General Jackson Slaying the Many Headed Monster (Source: Library of Congress; HarpWeek.com)
Answer: Andrew Jackson, “Veto Message Regarding the Bank of the United States” (July 10, 1832)
Andrew Jackson (1825) by Thomas Sully (Source: US Senate)
On September 10, 1833, Jackson announced that the federal government would no longer use the Second Bank of the United States and then used his executive power to remove all federal funds from the bank, depositing them instead in state banks –known as “pet banks.”
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.
Source: Avalon Project-Yale Law School Complete Text of President Jackson’s Veto Message (July 10, 1832)
Read “King Andrew and the Bank” by Daniel Feller in Humanities magazine (January-February 2008)
Don’t Know Much About® the American Presidents (Hachette paperback)
