OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - Know your Ohio: Tidbits of Ohio -- Part 77B ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm All documents placed in the USGenWeb Archives remain the property of the contributors, who retain publication rights in accordance with US Copyright Laws and Regulations. In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, these documents may be used by anyone for their personal research. They may be used by non-commercial entities so long as all notices and submitter information is included. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit. Any other use, including copying files to other sites, requires permission from the contributors PRIOR to uploading to the other sites. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Darlene E. Kelley http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00026.html#0006374 March 16, 2006. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Historical Collections of Ohio And Then They Went West Know Your Ohio Tid-Bits - Part 77 B. by Darlene E. Kelley notes by S. Kelly [ ] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid-Bits - Part 77 B. Why The United States Bank Was Closed by President Andrew Jackson July 10, 1832. A Bank of the United States is in many respects convenient for the Governmant and useful to the people. Entertaining this opinion, and deeply impressed with the belief that some of the powers and privileges possessed by the exising Bank are unauthorized by the Constitution, subversive of the rights of the States, and dangerous to the liberties of the people, I felt it my duty, at an early period of my administration, to call attention of Congress to the practicability of organizing an institution combining all its advantages, and obviating these objections. I sincerely regret that, in the act before me, I can perceive none of those modifications of the Bank Charter which are necessary, in my opinion, to make it compatible with justice, with sound policy, or with the Constitution of our Country. Every monopoly, and all exclusive privileges, are granted at the expense of the public, which ought to receive a fair equivalent. The many millions which this act proposes to bestow on the stockholders of the existing Bank must come directly or indirectly out of te earnings of the American people. It is due to them, therefore, if their Government sell monopolies and exclusive privileges, that they should at least exact for them as much as they are worth in open market. The value of the monopoly in this case may be correctly ascertained. The twenty-eight millions of stock would probably be at an advance of fifty per cent, and command in market at least forty-two millions of dollars, subjsect to the payment of the preent bonus. The present value of the monopoly, therefore, is seventeen millions of dollars, and this act proposes to sell for three millions, payable in fifteen annual installments of two hundred thousand dollars each. It is not conceivable how the present stockholders can have a claim to the special favor of the Government. The present corporation has enjoyed its monopoly during the period stipulated in the orginal contract. If we must have such a corporation, why should not the Government sell out the whole stock, and thus secure to the people the full market value of the priveges granted ? Why should Congress create and sell twenty-eight millions of stock, incorporating the purchasers with all the powers and privileges secured in this act, and putting the premium upon the sales into the Treasury. It has been urged as an agreement in favor of rechartering the present Bank, that the calling in its loans will produce great embarrassment and distress. The time allowed to close its concerns is ample; and if it has been well managed, its pressure will be light, and heavy only in case its management has been bad. If, therefore, it shall produce distress, the fault will be its own; and it would furnish a reason against renewing a power which has been so obviously abused. But will there ever be a time when this reason will be less powerful? To acknowledge its force is to admit that the Bank ought to be perpetual; and, as a consequence, the present stockholders, and those inheriting their rights as successors, be established a privileged order, clothed both with great political power and enjoying immense pecuniary advantages from their connection with the Government. The modifications of the existing Charter, proposed by this act, are not such, in my views, as make it consistent with the rights of the States or the liberties of the people. Is there no danger to our liberty and independence in a Bank that in nature has so little to bind it to our country. The President of the Bank has told us that most of the State banks exist by its forbearance. Should its influence become concentered, as it may under the operation of such an act as this, in the hands of a self-electd directory, whose interests are identified with those of the foreign stockholders, will there not be cause to tremble for the purity of our actions in peace, and for the independence of our country in war. Their power would be great whenever they might choose to exert it; but if this monopoly were regulrly renewed every fifteen or twenty years, on terms proposed by themselves, they might seldom in peace put forth their strength to influence elections or control the affairs of the nation. But if any private citizen or public functionary should interpose to curtail its powers, or prevent a renewal of it privileges, it cannot be doubted that he would be made to feel its influence. Should the stock of the Bank principally pass into the hands of the subjects of foreign country, and we should unfortunately become involved in a war with that country, what would be our condition? Of the course which would be pursued by a bank almost wholly owned by the subjects of a foreign power, and managed by those whose interests, if not affections, would run in the same direction, there can be no doubt. All its operations within would be in aid of the hostile fleets and armies without. Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence,it would be more formidable and dangerous than the naval and military power of the enemy ...... It is maintained by the advocates of the Bank, that its constitutionality, in all its features, ought to be considered as settled by precedent, and by the decision of the Supreme Court. To this conclusion I cannot assent. Mere precedent is a dangerous source of authority, and should not be regarded as deciding questions of Constitutional power, except where the acquiescence of the people and the States can be considered as well settled. So far from this being the case on this subject, an argument against the Bank might be based on precedent. One Congress, in 1791, decided in favor of a Bank; another, in 1811, decided against it. One Congress in 1815, decided against a Bank; another in 1816, decided in its favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore, the precedents drawn from that source were equal. If we resort to the States, the expressions of legislature, judical, and the executive opinions against the Bank have been probably to those in favor as four to one. There is nothing in precedent, therefore, which, if its authority were admitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act