General William Henry Harrison went against tradition by campaigning in 1836.
He opposed too much executive power and banks even though
he was a director for a United States Bank branch.
He supported federal revenue sharing and funding internal improvements.
Tennessee nominated their Senator Hugh Lawson White, a Jacksonian
who opposed Van Buren, and Alabama nominated White in January 1836.
The White Whigs chose for Vice President John Tyler who was from Virginia
and had been endorsed by Maryland, North Carolina, and Georgia.
The Jacksonian Democrats had control over a network of 400 newspapers,
and the government gave many printing contracts.
On July 29 a cargo of mail brought about a thousand
anti-slavery pamphlets to the Charleston post office.
The city guard kept a mob of 300 away, but that night some South Carolinians broke in
to get packages of Abolitionist mail that Postmaster Alfred Huger had not distributed
The next evening a crowd watched as a bonfire burned the feared propaganda along
with effigies of Garrison, the Tappan brothers, and other abolitionists.
A committee led by former Governor Robert Y. Hayne
told Huger to burn objectionable materials.
Huger wrote to Postmaster-General Kendall, and he and Jackson decided
he did not have to deliver them except those to “actual subscribers.”
On August 9 Jackson wrote to Kendall that he wanted the names of the subscribers
taken down and exposed for “exciting the negroes to insurrection.”
President Jackson wrote to Kendall again on August 12
and explained his policy toward Mexico and Texas:
The view you have taken of our affairs with
Mexico and Texas is certainly a Just view,
and one which you will find I had adopted.
I have determined to maintain a strict neutrality and have,
as you will have seen in the public Journals before this
reaches you, disapproved of the requisition of General
Gaines, and ordered the men assembled and organized
by Governor Cannon and the Governors of Kentucky,
Mississippi and Louisiana to be mustered and discharged.
You will discover that the basis on which General Gaines
made the requisition was the movement of the Mexican
troops into Texas, which basis was a violation of that
neutrality which we had assumed, and was in fact,
and which Mexico might have viewed an act of war
upon her if it had been carried into effect, and I have
no doubt was intended by Gaines to get troops there
who would have at once went over to the Texan army;
but I have stopped it in the bud.
And you will find there has been no possible
movement by the Indians, and the whole has
been projected in New Orleans; however,
a full investigation in due time will be had.
General Gaines would do any act
to injure and implicate the administration.
Your fears about taking possession of
Nacogdoches will vanish when the true
cause for this movement is made known.
This movement was ordered by the Government
and made known by the Secretary of State to the
Mexican Minister, Mr. Gorostisa, and acquiesced in by him.
We contend from the words and spirit of the treaty,
that all the navigable waters of the Sabine belong and
were intended to belong to the United States by the
contracting parties, and as I am advised will be able to
show from the ancient map of Spain that the western branch
that falls into the Sabine lake and makes the Sabine river
and bay, was known by the name of the Sabine at the time
Louisiana was ceded, and if the northern branch is taken
as the Sabine, a large portion of our citizens ceded with
Louisiana would be retroceded by the treaty with Spain.
We have been anxious to run this line for a long time,
but Mexico has not been ready to join us;
Texas has resolved herself independent of Mexico,
and we have now to contend with Texas
as well as Mexico with regard to our limits.
Texas would claim the boundary as claimed
by Mexico, and was about to take possession
and claim it by right of that possession.
We take possession and will hold it with a perfect
understanding when the line is run and established
if our possession is west of the established boundary,
we withdraw our Troops within the boundary
thus established by our Commissioners.
Thus you see we will act with the knowledge and
acquiescence of the Minister of Mexico, and with
the view of keeping out of collision with Texas.
I have very little doubt but General Gaines’ wishes were
to give the possession to Texas that their claim might be
strengthened by that possession, because he was ordered
at first to take a position as far advanced as Nacogdoches,
but he did not, and by a late order was directed to occupy it,
neither Texas nor Mexico being in possession, and there
keep our Indians at peace and sustain our neutrality.
You will now see that we cannot be charged with a
violation of our neutrality by Mexico, and our own
safety required the possession as it regards Texas.1
In December the General Assembly of South Carolina passed resolutions
authorizing the government to suppress abolition societies and their publications.
They also resolved that abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia
would violate the rights of their citizens.
By the end of the year the U. S. Government had a surplus of $17 million;
$108 million in paper money was circulating, and there were 29 pet banks.
State bankers loaning much paper money in 1835 and 1836 created a speculative
bubble while much land was purchased in the west
and in the southern states from which the Indians had been removed.
The General Land Office reported that 12.5 million acres
had been sold in 1835 and 20 million in 1836.
Between February and November the land boom increased federal deposits
by 50% as speculators kept borrowing more paper money.
Fraud was increasing, and sales were running $5 million a month
before President Jackson acted in July.
On 20 January 1836 Venezuelans in Caracas made a
treaty of peace and commerce with the United States.
Expanding the money supply helped the economy
boom from the fall of 1834 to spring 1837.
