Andrew Jackson, Part 6

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2004-5-12

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English about the
history of the United States.

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Andrew Jackson was elected president in eighteen-twenty-eight. He
was popular with voters. But he was not sure he wanted to run for
re-election in eighteen-thirty-two. He was getting old. He suffered
from health problems. Yet he wanted to give voters a chance to show
their approval of his programs. So, Jackson made a decision. He
would run again. If he won, however, he would resign after the first
or second year. He would leave the job to his vice president.

VOICE TWO:

President Jackson spoke of this
plan to the man he wanted as his vice president, Martin van Buren.
He made the offer in eighteen-thirty, when Van Buren was still his
secretary of state. Van Buren thanked Jackson for the offer.
However, he rejected it. Van Buren said it would be politically
dangerous. He did not want anyone to say that he had been brought
into the presidency in secret. Jackson did not give up his idea. For
more than a year, he continued to urge Van Buren to accept the
offer. Van Buren continued to say "no". He agreed to be Jackson's
vice presidential candidate in eighteen-thirty-two. But he said he
did not want to become president without being elected by the
people.

VOICE ONE:

As the election got closer, Jackson's health began to improve. He
began to think about serving a second full term. One thing that
helped was an operation to remove a bullet from his arm. He had
received the wound during a gun fight with another man about twenty
years earlier. It troubled him so badly that sometimes he could not
use the arm. Doctors were afraid to remove the bullet. They thought
it might cause a terrible shock to his heart.

VOICE TWO:

Early in the election year, a doctor said he believed the bullet
could be removed easily. He told the president that it was poisoning
his whole body. Jackson asked the doctor to cut out the bullet at
once. The operation was over in a few minutes. Jackson's health
quickly became much better. A funny little story was told about that
bullet. Someone reportedly said Jackson should give it to the family
of the man who shot him. One family member rejected the offer. He
said Jackson had possessed the bullet for twenty years. So, he said,
under the law, Jackson had clear ownership to it. "Only nineteen
years," someone noted. "Oh," the man said, "that is all right. Since
Jackson took good care of it, I will forget the extra year."

VOICE ONE:

The presidential election campaign of eighteen-thirty-two was
bitter. President Jackson was, once again, the candidate of the
Democratic Party. Henry Clay was the candidate of the National
Republican Party. Clay had the support of Nicholas Biddle, who was
head of the Bank of the United States. He also had the support of
about two-thirds of the nation's newspapers. This was because most
of them owed money to the bank. Most wealthy people supported Clay,
too. Farmers and laborers supported Jackson. They showed their
support by marching in parades and holding big, noisy public
meetings.

VOICE TWO:

On election day, the people showed that Jackson was still their
president. There was a much bigger difference in popular votes
between Jackson and Clay than between Jackson and John Quincy Adams
four years earlier. As the votes were counted, one of Clay's
supporters said: "The news blows over us like a great cold storm."
Jackson received about six-hundred eighty-eight-thousand popular
votes. Clay received about four-hundred seventy-three-thousand
votes. In the electoral college, Jackson got more than four times
the number of votes than Clay got. Jackson's vice president would be
Martin van Buren.

VOICE ONE:

Andrew Jackson saw his re-election as proof that the American
people approved of his policies. This included his policy to close
the Bank of the United States when its charter ended in
eighteen-thirty-six. During his second term, Jackson decided on a
plan to reduce the bank's economic power. He would stop putting
federal money into the bank. Instead, he would put it into state
banks. This would greatly reduce the amount of money the Bank of the
United States could use.

VOICE TWO:

The plan was not as easy as it seemed. The charter for the bank
said federal money had to be kept there unless the secretary of the
treasury ordered it put some place else. President Jackson's
treasury secretary was friendly to the bank. He would not give the
order. Jackson would have to dismiss the man and appoint someone who
supported his plan. But the treasury secretary was a powerful
politician. Jackson could not push him out of the job. He had to
find another way. So he decided to reorganize his whole cabinet.

VOICE ONE:

Jackson named his secretary of state to be Minister to France. He
named his treasury secretary to be secretary of state. Then he
brought in someone new as secretary of the treasury. That turned out
to be a mistake. The new treasury secretary refused to put federal
money anywhere but in the Bank of the United States. He also refused
to resign when Jackson asked him to resign. So Jackson dismissed him
and named yet another new treasury secretary.

VOICE TWO:

This man immediately ordered that after October first,
eighteen-thirty-three, all federal money was to be put into
twenty-three state banks. He did not withdraw the government money
already in the Bank of the United States. He said this money could
be used to make payments until it was all gone. Nicholas Biddle, the
head of the bank, fought back. He ordered the immediate repayment of
all bank loans. He also withdrew from public use large numbers of
bank notes. People had been using the notes as money.

VOICE ONE:

These actions caused serious economic difficulties throughout the
country. Many businesses failed. They could not pay back their loans
or borrow the money they needed. As businesses failed, workers lost
their jobs. Nicholas Biddle said the Jackson administration was
responsible for all the trouble. He said the bank was forced to take
firm measures, because it was losing government money. He told
people to protest to the administration. Critics of President
Jackson's bank policy called him "King Andrew The First. "

VOICE TWO:

Groups of businessmen called on the president at the White House.
T hey urged him to put government money back into the bank. Jackson
told one group: "I will never restore the money. I will never renew
the charter of the Bank of the United States. If you want help, go
to Nicholas Bddle. "

VOICE ONE:

The president's actions worried even some of his supporters.
There could be serious long-term effects of closing the Bank of the
United States. Some of his supporters in Congress went to see him.
They warned him of reports that a mob was forming to march on
Washington. They told him that the mob planned to seize the capitol
building until Congress returned government money to the bank.
"Gentlemen," Jackson said, "I will be glad to see this mob on
Capitol Hill. I will hang its leaders high. That should stop forever
all attempts to control Congress by force." We will continue our
story of Andrew Jackson's second term as president next week.

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VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Y our narrators were Sarah Long and Rich
Kleinfeldt. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. Join us
again next week at this time for another report about the history of
the United States.

VOICE ONE:

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