Andrew Jackson and His Successful War on the Second Bank of the U.S.
The founder of Bullion TP wrote an essay about this in fifth grade and his first name is in honor of Andrew Jackson (history loving father) so this one is a bit personal. Sometimes things in life happen for the stars to align or God’s will to be done — fighting it is usually a waste of time. We are happy to be on the right side of facts, economic fairness, and the future in this battle and whatever predestination was ordained by randomness or God, we’ll take it!
Andrew Jackson does not fit perfectly into anyone’s box which is probably why he was so loved and hated. Jackson was born in colonial Carolinas, became a frontier lawyer and farmer in Tennessee, rose from the commander of a local militia to a General who led successful campaigns in the Battle of New Orleans and later battles in the Indian Wars. Jackson led the People against the corrupt, immoral, and unethical aristocracy who did not view the United States of America as anything other than a colony who would operate the same way as England did.
Jackson entered the election of 1824 with the support of the military, Midwesterners, and Southerners. Jackson won the popular vote and the most electoral votes but not enough electoral votes to win the Presidency, which was decided by the House of Representatives under the 12th Amendment for John Quincy Adams in a corrupt bargain where Clay, then the Speaker of the House, was rewarded with a Secretary of State position in exchange for pushing House members to back JQA.
Jackson won the election of 1828, which was incidentally considered one of the most dirty in history with multiple lies being said of Jackson and his wife (the establishment hates being challenged). Jackson had grown to despise the aristocratic eastern money interests and blamed the Second Bank of the United States for the Panic of 1819. The Second Bank of the United States was launched in 1816 and the opposition against it had grown as a result of its questionable ethical actions and its inability to accomplish its economic missions, in fact it made things worse (sound familiar?).
In 1832, prior to the presidential election, Nicholas Biddle, the Second Bank’s President, with the backing of the Republicans submitted an application for an extension of the bank’s charter — four years before the existing charter was set to expire. Jackson vetoed the bill saying it pitted “the planters, the farmers, the mechanic and the laborer” against the “monied interest”. Jackson won an overwhelming majority in the 1832 election, proving that the People when given a true choice will choose those who represent their interests.
Jackson fully expected Biddle to use the remaining years of the Second Bank to tighten the money supply, hurt the People, and blame Jackson (again, sound familiar?), so he quickly removed the federal deposits. The federal deposits were distributed into dozens of state banks (decentralization). The Whig Party formed in opposition to the alleged abuses of executive power by Jackson and he was officially censured in the Senate.
Biddle did retaliate by contracting bank credit, but only a relatively mild recession resulted. The Second Bank’s actions were now clear to the majority of the country’s business interests, which led to the Second Bank reversing its course. The bank’s charter expired in 1936 and there was not to be another Central Bank until 1913. The People had learned their lesson for some time to come.
Analysis: There are countless comparisons to today in the way the Second Bank bullied politicians, hurt the People when it didn’t get its way, and was reckless and not concerned about any interests but its own, despite its claims otherwise. Jackson was a strong leader who rejected the elitism, corruption, and actually worked FOR the People, not corrupt monied interests. The economy during Jackson’s time, was actually quite good despite a few panics, mostly initiated by the Second Bank’s bullshit.