By 1836 the 33 deposit banks would have $28 million in deposits and the U. S. Bank none.
In February 1836 Biddle got a state charter from Pennsylvania for the U. S. Bank;
but his speculation in cotton futures failed, and he retired in 1839.
The United States Bank of Pennsylvania declared bankruptcy in 1841.
Although Jackson did not like banks, in the last five years
of his administration their number doubled.
He tried to increase the use of coins by stopping the pet banks from issuing paper currency
in small denominations, but people found paper money more convenient despite the risk.
As land in South Carolina became less fertile, cotton production declined.
Many people moved west, and by 1840 a third of those
born in South Carolina had left the state.
The radical George McDuffie blamed the 40% tariffs for costing cotton growers 40%,
though their loss of income was probably about 20%.
In April the U. S. Congress banned bank notes under $5 starting on July 4.
Later they made it under $10, and then under $20 starting in March 1837.
On 23 June 1836 in the Congress the Whigs and Democrats wanting expansion passed
the Deposit Act which approved the distribution of $30 million of federal surplus to
state banks and added 48 new state banks, making Secretary of the Treasury
Woodbury’s job of preventing speculation much more difficult.
President Jackson signed it to help Vice President Martin Van Buren’s election.
Kentucky Congressman Sherrod Williams asked Van Buren questions about his views,
and he answered them on June 14.
He opposed distributing the surplus because it caused corruption and subverted states’ rights.
He was also against federal support for internal improvements on navigable waterways.
Van Buren was called “Magician,” and foes considered him an intriguer.
After Congress adjourned, Jackson on July 11 had Woodbury issue the Specie Circular
that required silver or gold for buying federal land starting
on August 15 except settlers could still use bank notes.
The U. S. Government sold 20 million acres in 1836, ten times what
had been sold in 1830, and most of it was paid for with paper money.
This caused failures and bankruptcies, and big banks in the East sent their specie west.
When Congress met again in December, they passed a bill to rescind the circular,
but Jackson cancelled that with his pocket veto
by not signing it near the end of a congressional session.
Between 1834 and 1837 wholesale prices in the United States rose 50%,
and retail prices went up even more.
Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri predicted,
“The revulsion will come, as sure as it did in 1819-20.”
In April 1836 he recommended a two-stage process for removing deposits
from banks in order to exclude paper money from all transactions.
The distribution from the eastern banks began on the first day of 1837 and caused a panic.
The Bank of England demanded gold and silver from American banks
and reduced their American investments, worsening the depression.
Between August 1836 and July 1837 large banks in New York City lost more than
$10 million in federal deposits as their species reserves fell from
$5.9 million in August 1835 to $1.5 million by May 1837.
During the eight years of the Jackson administration American exports doubled.
Imports were only $37 million in 1829 and rose to $150 million in 1836.
Pennsylvania’s Senator James Buchanan suggested that the Senate
could receive abolitionist petitions and reject them without debate.
This resolution passed 34-6 on March 14, and the House of Representatives
voted 117-68 to receive them and table them. This was called the “Gag Rule Conspiracy,”
and some believed that it was to protect slavery.
On May 18 the House began debating the Henry L. Pinckney Committee’s resolutions.
The first one was “That Congress possesses no constitutional authority to interfere
in any way with the institution of slavery in any of the States of this Confederacy.”2
John Quincy Adams asked for five minutes to speak and was denied.
On May 25 when they were discussing the Seminole War, he began to speak.
He resented the gag rule on slavery and spoke about the American desire for Mexico
to cede much territory which he said would “produce jealousy, suspicion, ill will, and hatred.”
Then he said,
This overture, offensive in itself,
was made precisely at the time
when a swarm of colonists from these United States
were covering the Mexican border with land-jobbing,
and with slaves, introduced in defiance of Mexican laws,
by which slavery had been abolished
throughout the republic.3
Adams argued that the war in Texas was not for independence
but was to re-establish slavery where it was abolished.
He considered it “a war between slavery and emancipation.”
He warned that they were rushing “into a war of conquest commenced by aggression.”
He prophesied that the war with Mexico would become a civil war in America
which would be “the last great conflict … between slavery and emancipation.”
He said,
Mr. Chairman, are you ready for all these wars?
A Mexican War? A war with Great Britain, if not with France?
A general Indian war? A servile war?
And, as an inevitable consequence of them all, a civil war?...
From the instant that your slaveholding states
become the theatre of war, civil, servile, or foreign,
from that instant the war powers of Congress extend to
interference with the institution of slavery in every way.4
Yet in July both houses of Congress passed resolutions favoring the recognition of Texas.
Postmaster General Kendall paid off the old debts by spring 1836 and proposed reforms.
Congress passed the Post Office Act on July 2.
Yet he made sure that Jacksonians in the west got better service than eastern newspapers.
He also permitted southern post offices not
to deliver abolitionist literature except to subscribers.
The United States in 1819 had incorporated the Arkansas Territory,
and 22-year-old territorial secretary Robert Crittenden called for elections.
