Andrew Jackson Frontiersmen Essay

Andrew Jackson wrote a letter to Congress on July 10, 1832, saying the “rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes" (Doc. F). Jackson is talking about the national bank in this letter to Congress and it was very well known from his close friends that he had “always been afraid of banks... [and called bankers} ‘“vipers and thieves’” (Shi, Tindall, 324). He thought that the national bank caused the government to have too much control over the people, but the way

The Bank War was the name given to the campaign begun by President Andrew Jackson in 1833 to destroy the Second Bank of the United States. The Second Bank had been established in 1816, as a successor to the First Bank of the United States, whose charter had been permitted to expire in 1811. In the veto message, President Jackson eagerly rejects a bill that leased the Bank of the United States. He argues that the Bank gives privilege and unfair advantage to a wealthy few at the expense of the public, and he opposes foreign ownership of Bank stock. The President claims the same right to interpret the Constitution as Congress and the Supreme Court when he questions the constitutionality of the Bank. The bank’s charter was unfair, Jackson argued in his veto message, that the bank was given significantly to much market power, specifically in the markets that moved financial properties from place to place in the country and into and out of additional nations. That market power enlarged the bank’s revenues and consequently its stock price, “which operated as a gratuity of many millions of dollars to the stockholders,”. Jackson proposed that it would be reasonable to the majority of

When Senator Henry Clay sided with Nicholas Biddle, the president of the Bank, and encouraged him to renew his charter four years earlier. Since Clay was also running for president that year he believed that Jackson had chosen the “unpopular side” and that a “congressional endorsement of the Bank would embarrass or even discredit the president” (Brands 260). Jackson portrayed Biddle as an enemy of the people and made it his personal mission to destroy the Bank personifying it as a “monster corporation”. In the North they favored the Bank because they had strong banking institutions due to industrial economy. Meanwhile, the South did not have much need for the Bank because they were mainly an agricultural economy which meant large amounts of cash were uncommon. In the West, the land was mostly new territory with economies not as developed; therefore they wanted paper money because getting a loan was easier. However altogether, Jackson’s first move was to veto the Bank bill; he viewed this as his mandate for reelection. In the end, Old Hickory’s popularity won the election and he bulldozed right through Henry Clay locking onto his next target, Biddle’s bank. Even with four years left on the Bank’s charter, Jackson could not wait four years for it to expire. Impatiently, Jackson ordered his secretary of the treasury to remove federal deposits from Biddle’s Bank. Although Jackson had wanted to keep the money in a public bank, he never ironed out the details, so they went to state banks instead. In the end, the Bank never regained its

Although he thought that the people should have a say in government he didn 't fight for slaves, women, or Native Americans to have their opinions heard. In fact he signed the Indian Removal Act, which moved Cherokee tribe out of Georgia into an Indian reservation in the West. Actually the Supreme Court ruled this unlawful in the case of Worcester v. Georgia in 1832, but when Georgia ignored the ruling Jackson didn 't complain. Jackson had a chance to stop the trail of tears from happening and saving about four thousand Cherokee Indians. Jackson believe the people in charge of the bank of the US were crooked and the bank would needed to be crushed. So, when the bill for the charter for the Second Bank of the United States came up he immediately vetoed it. He then decided to deposit the federal fund of the United States in pet 23 pet banks. Nicholas Biddle the head of the back fought back as hard as he could but Jackson was determined and frankly he didn 't listen to anyone but the people. Jackson issued his own form of paper currency (banknotes) that were backed by Specie Circular, which was usually silver or gold coins. The extreme inflation of the economy started after Jackson dismantled the Second bank of the US. The inflation was caused by the banks issuing banknotes that were unbacked by the Specie Circular. This was a big part of starting the Panic of 1837, it wasn 't the only reason but one of the biggest. When building our country the founding

Jackson felt that the National bank was a monopoly that solely benefited the wealthy and elite. According to Symposium on Successful Presidential Economic Policies, an academic journal, Jackson distrusted eastern banks and the National bank because it gave too much power to elites. Jackson was unhappy with the bank's lending policies and thought it was unconstitutional, even though he went directly against the Constitution by ignoring the supreme court's ruling in the Worcester vs. Georgia case. Stated in Article 3 section one of the Constitution, “The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one supreme Court,”. The Supreme court declared the National bank to be constitutional. However, the power to renew the bank’s charter laid in the hands of Jackson, whom despised the National bank for seemingly no valid reason. Jackson denied the charter to renew the bank and removed all the government money from the bank. By regularly changing bank notes for coins, the National Bank limited inflation within the country, something state and private banks failed to do. Destroying the only bank that limited inflation soon caused a depression since inflation occurred. Inflation is when there is so much money in circulation that prices rise since the value of the money decreases. Despite Jackson distrusting the bank, it was the bank whom should have distrusted him, for he was the leading force behind the five year financial crisis within the United

In addition to creating a more democratic country, Jackson also tried to establish equal economic opportunity for the people of America. The best example of this is the vetoing of the charter of the Bank of the United States. The bank was a huge monopoly. It was ran by aristocrats, most of which were from England. Nicholas Biddle, who was the president of the bank, often used funds from the bank to lend money to the members of Congress, thus wining their support.

