JACKSON 



3098 



JACKSON 



son had showed his hostility to the Bank, and 

 when Congress, in 1832, rallied to its support 

 and voted to renew its charter for twenty years 

 after 1836, Jackson vetoed the bill. The re- 

 chartering of the Bank became the chief issue 

 of the Presidential election of 1832, in which 

 Jackson received 210 electoral votes to 49 for 

 Henry Clay. This overwhelming victory Jack- 

 son interpreted as a vindication of his opposi- 

 tion to the Bank. He ordered the Secretary 

 of the Treasury to withdraw the government's 

 deposits from the Bank. The Secretary re- 

 fused to obey the instructions, was displaced 

 by another who also refused and was also dis- 

 placed, and it was not until September, 1833, 

 that Jackson found and appointed a man will- 

 ing as Secretary of the Treasury to obey his 

 orders. The .withdrawal of the government's 

 deposits practically ended the Bank's activities. 

 Jackson's high-handed actions in the fight 

 against the Bank led the Senate to pass for- 

 mal resolutions of censure upon him, a course 

 without precedent. The resolutions were ex- 

 punged from the Senate records by vote in 

 1837. 



The Surplus and the Specie Circular. The 

 Bank of the United States was not the only 

 evidence of Jackson's financial policy. In July, 

 1836, he ordered the issue of the famous 

 "Specie Circular," which directed government 

 agents to accept only gold or silver in payment 

 for public lands. This order created great ex- 

 citement in the West, where much of the cur- 

 rency in circulation was the notes of unstable, 

 or "wild-cat," banks. In the meantime the 

 high tariffs were bringing in more money than 

 the government needed, the national debt was 

 extinguished and a surplus was piling up. 

 Congress, a month before the Specie Circular 

 was issued, provided that any surplus exceed- 

 ing $5,000,000 should be divided among the 

 states as a loan. The surplus, unfortunately, 

 was in the hands of about eighty prominent 

 banks, who had regarded it almost as a per- 

 manent loan, and used it as the basis of an 

 inflated credit. Suddenly called on to return 

 this money, the banks were obliged to call in 

 their loans. The restriction of credit coincided 

 with a financial crisis in Europe, which caused 

 a fall in the price of cotton. All of these cir- 

 cumstances combined to start a panic which 

 broke just as Jackson went out of the office 

 an'd left the burden to Van Buren. 



Other Governmental Affairs. Jackson's vig- 

 orous attitude against nullification in South 

 Carolina is in contrast to his refusal to act 



against Georgia. Soon after Jackson's first in- 

 auguration Georgia passed a law ousting the 

 Cherokee Indians from lands^which they held 

 by treaty with the United States. The Indians 

 appealed to the President for protection in 

 their rights, but were told that he had "no 

 power to oppose the exercise of sovereignty 

 of any state over all who may be within its 

 limits." This was his decision in 1830, but two 

 years later his position was reversed. In 1832 

 the Indians in the West gave some trouble 

 (see BLACK HAWK), and in 1835 the Seminoles 

 began a warfare which cost the United States 

 $50,000,000 and several thousand lives. 



Foreign relations during Jackson's term were 

 of little importance, but it is interesting to 

 note that he secured from Great Britain the 

 right of direct and unrestricted trade in the 

 British West Indies. 



Slavery and Domestic Problems. Two states, 

 Arkansas in 1836 and Michigan in 1837, were 

 admitted to the Union while Jackson was 

 President. The admission of new states was 

 closely related to the great problem of slavery. 

 A new period in the slavery controversy was 

 inaugurated by the founding of The Liberator 

 by William Lloyd Garrison in 1831, and hence- 

 forth the Abolitionists (which see) gave the 

 defenders of slavery no peace. About this 

 time Texas was beginning its war for inde- 

 pendence. It was rightly believed that an in- 

 dependent Texas 



would soon be 

 annexed to the 

 United States, and 

 its great area could 

 then be divided 

 into several states 

 to preserve the 

 balance between 

 the Nojth and 

 South. The Sen- 

 ate of the United 

 States resolved to 

 recognize Texas 

 as an independent 

 nation, but the 

 House defeated 

 the resolution. 



The death of 

 Monroe in 1831 



and of Madison in 1836, the organization of 

 Mormon Church in 1830, and the invention 

 the reaping machine by Cyrus H. McCormi 

 in 1831, are miscellaneous events worthy of 

 notice. At the end of his second term, Jackson 



TOMB OF JACKSON 

 At "The Hermitage." 