In November 1824 a U. S. treaty with 455 Quapaws took their land
in exchange for 22 million acres between the Caddo and Red rivers.
They were not well received there, and floods destroyed their crops.
After sixty people died, others went back to Arkansas to try to get back their land;
but they were moved west to the Indian territory in 1833.
The Arkansas population was 14,000 in 1820 and reached 30,000 in 1830
when Crittenden’s Arkansas Advocate suggested statehood.
The 1835 census counted 52,240 Arkansans, enough for a state,
and Arkansas with slavery was admitted to the Union on 15 June 1836.
On 4 July 1836 Mexico’s President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna
wrote from Columbia, Texas to His Excellency General Andrew Jackson,
President of the United States of America
here is the beginning and the last portion of that letter:
Much Esteemed Sir: In fulfillment of the duties
which patriotism and honor impose upon a public man,
I came to this country at the head of 6,000 Mexicans.
The changes of war, made inevitable by circumstances,
reduced me to the condition of a prisoner, in which
I still remain, as you may have already learned.
The disposition evinced by General Samuel Houston,
the commander in chief of the Texan army, and by his
successor, General James J. Rusk, for the termination
of the war; the decision of the President and cabinet of
Texas in favor of a proper compromise between the
contending parties, and my own conviction, produced
the conventions of which I send you copies enclosed,
and the orders given by me to General Filisola,
my second in command, to retire from the
river Brasos, where he was posted,
to the other side of the river Bravo del Norte….
Let us enter into negotiations by which the friendship
between your nation and the Mexican may be strengthened,
both being amicably engaged in giving being and stability
to a people who are desirous of appearing in the political
world, and who, under the protection of the two nations,
will attain its object within a few years.
The Mexicans are magnanimous
when treated with consideration.
I will clearly set before them the proper and humane
reasons which require noble and frank conduct on their part,
and I doubt not that they will act thus
as soon as they have been convinced.5
President Jackson on 4 September 1836 wrote this letter to General Samuel Houston:
Your letter of the 9th ultimo dated at Nacogdoches
(Texas) with the documents therein referred to was
received by express on my way from Florence hither,
where I reached on the 3rd instant,
and hasten to acknowledge its receipt.
I have duly examined the contents of your letter and
the other documents referred to, and regret that Mexico
by her Minister Mr. Gorrastisa has made known to this
Government, that Mexico does not, nor will not recognize
any act of General Santa Anna, as President of Mexico,
since he has been made Prisoner,
and that the agreement made by him with Texas
will not be recognized and agreed to by Mexico.
You will at once see that until the Government de facto
of Mexico, asks the friendly interposition of our good offices
to put an end to the war I cannot interfere—if she does, it
will give us pleasure to become the mediator between you.
I shall set out in a few days for Washington, and will
there make your note to me, and that of General St. Anna,
the basis of an interview with the Mexican Minister.
In the mean time I would remark, that I have seen
a report that General St. Anna was to be brought
before a military court, to be tried and shot.
Nothing now could tarnish the character of Texas
more than such an act at this late period.
It was good policy as well as humanity that spared him—
it has given you possession of Goliad and the Alamo
without blood, or loss of the strength of your army—
his person is still of much consequence to you,
he is the pride of the Mexican soldiers and the favorite
of the Priesthood and while he is in your power the
priests will not furnish the supplies necessary for another
campaign, nor will the regular soldier voluntarily march
when their reentering Texas may endanger or cost their
favorite General his life, therefore preserve his life and
the character you have won; and let not his blood be
shed unless it becomes necessary by an imperative act
of just retaliation for Mexican massacres hereafter.
This is what I think, true wisdom and humanity dictates.
I enclose you a letter to General St. Anna which
you will please seal and cause to be delivered to him.6
In the November election the total popular vote increased from 55.4% to 57.8%.
Democrat Martin Van Buren received 51% of the votes
and won in the Electoral College 170-73.
Pennsylvania was divided, and Whigs elected the governor;
but Van Buren barely won the state.
The Whig nominee William Henry Harrison got 37% of the vote and
won in Vermont, New Jersey, Maryland, Kentucky, Ohio, and Indiana.
The Whigs might have won if they were not so divided.
Three other Whigs also ran.
Hugh White won his state of Tennessee and Georgia;
Daniel Webster won in Massachusetts; and Willie P. Mangum took North Carolina.
Democrat Richard M. Johnson was running for Vice President,
and his 147 electoral votes were not a majority
of the 294 electoral votes for the four candidates.
On 3 February 1837 the United States Senate elected Johnson as Vice President 33-16.
On November 19 Jackson suffered a fit of coughing that caused a massive hemorrhage.
Then he was bled by a doctor and lost more than 60 ounces of blood
before they stopped bleeding him.
He was weak for several weeks.
In his annual message on December 5 he noted that the Treasury
had nearly $42 million after spending $32 million in 1836.
The 10-hour workday had become usual for most organized workers in eastern cities.
After navy-yard mechanics in Philadelphia went on strike in the summer,
President Jackson granted their demand.
