"Gentlemen, I have had men watching you for a long time and I 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 intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out."
- Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)
January 30, 1835:
President Andrew Jackson went to the Capitol to attend the funeral of Congressman Warren Davis of Mississippi. When the President walked along the Capitol's east portico after the service,
he was approached by an unemployed house painter named Richard Lawrence.
When Lawrence was within eight feet of the President, he drew a pistol and attempted to shoot Jackson. The pistol misfired. The percussion cap exploded, but the bullet did not discharge.
Lawrence then drew a second pistol, which also misfired. The ever-feisty Jackson raised his walking stick and subdued the assailant, who was arrested and declared insane, confined to jails & mental institution until his death in 1861 . The first assassination attempt of an American president had failed. When later tested by police, both pistols fired perfectly.
A delusional Lawrence believed that the U.S. government owed him a large sum that Jackson was keeping from him. Release of the funds, he thought, would allow him to take his rightful place as King Richard III of England. Bystanders joined in, wrestling Lawrence to the ground and disarming him.
One of them was Rep. Davy Crockett of Tennessee.
Historians have come to view Lawrence as a mentally unstable person, but the Democratic president became convinced that his political enemies in the rival Whig Party had hired Lawrence to assassinate him.
At the time, Jackson was locked in a bitter struggle with the Whigs over his ultimately successful effort to scuttle the Second Bank of the United States, whom Jackson had promised to "kill".
The banks 20 year charter was set to expire in 1836 so it's President Nicholas Biddle coaxed former Senator & Secretary of State Henry Clay to push for an extension.
Jackson promptly vetoed the measure which Biddle would later refer to as a "manifesto of anarchy".
The veto penned by George Bancroft outlined key points
which draw parallels to Americas present day scenario:
- It concentrated the nation's financial strength in a single institution.
- It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
- It served mainly to make the rich richer.
- It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
- Banks are controlled by a few select families.
- Banks have a long history of instigating wars between nations,
forcing them to borrow funding to pay for them.
The bank existed for 5 more years as an ordinary bank before going bankrupt in 1841.
"I have only two regrets:
I didn't shoot Henry Clay and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun."
Jackson would go on to smash Henry Clay during his re-election campaign
and set up 'pet banks', where taxes previously deposited as the lifeblood of the Second Bank were re-routed by the Secretary of the Treasury under the orders of Jackson to be deposited in state banks.
This resulted in National Debt being paid in full ($58 million in 6 years since Jackson took office)
actually achieving a surplus, raking in more than they were spendng.
While banks were Jacksons high points, his merciless mission of hate against Native Americans was deplorable and not to be swept under the rug.
The first large-scale confinement of a specific ethnic group in detention centers began in the summer of 1838, when President Andrew Jackson ordered the U.S. Army to enforce the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by rounding up the Cherokee into prison camps before relocating them. Although these camps were not intended to be extermination camps, and people were not killed by official policy, many Indians were raped and/or murdered by US soldiers. A number died in these camps due to starvation and bad sanitary conditions. 1/3 of the Cherokee nation died in Jackson's camps.
Ultimately, this culminated in the Trail of Tears where a large number of Indians were exterminated
in the wake of Manifest Destiny.
early Indian east:
Additional low points in his lengthy career are his stance opposite nullification,
or affirming that individual states do not reserve the right to nullify Federal law,
and then attempting to pass the FORCE bill to enforce said laws by the authorization of military force.
the Age of Andrew Jackson
Interesting facts:
- Andrew Jackson was commonly referred to as "Old Hickory"
for he would carry around an old hickory cane & occasionally beat people with it.
- Jackson is rumored to have participated in anywhere from 13-100 duels,
depending on which sources are asked.
At one point in a duel with Charles Dickinson, "Old Hickory" gave em' the first shot.
The bullet remained for 19 years afterward.
- Jackson owned more than a hundred Black Americans.
- he fought in the Revolutionary War at the age of 13
and used the skills learned to kill a man over a gambling debt.
President Andrew Jackson went to the Capitol to attend the funeral of Congressman Warren Davis of Mississippi. When the President walked along the Capitol's east portico after the service,
he was approached by an unemployed house painter named Richard Lawrence.
When Lawrence was within eight feet of the President, he drew a pistol and attempted to shoot Jackson. The pistol misfired. The percussion cap exploded, but the bullet did not discharge.
Lawrence then drew a second pistol, which also misfired. The ever-feisty Jackson raised his walking stick and subdued the assailant, who was arrested and declared insane, confined to jails & mental institution until his death in 1861 . The first assassination attempt of an American president had failed. When later tested by police, both pistols fired perfectly.
A delusional Lawrence believed that the U.S. government owed him a large sum that Jackson was keeping from him. Release of the funds, he thought, would allow him to take his rightful place as King Richard III of England. Bystanders joined in, wrestling Lawrence to the ground and disarming him.
One of them was Rep. Davy Crockett of Tennessee.
Historians have come to view Lawrence as a mentally unstable person, but the Democratic president became convinced that his political enemies in the rival Whig Party had hired Lawrence to assassinate him.
The banks 20 year charter was set to expire in 1836 so it's President Nicholas Biddle coaxed former Senator & Secretary of State Henry Clay to push for an extension.
Jackson promptly vetoed the measure which Biddle would later refer to as a "manifesto of anarchy".
which draw parallels to Americas present day scenario:
- It concentrated the nation's financial strength in a single institution.
- It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
- It served mainly to make the rich richer.
- It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
- Banks are controlled by a few select families.
- Banks have a long history of instigating wars between nations,
forcing them to borrow funding to pay for them.
The bank existed for 5 more years as an ordinary bank before going bankrupt in 1841.
"I have only two regrets:
I didn't shoot Henry Clay and I didn't hang John C. Calhoun."
Jackson would go on to smash Henry Clay during his re-election campaign
This resulted in National Debt being paid in full ($58 million in 6 years since Jackson took office)
actually achieving a surplus, raking in more than they were spendng.
While banks were Jacksons high points, his merciless mission of hate against Native Americans was deplorable and not to be swept under the rug.
The first large-scale confinement of a specific ethnic group in detention centers began in the summer of 1838, when President Andrew Jackson ordered the U.S. Army to enforce the Indian Removal Act of 1830 by rounding up the Cherokee into prison camps before relocating them. Although these camps were not intended to be extermination camps, and people were not killed by official policy, many Indians were raped and/or murdered by US soldiers. A number died in these camps due to starvation and bad sanitary conditions. 1/3 of the Cherokee nation died in Jackson's camps.
Ultimately, this culminated in the Trail of Tears where a large number of Indians were exterminated
in the wake of Manifest Destiny.
early Indian east:
Additional low points in his lengthy career are his stance opposite nullification,
or affirming that individual states do not reserve the right to nullify Federal law,
and then attempting to pass the FORCE bill to enforce said laws by the authorization of military force.
the Age of Andrew Jackson
Interesting facts:
- Andrew Jackson was commonly referred to as "Old Hickory"
for he would carry around an old hickory cane & occasionally beat people with it.
- Jackson is rumored to have participated in anywhere from 13-100 duels,
depending on which sources are asked.
At one point in a duel with Charles Dickinson, "Old Hickory" gave em' the first shot.
The bullet remained for 19 years afterward.
- Jackson owned more than a hundred Black Americans.
- he fought in the Revolutionary War at the age of 13
and used the skills learned to kill a man over a gambling debt.
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