banks chartered by the states, to the great anger of local financiers.  It was accused of favoritism in making loans, of conferring special privileges upon politicians in return for their support at Washington.  To all Jackson’s followers it was “an insidious money power.”  One of them openly denounced it as an institution designed “to strengthen the arm of wealth and counterpoise the influence of extended suffrage in the disposition of public affairs.”

This sentiment President Jackson fully shared.  In his first message to Congress he assailed the bank in vigorous language.  He declared that its constitutionality was in doubt and alleged that it had failed to establish a sound and uniform currency.  If such an institution was necessary, he continued, it should be a public bank, owned and managed by the government, not a private concern endowed with special privileges by it.  In his second and third messages, Jackson came back to the subject, leaving the decision, however, to “an enlightened people and their representatives.”

Moved by this frank hostility and anxious for the future, the bank applied to Congress for a renewal of its charter in 1832, four years before the expiration of its life.  Clay, with his eye upon the presidency and an issue for the campaign, warmly supported the application.  Congress, deeply impressed by his leadership, passed the bill granting the new charter, and sent the open defiance to Jackson.  His response was an instant veto.  The battle was on and it raged with fury until the close of his second administration, ending in the destruction of the bank, a disordered currency, and a national panic.

In his veto message, Jackson attacked the bank as unconstitutional and even hinted at corruption.  He refused to assent to the proposition that the Supreme Court had settled the question of constitutionality by the decision in the McCulloch case.  “Each public officer,” he argued, “who takes an oath to support the Constitution, swears that he will support it as he understands it, not as it is understood by others.”

Not satisfied with his veto and his declaration against the bank, Jackson ordered the Secretary of the Treasury to withdraw the government deposits which formed a large part of the institution’s funds.  This action he followed up by an open charge that the bank had used money shamefully to secure the return of its supporters to Congress.  The Senate, stung by this charge, solemnly resolved that Jackson had “assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both.”