Thus things stood until November, when a letter appeared in the New York “Courier and Inquirer,” stating that President Jackson, in his forthcoming first annual message to Congress, would come out strongly against the Bank itself.  And sure enough, the President, in his message, astonished the whole country by a paragraph attacking the Bank, and opposing its recharter.  The part of the message about the Bank was referred to both Houses of Congress.  The committees reported in favor of the Bank, as nothing could be said against its management.  Again, in the message of the President in 1830, he attacked the Bank, and Benton, one of the chief supporters of Jackson in spite of their early duel, declared in the Senate that the charter of the Bank ought not to be renewed.  Here the matter dropped for a while, as Jackson and his friends were engrossed in electioneering schemes for the next presidential contest, and the troubles of the cabinet on account of the Eaton scandal had to be attended to.  As already noted, they ended in its dissolution, followed by a new and stronger cabinet, in which Ingham was succeeded as Secretary of the Treasury by Louis McLane.

It was not till 1832,—­the great session of Jackson’s administrations,—­that the contest was taken up again.  The Bank aimed to have its charter renewed, although that would not expire for five years yet; and as the Senate was partly hostile to the President, it seemed a propitious time for the effort.  Jackson, on the other hand, fearing that the Bank would succeed in getting its charter renewed with a friendly Congress, redoubled his energies to defeat it.  The more hostile the President showed himself, the more eager were the friends of the Bank for immediate action.  It was, with them, now or never.  If the matter were delayed, and Jackson were re-elected, it would be impossible to secure a renewal of the charter, while it was hoped that Jackson would not dare to veto the charter on the eve of a presidential election, and thus lose, perhaps, the vote of the great State of Pennsylvania.  So it was resolved by the friends of the Bank to press the measure.

Five months were consumed in the discussion of this important matter, in which the leading members of the Senate, except Benton, supported the Bank.  The bill to renew the charter passed the Senate on the 11th of June, by a vote of twenty-eight to twenty, and the House on the 3d of July by a majority of thirty-three.  It was immediately vetoed by the President, on the ground that the Bank was an odious monopoly, with nearly a third of its stock held by foreigners, and not only odious, but dangerous as a money-power to bribe Congress and influence elections.  The message accompanying the veto was able, and was supposed to be written by Edward Livingston or Amos Kendall.  Biddle remained calm and confident.  Like Clay, he never dreamed that Jackson would dare to persist in a hostility against the enlightened public sentiment of the country.  But Jackson was the idol of the Democracy, who would support all his measures and condone all his faults, and the Democracy ruled,—­as it always will rule, except in great public dangers, when power naturally falls into the hands of men of genius, honesty, and experience, almost independently of their political associations.