before me. If the opinion of the Supreme Court covered the whole ground of this Act, it ought not to control the coordinate authorities of this Government. The Congress, the Executive, and the Court, must each for itself be guided by its own opinion of the Constitution. Each public officer, who takes an oath to support the Constitution, swears that he will support it as he understands it, and not as it is understood by others. It is as much duty of the House of Representatives, of the Senate, and of the President to decide upon the constitutionality of any bill or resolution which may be presented to them for passage or approval as it is of the supreme judges when it may be brought before them for judicial decision..... It cannot be necessary to the character of the Bank as a fiscal agent of the Government that its private business should be exempted from that taxation to which all the State banks are liable; nor can I conceive it proper that the substansive and the most essential powers reserved by the States shall be thus attacked and annihilated as a means of executing powers delegated to the general government. It may be safely assumed that none of those sages who had an agency in forming or adopting our Constitution, ever imagined that any portion of the taxing power of the States, not prohibited to them nor delegated to Congress, was to be swept away and annihilated as a means of executing certain powers delegated to Congress ....... Suspicions are entertained, and charges made, of gross abuse and violation of its Charter. An investigation unwillingly conceded, and so restricted in time as necessarily to make it incomplete and unsatisfactory, disclosed enough to excite suspicion and alarm. In the practices of the principal bank partially unveiled, in the absence of important witnesses, and in numerous charges confidently made, and yet wholly uninvestigated, there was enough to induce a majority of the committee of investigation, a committee which was selected from the most able and honorable members of the House of Representatives, to recommend a suspension of further action upon the bill, and a prosecution of the inquiry. As the charter had yet four years to run, and as a renewal now was not necessary to the successful prosecution of its business, it was to have been expected that the Bank itself, conscious of its purity, and proud of its character, would have withdrawn its application for the present, and demanded the severest scrutiny into all its transactions. In declining to do so, there seems to be an additional reason why the functionaries of the Government should proceed with less haste and more caution in the renewal of their monopoly ...... I have now done my duty to my country. If substained by my fellow citizens, I shall be grateful and happy; if not, I shall find in the motives which impel me ample grounds for contentment and peace. In the difficulties which surround us and the dangers which threaten our institutions there is cause for neither dismay nor alarm. For relief and deliverance let us firmly rely on that kind Providence which, I am sure, watches with peculiar care over the destinies of our republic, and on the intelligence and wisdom of our countrymen. This his abundant goodness, and their patriotic devotion, our liberty and Union will be preserved. Andrew Jackson President of the United States of America. [ SEAL ] ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Andrew Jackson 7th President - 1829- 1837. More than any of his predecessors, Andrew Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President he sought to act as the direct representative of the common man. Born in the back woods , March 15, 1767 of Waxhaw, South Carolina, he received sporadic education. But in his late teens read law for about two years, and he became an outstanding lawyer in Tennessee. Fiercely jealous of his honor, he engaged in brawls, and in a duel killed a man who cast an unjustified slur on his wife Rachel Donelson Jackson. Jackson prospered sufficiently to buy slaves and to build a mansion, called " the Hermitage," near Nashville. He was the first man elected from Tennessee to the House of Representatives, and served briefly in the Senate. A Major General in the War of 1812, Jackson became a national hero when he defeated the British at New Orleans. In 1824 some state political factions rallied around Jackson; by 1828 enough had joined " Old Hickory " to win numerous state elections and control of the Federal administration in Washington. In his first Annual Message to Congress, Jackson recommended eliminating the Electoral College. He also tried to democratize Federal officeholding. Already state machines were being built on patronage, and a New York Senator openly proclaimed " that to the victors belng the spoils ..........." Jackson took a milder view. Decrying officeholders who seemed to enjoy life tenure, he believed Government duties could be plain and simple and that offices should rotate among deserving applicants. As national politics polorized around Jackson and his opposition, two parties grew out of the old Republican Party ---- the Democratic Republicans, or Democrats, adhering to Jackson; and the National Republicans, or Whigs, oppsing him. Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and other Whig leaders proclaimed themselves defenders of popular liberties against the usurpation of Jackson. Hostile cartoonists portrayed him as King Andrew I. Behind their accusations lay the fact that Jackson, unlike previous Presidents, did not defer to Congress in policy-making but used his power of the veto and his party leadership to assume command. The greatest party battle centered around the Second Bank of the United States, a private corporation but virtually a Government-sponsored monopoly. When Jackson appeared hostile toward it, the Bank threw its power against him. Clay and Webster, who had acted as attorneys for the Bank, led the fight for its recharter in Congress. " The bank," Jackson told Martin Van Buren, " is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!" Jackson in vetoing the recharter bill, charged the Bank with undue economic privilege. [ see the above letter ]. His views won approval from the American electorate; in 1832 he polled more than 56 percent of the popular vote and almost five times as many electoral votes as Clay. Jackson met head on the challenge of John C. Calhoun, leader of forces trying to rid themselves of high protective tarriff. When South Carolina undertook to nulify the tarriff, Jackson ordered armed forces to Charleston and privately threatened to hang Calhoun. Violence seemed imminent until Clay negotiated a compromise; tarriffs were lowered and South Carolina dropped nullification. In January of 1832, while the President was dining with friends at the White House, someone whispered to him that the Senate had rejected the nomination of Martin Van Buren as Minister to England. Jackson jumped to his feet and exclaimed, " By the Eternal! I'll smash them!" So he did. His favorite, Van Buren, became Vice President, and succeeded to the Presidency when " Old Hickory " retired to the Hermitage, where he died June 8, 1845. Ohio was one of his benifactors of his leadership under the Bank Veto. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Tid-Bits continued in part 78.