1805 - Jefferson urges Chickasaws to move west

          Jefferson initiates the removal era by signing the secret' Georgia Compact (1802),' in which he ceded powers reserved for the federal government to the state of Georgia, thereby promising that the state would be allowed to remove Indians who lived on treaty protect lands within state boundaries.

          This compact eventually resulted in the removal of the Five Civilized Tribes from treaty protected homelands in southern states, a policy promoted and made into law by President Andrew Jackson despite a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court which found removal era actions by Congress and the president to be unconstitutional.   The battle over states' rights, first ignited by Jefferson, would be fought over the principle of Indian sovereignty, and in time would entrain the issue of slavery and lead to the American Civil War.