Late in his presidency Jackson made five appointments to the Supreme Court
including two additional justices that the Democratic Congress added
on his last day in office to make seven justices.
All five were from slave states.
The Whig Senate previously had declined to confirm Roger Taney,
but the Democratic Senate made him Chief Justice on 15 March 1836.
On that day they also confirmed Philip Barbour of Virginia as a justice
and Kendall as Postmaster General, and the next day they confirmed
the slave-owner Andrew Stevenson,
who had been House Speaker 1827-34, as minister to Britain.
On his last day in office on 3 March 1837 Jackson added
two more justices to the Supreme Court to make seven justices.
President Andrew Jackson sent his 24-page 8th Annual Message
to Congress on December 5.
Here is the complete text:
Addressing to you the last annual message
I shall ever present to the Congress of the United States,
it is a source of the most heartfelt satisfaction to be
able to congratulate you on the high state of prosperity
which our beloved country has attained.
With no causes at home or abroad to lessen the
confidence with which we look to the future for
continuing proofs of the capacity of our free institutions
to produce all the fruits of good government, the general
condition of our affairs may well excite our national pride.
I cannot avoid congratulating you, and my country
particularly, on the success of the efforts made during
my administration by the executive and legislature,
in conformity with the sincere, constant, and earnest
desire of the people, to maintain peace and
establish cordial relations with all foreign powers.
Our gratitude is due to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe,
and I invite you to unite with me in offering to Him fervent
supplications that His providential care may ever be
extended to those who follow us, enabling them to avoid the
dangers and the horrors of war consistently with a just and
indispensable regard to the rights and honor of our country.
But although the present state of our foreign affairs,
standing, without important change, as they did when
you separated in July last, is flattering in the extreme,
I regret to say that many questions of an interesting
character, at issue with other powers, are yet unadjusted
Among the most prominent of these
is that of our Northeast boundary.
With an undiminished confidence in the sincere desire
of His Britannic Majesty’s government to adjust that
question, I am not yet in possession of the precise
grounds upon which it proposes a satisfactory adjustment.
With France our diplomatic relations have been resumed,
and under circumstances which attest the disposition of both
governments to preserve a mutually beneficial intercourse
and foster those amicable feelings which are so strongly
required by the true interests of the two countries.
With Russia, Austria, Prussia, Naples, Sweden, and
Denmark the best understanding exists, and our commercial
intercourse is gradually expanding itself with them.
It is encouraged in all these countries,
except Naples, by their mutually advantageous
and liberal treaty stipulations with us.
The claims of our citizens on Portugal are
admitted to be just, but provision for the
payment of them has been unfortunately delayed
by frequent political changes in that Kingdom.
The blessings of peace have not been secured by Spain.
Our connections with that country are on the best footing,
with the exception of the burdens still imposed upon
our commerce with her possessions out of Europe.
The claims of American citizens for losses sustained
at the bombardment of Antwerp have been presented
to the governments of Holland and Belgium,
and will be pressed in due season to settlement.
With Brazil and all our neighbors of this
continent we continue to maintain relations
of amity and concord, extending our commerce
with them as far as the resources of the people
and the policy of their governments will permit.
The just and long-standing claims of our citizens upon some
of them are yet sources of dissatisfaction and complaint.
No danger is apprehended, however, that they
will not be peacefully, although tardily, acknowledged
and paid by all, unless the irritating effect of her
struggle with Texas should unfortunately make
our immediate neighbor, Mexico, an exception.
It is already known to you, by the correspondence
between the two governments communicated at your
last session, that our conduct in relation to that
struggle is regulated by the same principles that
governed us in the dispute between Spain and
Mexico herself, and I trust that it will be found
on the most severe scrutiny that our acts have
strictly corresponded with our professions.
That the inhabitants of the United States should feel
strong prepossessions for the one party is not surprising.
But this circumstance should of itself teach us great
caution, lest it lead us into the great error of suffering
public policy to be regulated by partiality or prejudice;
and there are considerations connected with the
possible result of this contest between the two parties
of so much delicacy and importance to the United States
that our character requires that we should neither
anticipate events nor attempt to control them.
The known desire of the Texans to become a part of
our system, although its gratification depends upon
the reconcilement of various and conflicting interests,
necessarily a work of time and uncertain in itself,
is calculated to expose our conduct to
misconstruction in the eyes of the world.
There are already those who, indifferent to principle
themselves and prone to suspect the want of it in others,
charge us with ambitious designs and insidious policy.
You will perceive by the accompanying documents that
the extraordinary mission from Mexico has been
terminated on the sole ground that the obligations of this
government to itself and to Mexico, under treaty stipulations,
have compelled me to trust a discretionary authority to
a high officer of our Army to advance into territory claimed
as part of Texas if necessary to protect our own or the
neighboring frontier from Indian depredation.
In the opinion of the Mexican functionary who has just
left us, the honor of his country will be wounded by
American soldiers entering, with the most amicable
avowed purposes, upon ground from which the
followers of his government have been expelled,
and over which there is at present no certainty of
a serious effort on its part to re-establish its dominion.