As multiple advancements resulted in a huge increase in population the old economy was replaced by cash-crop agriculture and capitalist manufacturing. A split between the industrializing, urban North, agrarian, rural South, and the expanding West was forming. The Jacksonians passed the Tariff of 1828, helping western agriculture, and northern manufacturing but was detrimental to the South. Also, Jackson vetoed the US bank’s recharter in 1832. As Andrew Jackson’s veto message (Doc B) explains, he did this because he believed the US bank gave too much power to the wealthy few. Although, this seemed to be a step to increase equality, his replacement state “pet” banks only led to the destabilization of the national currency, and favoritism towards Jacksonian policies. This policy of Jackson was done with good intentions, but like many of Jacksonian economic policies it ended up doing more harm than good.

Throughout Andrew Jackson’s presidency, he sought to represent the common man, but in doing so has negatively affected the American people. Many of the decisions that Jackson made were thoughtful resolutions to complex conflicts that threatened to dismantle the Union. Though he resolved conflicts, the effects of his decisions were felt beyond their benefits. Decisions made by Andrew Jackson such as the veto of the Second National Bank, which was positive in theory but ultimately led to severe shortcomings economically, questioned the ideas of the Jacksonian Democrats. These Jacksonian Democrats were guardians of the United States Constitution, political democracy, individual liberty, and equality of economic opportunity for the most part; however, there were pitfalls with their ideas.

Although Jackson was a hard money supporter, he was sensitive to his many soft money supporters, and made it clear that he would object to renewing the charter of the Bank of the United States, which was due to expire in 1836. When Jackson could not legally abolish the Bank of the United States before the expiration of its charter, he weakened it by removing the government’s deposits from the bank. Jackson fired two of his secretary of treasury when they refused to carry out the order because they believed that such an action would destabilize the financial system. Jackson got Roger Taney to carry out his order. Taney took the deposits out of the Bank of the

Nicholas Biddle proved great opposition to President Jackson. He wanted to re-charter the National Bank; however, many people were against Biddle’s decision. This was particularly true of people in the west. They were still wary of a national bank, after the Panic of 1819, which involved mishaps in land speculation. Jackson shared the predominately western opinion that several small banks would be a better service to the nation than one, large bank would. A major problem with a national bank would lie in it’s willingness only to make loans to the wealthy. This would be of no use to the middleclass. Jackson would not allow Biddle to gain any more power than he already had.

In addition to creating a more democratic country, Jackson also tried to establish equal economic opportunity for the people of America. The best example of this is the vetoing of the charter of the Bank of the United States. The bank was a huge monopoly. It was ran by aristocrats, most of which were from England. Nicholas Biddle, who was the president of the bank, often used funds from the bank to lend money to the members of Congress, thus wining their support.

Andrew Jackson, whose presidential term lasted from 1829-1837, was the first president to ever be chosen by the people to lead. Because he was not born into a rich family, people felt that they could relate to him better. He too preferred supporting the common public over the wealthy aristocrats. During Jackson’s period in office he was able to shift the majority of power in the United States to farmers and small businesses in the western part of the country. Jackson vetoed many bills in order to benefit common people and also created the spoils system to balance out his cabinet. Like Jefferson, Jackson was extremely opposed to the Bank of the U.S., believing that it would only make the wealthy even

Jackson resented banks because he was a man who came from a family of poor farmers who paid with goods and crops. He saw banks as only useful to the wealthy, so when Henry Clay proposed “The Bank Bill”, which was in favor of the recharter, Jackson vetoed it. Andrew Jackson only thought about himself, and people who were like him, poor farmers. In total, vetoed twelve bills during his presidency, which was more than all of the preceding presidents combined. Again, Jackson set his mind to do something, and it was done.

With the Jackson administration into office, the Second Bank of the United States became threatened. President Jackson had a private prejudice that wasn’t party policy (Schlesinger 74). He hated banks, all banks, but he especially hated the Second Bank of the United States. He viewed all bankers as “little more than parasites who preyed upon the poor and honest working people of America” (Roughshod 2). The reason for his hatred most likely stemmed from his near ruin as a businessman (land speculator, merchant, and slaver trader) when in the 1790s he accepted some bank notes that turned out to be worthless. From then on, he never trusted anything but hard money, or specie (Roughshod 2).

One article states that Jackson believed that “The Second Bank centralized financial might, jeopardizing economic stability; it served as a monopoly on fiscal policy, but it did not answer to anyone within the government. “ Jackson felt that the nation bank was a threat to national funds and by the time Jackson came to power the bank had over twenty branches opened. Jackson felt that the bank had grown too powerful and it was inevitable to seperate the bank for politics.But when the whole idea of shutting down the national bank was threating the relection of the democratic party the article states that “Jackson and his advisors carefully crafted a veto that would not anger the public and therefore would not cost the Democrats support in the fall