The Background of the Theory of Discovery

American Indian Law Review Volume 38 | Number 2 1-1-2014 The Background of the Theory of Discovery Dieter Dörr Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/ailr Part of the Indian and Aboriginal Law Commons Recommended Citation Dieter Dörr, The Background of the Theory of Discovery, 38 Am. Indian L. Rev. 477 (2014), http://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/ailr/vol38/iss2/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in American Indian Law Review by an authorized administrator of University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact . THE BACKGROUND OF THE THEORY OF DISCOVERY Dieter Dörr ∗ I. Introduction In his excellent book Conquest by Law, 1 Lindsay Robertson explained the importance of the theory of discovery in the westward expansion of the United States. As seen with the famous 1823 Supreme Court decision Johnson v. M’Intosh, 2 the first of the so-called Marshall trilogy, 3 this theory would be used to deprive Indians of their land. In this decision, Chief Justice Marshall stated: They [Indians] were admitted to be the rightful occupants of the soil, with a legal as well as just claim to retain possession of it, and to use it according to their own discretion; but their rights to complete sovereignty, as independent nations, were necessarily diminished, and their power to dispose of the soil at their own will, to whomsoever they pleased, was denied by the original fundamental principle, that discovery gave exclusive title to those who made it. 4 President Andrew Jackson would later misuse these words to dispossess the Indian Nations of their land without their consent. Once the Indian removal policy had begun, Marshall attempted to close the Pandora’s Box M’Intosh opened with the subsequent decisions Cherokee Nation v. Georgia 5 and Worcester v. Georgia, 6 eight and nine years later, respectively. Andrew Jackson became the seventh president of the United States on March 4, 1829. 7 He was a strong supporter of the Indian removal policy, the first step being the removal of the eastern tribes o lands west of the ∗ Dr. iur., Professor of Public Law, International and European Law, Media Law, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. 1. LINDSAY ROBERTSON, CONQUEST BY LAW: HOW THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA DISPOSSESSED INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THEIR LANDS (2005). 2. Johnson v. M’Intosh, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543 (1823). 3. The trilogy also includes Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1 (1831), and Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515 (1832). 4. M’Intosh, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) at 574. 5. 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1. 6. 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515. 7. ROBERTSON, supra note 1, at 126. 477 Published by University of Oklahoma College of Law Digital Commons, 2014 478 AMERICAN INDIAN LAW REVIEW [Vol. 38 Mississippi. 8 On May 26, 1830 the Removal Act passed the House and the Senate, and was signed into law by President Jackson shortly after. 9 Chief Justice Marshall was shocked because the Act was based on the legal theory of discovery he developed in M’Intosh. 10 He tried to reformulate this discovery theory in 1831, when he stated in Cherokee Nation that “the Indians are acknowledged to have an unquestionable, and, heretofore, unquestioned right to the lands they occupy, until that right shall be extinguished by a voluntary cession to our government . . . .” 11 In Worcester v. Georgia, 1832, he declared that discovery gave only “the exclusive right of purchasing such lands as the natives were willing to sell.” 12 But it was too late as the majority in the Supreme Court was changing dramatically. In the year 1831 President Jackson appointed two new judges who supported the removal policy, John McLean of Ohio and Henry Baldwin of Pennsylvania. 13 Worcester was the Marshall Court’s last chance to reformulate the discovery doctrine. After this decision, Justice William Johnson died in 1834 and in January 1835 Jackson appointed James M. Wayne of Georgia in his place, another vigorous supporter of removal. 14 Justice Gabriel Duvall, a Marshall supporter, resigned. 15 Chief Justice Marshall still possessed his intellectual power but his physical strength was manifestly on decline; He died on July 6, 1835. 16 Thereafter the Jacksonians used their new majority to restore the M’Intosh discovery formulation. In 1836 President Jackson appointed Philip P. Barbour of Virginia and Roger B. Taney of Maryland to the seats vacated by Duvall and Marshall.17 In 1837 the Court increased to nine members. 18 Jackson appointed John Catron of Tennessee to the first seat.19 His chosen successor and former Vice President, Van Buren, appointed John McKinley of Alabama to the 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. Id. at 125. Id. Id. at 129. Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. (5 Pet.) 1, 17 (1831). Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. (6 Pet.) 515, 545 (1832). ROBERTSON, supra note 1, at 131. Id. at 138. Id. Id. Id. at 140. Id. Id. http://digitalcommons.law.ou.edu/ailr/vol38/iss2/3 No. 2] BACKGROUND OF THE THEORY OF DISCOVERY 479 second seat. 20 The Court comprised seven Jacksonian members post-1837, only Joseph Story and Smith Thomson remained from the Marshall Court. 21 In the decisions following Worcester, the Jacksonians used the theory of discovery to argue “Indian tribes in the new world were regarded as mere temporary occupants of the soil, and the absolute rights of property and dominion were held to belong to the European nation by which any particular portion of the country was first discovered.” 22 The result was, in the formulation of Lindsay Robertson, conquest by law. 23 But what is the background of the theory of discovery? Is Chief Justice Marshall’s interpretation of the theory in Johnson v. M’Intosh valid? To answer these questions it is necessary to examine the theory’s origins. The legal concept of discovery has two different roots: the idea of the Christian-European family and the idea of civilization. Before the great discoveries in the fifteenth century, legal relations between the various communities were conducted within a relatively fixed framework. The Christian empires in Europe formed the core of this exchange, with pluralistic legal relationships amongst themselves. These ChristianEuropean empires coexisted side by side with Islamic empires. Legal interaction between these two spheres in the Middle Ages was regulated in a special way involving a large number of restrictions and prohibitions. The Greek-Byzantine cultural orbit represented the link between these two spheres; however, it was excluded from the tighter-knit community of Christian-European states and developed its own international law shaped by Constantinople. 24 Following the great discoveries, the range of action of the Europeans rapidly expanded to cover the entire globe. 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