokee-Creek District and the Choctaw-Chickasaw District, respectively) would have one year to relocate - either to the new districts or farther west, to the Kanasaw Territory - or forfeit their tribal citizenship and be forced to integrate into white society in their respective states. In addition, the treaty also formally shifted all relations with any tribal nation from the War Department to the State Department and created the State Department’s Office of Indian Relations, which would oversee all dealings between the Federal government and the tribal governments. The agreement also allowed each native nation to send a diplomatic representative to Franklin as a liaison between the U.S. government and their tribe.

No party involved was fully satisfied with the final result of the Franklin Indian Conference, but the nation gave a collective sigh of relief as further conflict was avoided. The relocation process was not without strife, however, as some natives tried to refuse relocation and also refused integration, which resulted in localized violence. The Republican Party continued to attack the agreement in public, and the whole issue of native relocation became a key talking point during the 1832 election season. During that campaign, the Federalists nominated Vice President Hiram Gillett, with Secretary of State John Quincy Adams as their vice-presidential candidate. The Democrats nominated Indiana Representative Samuel Luther as their presidential candidate, with Ohio Governor Blane Cartwright as his running mate. And to little surprise, the Republicans renominated John C. Calhoun, with Senator Giles Brandon as the vice-presidential nominee. What would surprise some New Englanders, but few anywhere else in the country, was that the Federalist Party came in third place, receiving only 103 electoral votes. Even more surprising to New Englanders was the fact that Representative Luther managed to win the majority of electoral votes from Vermont and Maine. The Democrats came in second with 145 electoral votes. The Republicans came in first, with 161 electoral votes, 44 shy of outright victory. The House of Representatives would decide the winner for the second election in a row. This time, however, there was increased pressure to select the perceived electoral college winner, meaning that there was no serious effort to try and make either Gillette or Luther the president. When the House assembled for their vote in February of 1833, John C. Calhoun was selected as the 8th President of the United States on the first ballot.

The Election of 1832