The departure of this minister was the more singular as
he was apprised that the sufficiency of the causes assigned
for the advance of our troops by the commanding general
had been seriously doubted by me, and there was every
reason to suppose that the troops of the United States,
their commander having had time to ascertain the truth
or falsehood of the information upon which they had been
marched to Nacogdoches, would be either there in perfect
accordance with the principles admitted to be just in his
conference with the Secretary of State by the Mexican
minister himself, or were already withdrawn in
consequence of the impressive warnings their commanding
officer had received from the Department of War.
It is hoped and believed that his government will take a
more dispassionate and just view of this subject, and not
be disposed to construe a measure of justifiable precaution,
made necessary by its known inability in execution of the
stipulations of our treaty to act upon the frontier, into an
encroachment upon its rights or a stain upon its honor.
In the meantime the ancient complaints of injustice
made on behalf of our citizens are disregarded, and
new causes of dissatisfaction have arisen, some of
them of a character requiring prompt remonstrance
and ample and immediate redress.
I trust, however, by tempering firmness with courtesy
and acting with great forbearance upon every incident
that has occurred or that may happen, to do and to
obtain justice, and thus avoid the necessity of again
bringing this subject to the view of Congress.
It is my duty to remind you that no provision has
been made to execute our treaty with Mexico for
tracing the boundary line between the two countries.
Whatever may be the prospect of Mexico’s being soon
able to execute the treaty on its part, it is proper that
we should be in anticipation prepared at all times to
perform our obligations, without regard to the probable
condition of those with whom we have contracted them.
The result of the confidential inquiries made
into the condition and prospects of the newly
declared Texan government will be communicated
to you in the course of the session.
Commercial treaties promising great advantages
to our enterprising merchants and navigators have been
formed with the distant governments of Muscat and Siam.
The ratifications have been exchanged,
but have not reached the Department of State.
Copies of the treaties will be transmitted to you
if received before, or published if arriving after,
the close of the present session of Congress.
Nothing has occurred to interrupt the good understanding
that has long existed with the Barbary powers, nor to
check the good will which is gradually growing up from
our intercourse with the dominions of the Government
of the distinguished chief of the Ottoman Empire.
Information has been received at the Department of State
that a treaty with the Emperor of Morocco has just been
negotiated, which, I hope, will be received in time to be
laid before the Senate previous to the close of the session.
You will perceive from the report of the Secretary of the
Treasury that the financial means of the country continue
to keep pace with its improvement in all other respects.
The receipts into the Treasury during the present year
will amount to about $47,691,898; those from customs
being estimated at $22,523,151, those from lands at about
$24,000,000, and the residue from miscellaneous sources.
The expenditures for all objects during the year are
estimated not to exceed $32,000,000, which will leave
a balance in the Treasury for public purposes on the
first day of January next of about $41,723,959.
This sum, with the exception of $5,000,000,
will be transferred to the several states in
accordance with the provisions of the act
regulating the deposits of the public money.
The unexpended balances of appropriation on
the first day of January next are estimated at
$14,636,062, exceeding by $9,636,062 the amount
which will be left in the deposit banks, subject to the
draft of the Treasurer of the United States, after the
contemplated transfers to the several states are made.
If, therefore, the future receipts should not be sufficient
to meet these outstanding and future appropriations,
there may be soon a necessity to use a portion
of the funds deposited with the states.
The consequences apprehended when the
deposit act of the last session received a
reluctant approval have been measurably realized.
Though an act merely for the deposit of the surplus
moneys of the United States in the state treasuries for
safe-keeping until they may be wanted for the service
of the general government, it has been extensively spoken
of as an act to give the money to the several states,
and they have been advised to use it as a gift, without
regard to the means of refunding it when called for.
Such a suggestion has doubtless been made
without a proper attention to the various
principles and interests which are affected by it.
It is manifest that the law itself cannot sanction such a
suggestion, and that as it now stands the States have no
more authority to receive and use these deposits without
intending to return them than any deposit bank or any
individual temporarily charged with the safe-keeping
or application of the public money would now have for
converting the same to their private use without the
consent and against the will of the government.
But independently of the violation of public faith
and moral obligation which are involved in this
suggestion when examined in reference to the
terms of the present deposit act, it is believed that
the considerations which should govern the future
legislation of Congress on this subject will be equally
conclusive against the adoption of any measure recognizing
the principles on which the suggestion has been made.
Considering the intimate connection of the subject
with the financial interests of the country and its great
importance in whatever aspect it can be viewed, I have
bestowed upon it the most anxious reflection, and feel it
to be my duty to state to Congress such thoughts as have
occurred to me, to aid their deliberation in treating it in the
manner best calculated to conduce to the common good.
The experience of other nations admonished us to
hasten the extinguishment of the public debt; but it
will be in vain that we have congratulated each other
upon the disappearance of this evil if we do not guard
against the equally great one of promoting the
unnecessary accumulation of public revenue.
