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"Gentlemen!
I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United
States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that
you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the
country.
When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you
charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank
and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true,
gentlemen, but that is your sin!
Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would
be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you
out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout
you out."
From the original minutes of the Philadelphia bankers sent to meet with
President Jackson February 1834,
from Andrew Jackson and the Bank
of the United States (1928) by Stan V. Henkels
"...It
is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of
government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always
exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of
wealth can not be produced by human institutions.
In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior
industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by
law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages
artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive
privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble
members of society-the farmers, mechanics, and laborers-who have neither the
time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to
complain of the injustice of their Government. There are no necessary evils
in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself
to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike
on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified
blessing. In the act before me there seems to be a wide and unnecessary
departure from these just principles.
Nor is our Government to be maintained or our Union preserved by invasions of
the rights and powers of the several States. In thus attempting to make our
General Government strong we make it weak. Its true strength consists in
leaving individuals and States as much as possible to themselves-in making
itself felt, not in its power, but in its beneficence; not in its control,
but in its protection; not in binding the States more closely to the center,
but leaving each to move unobstructed in its proper orbit.
Experience should teach us wisdom. Most of the difficulties our Government
now encounters and most of the dangers which impend over our Union have
sprung from an abandonment of the legitimate objects of Government by our
national legislation, and the adoption of such principles as are embodied in
this act. Many of our rich men have not been content with equal protection
and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of
Congress. By attempting to gratify their desires we have in the results of
our legislation arrayed section against section, interest against interest,
and man against man, in a fearful commotion which threatens to shake the
foundations of our Union.
It is time to pause in our career to review our principles, and if possible
revive that devoted patriotism and spirit of compromise which distinguished
the sages of the Revolution and the fathers of our Union. If we can not at once, in justice to interests vested under
improvident legislation, make our Government what it ought to be, we can at
least take a stand against all new grants of monopolies and exclusive
privileges, against any prostitution of our Government to the advancement of
the few at the expense of the many, and in favor of compromise and gradual
reform in our code of laws and system of political economy.
I have now done my duty to my country. If sustained by my fellow citizens, I
shall be grateful and happy; if not, I shall find in the motives which impel
me ample grounds for contentment and peace. In the difficulties which
surround us and the dangers which threaten our institutions there is cause
for neither dismay nor alarm. For relief and
deliverance let us firmly rely on that kind Providence which I am sure
watches with peculiar care over the destinies of our Republic, and on the
intelligence and wisdom of our countrymen. Through His abundant goodness and
their patriotic devotion our liberty and Union will be preserved."
Excerpt from Andrew Jackson's Veto Message to the Senate
on the Second Bank of the United States,
1832
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