Andrew Jackson, Part 5

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2004-5-5

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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As we reported last week, the question of continuing the Bank of
the United States arose as one of the serious issues facing the
national election of eighteen-thirty-two. The bank's head, Nicholas
Biddle, had become as powerful as the president of the United
States. He refused to recognize that the government had the right to
interfere in any way with the bank's business.

President Jackson also understood
the power of the Bank of the United States. He did not believe the
bank should continue. He opposed giving it a new charter. He
proposed that a new national bank be formed as part of the Treasury
Department. Jackson said the present Bank of the United States was
dangerous to the liberty of Americans. He said the bank could build
up, or pull down, political parties through loans to politicians. He
said the bank always would support those who supported it.

VOICE TWO:

In the election year of eighteen-thirty-two, the bank still had
four years left to continue. Its charter would not end until
eighteen-thirty-six. Jackson had been urging Congress to act early,
so that the bank could -- if its charter were rejected -- close its
business slowly over several years. This would prevent serious
economic problems for the country. Many of Jackson's advisers
believed he should say nothing about the bank until after the
election. They feared he might lose the votes of some supporters of
the bank. Biddle felt that this might be the best time to get a
charter.

Henry Clay, the presidential
candidate of the National Republicans, helped biddle to make this
decision. Senator Clay, however, was not thinking of the bank when
he gave his advice. Clay needed an issue to campaign on. Most of the
people of the country approved of Jackson's programs. Clay could not
get votes by opposing successful programs. But, he was sure that the
issue of the bank could get him some votes.

VOICE ONE:

The campaign for a new charter was led by the most powerful men
in each house of Congress. In the Senate, the bank's supporters
included Senator Clay and Daniel Webster. Former President John
Quincy Adams -- now a congressman -- led the bank's struggle in the
house. The chief opponent to the bank was Senator Thomas Hart Benton
of Missouri. "I object to the renewal of the charter," he told the
Senate, "because the bank is too great and powerful to be permitted
in a government of free and equal laws. I also object because the
bank makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer."

VOICE TWO:

In the house, Representative Augustin Clayton of Georgia proposed
an investigation of the bank. In a speech written by Senator Benton,
Clayton charged that the bank had violated its charter a number of
times. The bank's supporters were afraid to vote down the proposed
investigation. It would be almost the same thing as saying that the
charges were true. The investigation was approved. And a special
committee was given six weeks to study the charges against the bank.

Four members of the seven-man
committee were opponents of the bank. Three, including John Quincy
Adams, were friendly. As expected, opponents of the bank found the
charges to be true. And the bank's supporters found them all to be
false. The majority report told of easy loans made to congressmen
and newspapermen. It said a New York newspaper that had opposed the
bank began supporting it after receiving a secret
fifteen-thousand-dollar loan.

VOICE ONE:

The investigation did not really change the votes of any of the
congressmen. Many votes had been bought by the bank. Attorney
General Roger Taney told of one example of this. Taney opposed the
bank. And he rode to work one morning with a congressman who also
opposed it. The congressman asked Taney for help on a speech he
planned to make against the bank. Taney was surprised later to find
that this same congressman had voted to give the bank its new
charter. The congressman told Taney that the bank had made him a
loan of twenty-thousand dollars.

VOICE TWO:

The Senate finally voted on the bank's new charter. The vote was
twenty-eight, for, and twenty, against. The house voted three weeks
later. It approved the charter, one-hundred-seven to eighty-five.
The bill was sent to the White House. President Jackson called a
cabinet meeting. Two cabinet members, McLane and Livingston, agreed
that the bill should be vetoed. But they urged Jackson to reject the
bank charter in such a way that a compromise might be worked out
later.

Attorney General Taney, however, believed that the veto should be
in the strongest possible language. He opposed any compromise that
would continue the bank beyond eighteen-thirty-six. Jackson agreed
with Taney. He asked the attorney general and two white house
advisers to help him write the veto message. They worked on the
message for three days.

VOICE ONE:

On July tenth, the veto was announced. And the message explaining
it was sent to Congress. Jackson said he did not believe the bank's
charter was constitutional. He said it was true that the Supreme
Court had ruled that Congress had the right to charter a national
bank. But he said he did not agree with the high court. And Jackson
said the president -- in taking his oath of office -- swears to
support the constitution as he understands it...not as it is
understood by others. He said the president and the congress had the
same duty as the court to decide if a bill was constitutional.

Jackson also spoke of the way the bank moved money from west to
east. He said the bank was owned by a small group of rich men,
mostly in the east. Some of the owners, he said, were foreigners.
Much of the bank's business was done in the west. The money paid by
westerners for loans went into the pockets of the eastern bankers.
Jackson said this was wrong. Then the president spoke of his firm
belief in the rights of the common man.

VOICE TWO:

"It is to be regretted," he said, "that the rich and powerful
bend the acts of the government to their own purposes. Differences
among men will always exist under every just government. Equality of
ability, or education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human
institutions. Every man has the equal right of protection under the
laws. But when these laws are used to make the rich richer, and the
powerful more powerful, then the more humble members of our society
have a right to complain of injustice."

Jackson said he could not understand how the present owners of
the bank could have any claim of special treatment from the
government. He said the government should shower its favors -- as
heaven does its rain -- on the high and low alike, on the rich and
the poor equally.

VOICE ONE:

Henry Clay had made the bank bill the chief issue of the
eighteen-thirty-two presidential election campaign. Andrew Jackson
chose the words of his veto message for the same purpose -- to win
votes in the coming election. His veto of the bank bill cost him the
votes of men of money. But it brought him the votes of the common
man: the farmer, the laborer, and industrial worker.

After his first two years as President, Andrew Jackson was not
sure he wished to serve a second term. Jackson was not sure his
health would permit him to complete a full eight years in the White
House. But he wished to be a candidate again in eighteen-thirty-two
to give the people a chance to show they approved of his programs.
Jackson decided that he would campaign again for president. But if
he won, he would resign after the first or second year...and leave
the job to his vice president.

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VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Maurice Joyce and Stewart
Spencer. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A
NATION can be heard Thursdays.