No political maxim is better established than that
which tells us that an improvident expenditure of
money is the parent of profligacy, and that no people
can hope to perpetuate their liberties who long acquiesce
in a policy which taxes them for objects not necessary
to the legitimate and real wants of their government.
Flattering as is the condition of our country at the
present period, because of its unexampled advance
in all the steps of social and political improvement,
it cannot be disguised that there is a lurking danger
already apparent in the neglect of this warning truth,
and that the time has arrived when the representatives
of the people should be employed in devising some
more appropriate remedy than now exists to avert it.
Under our present revenue system there is every
probability that there will continue to be a surplus
beyond the wants of the government, and it has
become our duty to decide whether such a result be
consistent with the true objects of our government.
Should a surplus be permitted to accumulate beyond the
appropriations, it must be retained in the Treasury, as it
now is, or distributed among the people or the states.
To retain it in the Treasury unemployed in any way is
impracticable; it is, besides, against the genius of our free
institutions to lock up in vaults the treasure of the nation.
To take from the people the right of bearing arms
and put their weapons of defense in the hands of a
standing army would be scarcely more dangerous
to their liberties than to permit the government to
accumulate immense amounts of treasure beyond
the supplies necessary to its legitimate wants.
Such a treasure would doubtless be employed
at some time, as it has been in other countries,
when opportunity tempted ambition.
To collect it merely for distribution to the states
would seem to be highly impolitic, if not as dangerous
as the proposition to retain it in the Treasury.
The shortest reflection must satisfy everyone that to require
the people to pay taxes to the government merely that they
may be paid back again is sporting with the substantial
interests of the country, and no system which produces such
a result can be expected to receive the public countenance.
Nothing could be gained by it even if each
individual who contributed a portion of the tax
could receive back promptly the same portion.
But it is apparent that no system of the kind can ever
be enforced which will not absorb a considerable portion
of the money to be distributed in salaries and commissions
to the agents employed in the process and in the various
losses and depreciations which arise from other causes,
and the practical effect of such an attempt must ever be
to burden the people with taxes, not for purposes
beneficial to them, but to swell the profits of deposit
banks and support a band of useless public officers.
A distribution to the people is impracticable
and unjust in other respects.
It would be taking one man’s property
and giving it to another.
Such would be the unavoidable result of a rule of equality
(and none other is spoken of or would be likely to be
adopted), in as much as there is no mode by which
the amount of the individual contributions of our
citizens to the public revenue can be ascertained.
We know that they contribute unequally, and a rule,
therefore, that would distribute to them equally
would be liable to all the objections which apply
to the principle of an equal division of property.
To make the general government the instrument of carrying
this odious principle into effect would be at once to destroy
the means of its usefulness and change the character
designed for it by the framers of the Constitution.
But the more extended and injurious consequences
likely to result from a policy which would collect a
surplus revenue from the purpose of distributing it
may be forcibly illustrated by an examination of the
effects already produced by the present deposit act.
This act, although certainly designed to secure the
safe-keeping of the public revenue, is not entirely
free in its tendencies from any of the objections
which apply to this principle of distribution.
The government had without necessity received from
the people a large surplus, which, instead of being
employed as heretofore and returned to them by means of
the public expenditure, was deposited with sundry banks.
The banks proceeded to make loans upon this surplus,
and thus converted it into banking capital, and in this
manner it has tended to multiply bank charters and has
had a great agency in producing a spirit of wild speculation.
The possession and use of the property out of which
this surplus was created belonged to the people,
but the government has transferred its possession
to incorporated banks, whose interest and effort
it is to make large profits out of its use.
This process need only be stated to
show its injustice and bad policy.
And the same observations apply to the influence
which is produced by the steps necessary to
collect as well as to distribute such a revenue.
About three-fifths of all the duties on imports are paid in
the city of New York, but it is obvious that the means to
pay those duties are drawn from every quarter of the Union.
Every citizen in every state who purchases and
consumes an article which has paid a duty at
that port contributes to the accumulating mass.
The surplus collected there must therefore be
made up of moneys or property withdrawn
from other points and other states.
Thus the wealth and business of every region from which
these surplus funds proceed must be to some extent injured,
while that of the place where the funds are concentrated
and are employed in banking are proportionably extended.
But both in making the transfer of the funds which are first
necessary to pay the duties and collect the surplus and in
making the re-transfer which becomes necessary when
the time arrives for the distribution of that surplus there
is a considerable period when the funds cannot be
brought into use, and it is manifest that, besides the
loss inevitable from such an operation, its tendency
is to produce fluctuations in the business of the country,
which are always productive of speculation and
detrimental to the interests of regular trade.
Argument can scarcely be necessary to show
that a measure of this character ought not to
receive further legislative encouragement.
By examining the practical operation of the
ration for distribution adopted in the deposit
bill of the last session we shall discover other
features that appear equally objectionable.
