The Indian Removal Act of 1830 and the Treaty of New Echota sought removal through voluntary emigration, but these efforts largely failed, and by 1838 only about 2,000 Cherokee affected by the treaty had moved west. For those who remained, hope endured as John Ross continued negotiations with the American government. During 1837, American military leaders prepared to act by marshaling soldiers and militiamen from Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee within the Cherokee Nation and building temporary forts to support moves against the roughly 16,000 Cherokee still in the Nation. Led by Andrew Jackson's picked successor, President Martin Van Buren, the American government persisted in enforcing the treaty, and as the deadline for voluntary emigration approached its expiration in May 1838, two years after Senate ratification of the Treaty of New Echota, preparations to force the Cherokee from their homeland accelerated. In May 1838, President Martin Van Buren ordered the final preparations for eviction.