the corrupting monster should be shraven with its ill gotten power,
my veto will meet it frankly & fearlessly.
Andrew Jackson to John Coffee,
February 19, 1832
the First Bank of the United States in 1791 to serve as a repository
for Federal funds. Its charter expired in 1811, but in 1816 Congress
created a Second Bank of the United States with a charter set to
expire in 1836. By the 1830s the Bank had become a volatile political
issue. Some, especially in the trans-Appalachian West, were suspicious
of banks because they distrusted the paper money issued by them
and because banks controlled credit and loans. To them, the Bank
of the United States was the worst of them all: a greedy monopoly
dominated by the rich American and foreign interests.
most powerful enemy was President Andrew Jackson. In 1832 Senator
Henry Clay, Jacksons opponent in the Presidential election
of that year, proposed rechartering the Bank early. This bill passed
Congress, but Jackson vetoed it, declaring that the Bank was "unauthorized
by the Constitution, subversive to the rights of States, and dangerous
to the liberties of the people." After his reelection, Jackson
announced that the Government would no longer deposit Federal funds
with the Bank and would place them in state banks. Supporters of
the Bank in the Senate were furious and took the unprecedented step
of censuring Jackson. The President held fast, however, and when
the Banks charter expired in 1836, it was never renewed.