Thomas Jefferson, the noble author of the Declaration of Independence, labeled Indians as " merciless savages. " President Andrew Jackson pontificated: " What good man would prefer a country covered with forests and ranged by a few thousand savages to our extensive Republic, studded with cities, towns, and prosperous farms. " Promoting the predatory doctrine of discovery, the United States Supreme Court later ratified the pilgrims ' crimes, holding that " discovery gave an exclusive right to extinguish the Indian title (to land). ([ T ] he Indians were fierce savages... To leave them in possession of their country was to leave the country a wilderness.