"The removal of the Indians was explained by Lewis Cass—Secretary of War, governor of the Michigan territory, minister to France, presidential candidate: 'A principle of progressive improvement seems almost inherent in human nature... . We are all striving in the career of life to acquire riches of honor, or power, or some other object, whose possession is to realize the day dreams of our imaginations; and the aggregate of these efforts constitutes the advance of society. But there is little of this in the constitution of our savages.'" Howard Zinn, A People's History of the United States, Harper and Row, New York, 1980, p. 130. Cass, like his predecessor in what was termed at the time "Indian removal," was responsible for the expropriation of millions of acres from native Americans, thus promoting "their interest against their inclination."

Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making o…, loc. 2179