AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY SEVENTY YEARS AGO 301 



standpunkt? The contest over protective tariffs, on 

 the other hand, had only lately become severe. But 

 there the bank had been standing for nearly forty 

 years, a perpetual menace to the theory of strict con- 

 struction. President Madison had reluctantly signed 

 the bill for its recharter in 1816, apparently because 

 he could think of no practical alternative. The new 

 charter was to expire in 1836, and President Jackson, 

 in his determination that it should not again be re- 

 newed, was restrained by no such practical considera- 

 tions. 



In the second place, the bank was hated as the most 

 prominent visible symbol of Hamilton's plan for an 

 alliance between the federal government and the mon- 

 eyed classes of society. In this feeling there was no 

 doubt something of the sheer prejudice which ignorant 

 people are apt to entertain against capitalists and cor- 

 porations. But the feeling was in the main whole- 

 some. There was really very good reason for fearing 

 that a great financial institution, so intimately related 

 to the government, might be made a most formidable 

 engine of political corruption. The final result of the 

 struggle, in Tyler's presidency, showed that Jackson 

 was supported by the sound common sense of the 

 American people. 



Jackson's suggestions with reference to the bank 

 in his first message met with little favour, especially as 

 he coupled them with suggestions for the distribution 

 of the surplus revenue among the states. He returned 

 to the attack in his two following messages, until, in 

 1832, the bank felt obliged in self-defence to apply, 

 somewhat prematurely, for a renewal of its charter on 

 the expiration of its term. Charges brought against 