Let it be assumed, for the sake of argument, that
the surplus moneys to be deposited with the states
have been collected and belong to them in the ration
of their federal representative population—
an assumption founded upon the fact that any
deficiencies in our future revenue from imposts
and public lands must be made up by direct taxes
collected from the states in that ration.
It is proposed to distribute this surplus—
say $30,000,000—not according to the ration
in which it has been collected and belongs to the
people of the states, but in that of their votes in
the colleges of electors of President and Vice President.
The effect of a distribution upon that ration is
shown by the annexed table, marked A.
By an examination of that table it will be perceived that
in the distribution of a surplus of $30,000,000 upon that
basis there is a great departure from the principle which
regards representation as the true measure of taxation,
and it will be found that the tendency of that departure will
be to increase whatever inequalities have been supposed
to attend the operation of our federal system in respect
to its bearings upon the different interests of the union.
In making the basis of representation the basis of taxation
the framers of the Constitution intended to equalize the
burdens which are necessary to support the government,
and the adoption of that ratio, while it accomplished this
object, was also the means of adjusting other great topics
arising out of the conflicting views respecting the political
equality of the various members of the Confederacy.
Whatever, therefore, disturbs the liberal spirit of the
compromises which established a rule of taxation so just
and equitable, and which experience has proved to be
so well adapted to the genius and habits of our people,
should be received with the greatest caution and distrust.
A bare inspection in the annexed table of the
differences produced by the ration used in the
deposit act compared with the results of a
distribution according to the ration of direct
taxation must satisfy every unprejudiced mind
that the former ration contravenes the spirit of
the Constitution and produces a degree of injustice
in the operations of the federal government which
would be fatal to the hope of perpetuating it.
By the ration of direct taxation, for example, the state
of Delaware in the collection of $30,000,000 of revenue
would pay into the Treasury $188,716, and in a
distribution of $30,000,000 she would receive back
from the government, according to the ration of the deposit
bill, the sum of $306,122; and similar results would follow
the comparison between the small and the large states
throughout the union, thus realizing to the small states an
advantage which would be doubtless as unacceptable to
them as a motive for incorporating the principle in any
system which would produce it as it would be inconsistent
with the rights and expectations of the large states.
It was certainly the intention of that provision of the
Constitution which declares that “all duties, imposts, and
excises” shall “be uniform throughout the United States”
to make the burdens of taxation fall equally upon the
people in whatever state of the union they may reside.
But what would be the value of such a uniform rule
if the moneys raised by it could be immediately
returned by a different one which will give to the
people of some states much more and to those
of others much less than their fair proportions?
Were the federal government to exempt in express
terms the imports, products, and manufactures of some
portions of the country from all duties while it imposed
heavy ones on others, the injustice could not be greater.
It would be easy to show how by the operation of such a
principle the large states of the union would not only have
to contribute their just share toward the support of the
federal government, but also have to bear in some degree
the taxes necessary to support the governments of their
smaller sisters; but it is deemed unnecessary to state
the details where the general principle is so obvious.
A system liable to such objections can never be supposed
to have been sanctioned by the framers of the Constitution
when they conferred on Congress the taxing power,
and I feel persuaded that a mature examination of the
subject will satisfy everyone that there are insurmountable
difficulties in the operation of any plan which can be devised
of collecting revenue for the purpose of distributing it.
Congress is only authorized to levy taxes
“to pay the debts and provide for the common
defense and general welfare of the United States.”
There is no such provision as would authorize Congress
to collect together the property of the country, under
the name of revenue, for the purpose of dividing it
equally or unequally among the states or the people.
Indeed, it is not probable that such an idea ever occurred
to the states when they adopted the Constitution.
But however this may be, the only safe rule for us
in interpreting the powers granted to the federal
government is to regard the absence of express
authority to touch a subject so important and
delicate as this as equivalent to a prohibition.
Even if our powers were less doubtful in this respect
as the Constitution now stands, there are considerations
afforded by recent experience which would seem to
make it our duty to avoid a resort to such a system.
All will admit that the simplicity and economy of the
state governments mainly depend on the fact that
money has to be supplied to support them by the same
men, or their agents, who vote it away in appropriations.
Hence when there are extravagant and wasteful
appropriations there must be a corresponding
increase of taxes, and the people, becoming
awakened, will necessarily scrutinize the character
of measures which thus increase their burdens.
By the watchful eye of self-interest the agents of
the people in the state governments are repressed
and kept within the limits of a just economy.
But if the necessity of levying the taxes be taken from
those who make the appropriations and thrown upon a
more distant and less responsible set of public agents,
who have power to approach the people by an indirect
and stealthy taxation, there is reason to fear that
prodigality will soon supersede those characteristics
which have thus far made us look with so much
pride and confidence to the state governments
as the mainstay of our union and liberties.
The state legislatures, instead of studying to
restrict their state expenditures to the smallest
possible sum, will claim credit for their profusion,
and harass the general government for increased supplies.
Practically there would soon be but one taxing power,
and that vested in a body of men far removed
from the people, in which the farming and
mechanic interests would scarcely be represented.
