Today in History July 10, 1832
Today In History, July 10, 1832: President Andrew Jackson Vetoes legislation to re-charter 2nd National Bank of United States, leading to economic crisis and "Panic of 1837
Andrew Jackson, Donald Trump's favorite President, (not surprising given he was a racist, enraged populist) became infamous for causing the mass death of five tribes of Indigenous Americans, mostly Cherokee, in large numbers in what became known as the "Trail of Tears." Less well known was his act of economic destruction through which he ended the 2nd National Bank, originally intended as the bellwether for carrying out the economic vision of America's anti-slavery first Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. In that sense, Jackson continued the work of one of his models, the traitor Aaron Burr, by assassinating Hamilton a second time.
Jackson, like his corrupt racist acolyte Trump, as president sought to enrich his cronies and private bankers at the expense of the people, and likewise to tear down the protective role of the Federal government established by Hamilton to rein in financial speculation.
The Bank financed the Erie Canal under President James Madison, the development of the railroads and other internal improvements, including the expansion of manufacturing. This model, based on Hamilton and Washington's 1st National Bank was intended to counteract the Jeffersonian southern model of an Agrarian, plantation slavery based economy which centered around producing cash crops for export to our old enemies in England, among other places. The system put into place by Hamilton worked, and the 2nd Bank worked even better.
[Reference Wikipedia]
["The Second Bank of the United States, located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States during its 20-year charter from February 1816 to January 1836. The bank's formal name, according to section 9 of its charter as passed by Congress, was "The President, Directors, and Company, of the Bank of the United States."
A private corporation with public duties, the bank handled all fiscal transactions for the U.S. Government, and was accountable to Congress and the U.S. Treasury. Twenty percent of its capital was owned by the federal government, the bank's single largest stockholder. Four thousand private investors held 80% of the bank's capital, including one thousand Europeans. The bulk of the stocks were held by a few hundred wealthy Americans. In its time, the institution was the largest monied corporation in the world.
The essential function of the bank was to regulate the public credit issued by private banking institutions through the fiscal duties it performed for the U.S. Treasury, and to establish a sound and stable national currency. The federal deposits endowed the BUS with its regulatory capacity.
Modeled on Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States, the Second Bank was chartered by President James Madison in 1816 and began operations at its main branch in Philadelphia on January 7, 1817, managing twenty-five branch offices nationwide by 1832.
The efforts to renew the bank's charter put the institution at the center of the general election of 1832, in which the bank's president Nicholas Biddle and pro-bank National Republicans led by Henry Clay clashed with the "hard-money" Andrew Jackson administration and eastern banking interests in the Bank War. Failing to secure recharter, the Second Bank of the United States became a private corporation in 1836, and underwent liquidation in 1841."]
Today, the building which housed the Bank is still in Phladelphia, open to the public, and is home to a beautiful portrait gallery which has an exhibit of paintings of many of the Founding Fathers and prominent Americans, including Charles Wilson Peale and Sons, Benjamin West, Gilbert Stuart, John Copley and others, which my wife Martha and I had several opportunities to visit with our guest foreign students. These trips became our ad hoc classes and tours which enables us to bring to life some of the history of the American Revolution, giving our students a window into the rich but complicated founding of our republic. We highly recommend a visit, if it is still open.
