Andrew Jackson & the Second Bank of the United States

The Imaginative Conservative ^ | April 9th, 2024 | Bradley J. Birzer

[xoxox]

By the end of 1819, so many banks, persons, and businesses had declared bankruptcy that each defaulted to ownership by the notorious Second Bank of the United States (SUSB), thus making the SUSB one of the largest and most important property owners in the early republic. Many elites benefitted from its seemingly endless largess, but most Americans despised it as a “monster.” Not only did it seem to own everything in sight (and beyond!), but it also had been responsible for the inflation and sudden deflation that had caused the Panic/Depression of 1819. Its first president, William Jones, had been corrupt, and its second, Langdon Cheves, more faithful and steady. Its third president, Nicholas Biddle, came from an elite Philadelphia family, and his elitism caused many Americans to shudder, who saw him, even if personally honest and virtuous, as somehow not quite American. Andrew Jackson referred to Biddle, for example and not without popular support, as a “humbugging aristocratic intellectual.”

[cowboyusa]

My man

[SunkenCiv]

Zzzzzz.

• sidebar: Free Silver Movement | Encyclopaedia Britannica

[DiogenesLamp]

Its first president, William Jones, had been corrupt, and its second, Langdon Cheves, more faithful and steady. Its third president, Nicholas Biddle, came from an elite Philadelphia family, and his elitism caused many Americans to shudder, who saw him, even if personally honest and virtuous, as somehow not quite American. Andrew Jackson referred to Biddle, for example and not without popular support, as a “humbugging aristocratic intellectual.”

Here you go BroJoeK. Learn who the real "masters" of the 19th century American Republic were.

[DiogenesLamp]

My man

Here is a quote from Jackson from the article.

"There are necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only as 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. . . . 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. . . . 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."

Rich men getting rich from government passed laws. Hmmm...