The states would gradually lose their purity
as well as their independence; they would not
dare to murmur at the proceedings of the general
government, lest they should lose their supplies;
all would be merged in a practical consolidation,
cemented by widespread corruption, which could
only be eradicated by one of those bloody
revolutions which occasionally overthrow
the despotic systems of the Old World.
In all the other aspects in which I have been able
to look at the effect of such a principle of distribution
upon the best interests of the country I can see nothing to
compensate for the disadvantages to which I have adverted.
If we consider the protective duties, which are in a great
degree the source of the surplus revenue, beneficial
to one section of the union and prejudicial to another,
there is no corrective for the evil
in such a plan of distribution.
On the contrary, there is reason to fear
that all the complaints which have sprung
from this cause would be aggravated.
Everyone must be sensible that a distribution
of the surplus must beget a disposition to
cherish the means which create it, and any system,
therefore, into which it enters must have a powerful
tendency to increase rather than diminish the tariff.
If it were even admitted that the advantages
of such a system could be made equal to all
the sections of the Union, the reasons already
so urgently calling for a reduction of the revenue would
nevertheless lose none of their force, for it will always be
improbable that an intelligent and virtuous community can
consent to raise a surplus for the mere purpose of dividing
it, diminished as it must inevitably be by the expenses
of the various machinery necessary to the process.
The safest and simplest mode of obviating
all the difficulties which have been mentioned
is to collect only revenue enough to meet the
wants of the government, and let the people
keep the balance of their property in their own hands,
to be used for their own profit.
Each state will then support its own government
and contribute its due share toward the
support of the general government.
There would be no surplus to cramp and lessen the
resources of individual wealth and enterprise,
and the banks would be left to their ordinary means.
Whatever agitations and fluctuations might arise from our
unfortunate paper system, they could never be attributed,
justly or unjustly, to the action of the federal government.
There would be some guaranty that the spirit of wild
speculation which seeks to convert the surplus revenue
into banking capital would be effectually checked,
and that the scenes of demoralization which are
now so prevalent through the land would disappear.
Without desiring to conceal that the experience
and observation of the last two years have operated
a partial change in my views upon this interesting subject,
it is nevertheless regretted that the suggestions
made by me in my annual messages of 1829
and 1830 have been greatly misunderstood.
At that time the great struggle was begun against that
latitudinarian construction of the Constitution which
authorizes the unlimited appropriation of the revenues
of the union to internal improvements within the states,
tending to invest in the hands and place under the
control of the general government all the principal
roads and canals of the country, in violation of
state rights and in derogation of state authority.
At the same time the condition of the manufacturing
interest was such as to create an apprehension that the
duties on imports could not without extensive mischief
be reduced in season to prevent the accumulation of a
considerable surplus after the payment of the national debt.
In view of the dangers of such a surplus,
and in preference to its application to internal
improvements in derogation of the rights and
powers of the states, the suggestion of an
amendment of the Constitution
to authorize its distribution was made.
It was an alternative for what were deemed greater evils—
a temporary resort to relieve an over-burdened treasury
until the government could, without a sudden and
destructive revulsion in the business of the country,
gradually return to the just principle of raising no
more revenue from the people in taxes
than is necessary for its economical support.
Even that alternative was not spoken of but in
connection with an amendment of the Constitution.
No temporary inconvenience can justify the exercise
of a prohibited power not granted by that instrument,
and it was from a conviction that the power to
distribute even a temporary surplus of revenue is
of that character that it was suggested only in connection
with an appeal to the source of all legal power in the
general government, the states which have established it.
No such appeal has been taken, and in my opinion
a distribution of the surplus revenue by Congress
either to the states or the people is to be considered
as among the prohibitions of the Constitution.
As already intimated, my views have undergone a
change so far as to be convinced that no alteration
of the Constitution in this respect is wise or expedient.
The influence of an accumulating surplus upon the credit
system of the country, producing dangerous extensions and
ruinous contractions, fluctuations in the price of property,
rash speculation, idleness, extravagance, and a deterioration
of morals, have taught us the important lesson that any
transient mischief which may attend the reduction of our
revenue to the wants of our government is to be
borne in preference to an overflowing treasury.
I beg leave to call your attention to another
subject intimately associated with the preceding one—
the currency of the country.
It is apparent from the whole context of the Constitution,
as well as the history of the times which gave birth to it,
that it was the purpose of the Convention to establish
a currency consisting of the precious metals.
These, from their peculiar properties which rendered them
the standard of value in all other countries, were adopted
in this as well to establish its commercial standard in
reference to foreign countries by a permanent rule as
to exclude the use of a mutable medium of exchange,
such as of certain agricultural commodities recognized
by the statutes of some states as a tender for debts,
or the still more pernicious expedient of a paper currency.
The last, from the experience of the evils of the issues
of paper during the Revolution, had become so justly
obnoxious as not only to suggest the clause in the
Constitution forbidding the emission of bills of credit
by the states, but also to produce that vote in the
Convention which negatived the proposition to grant
power to Congress to charter corporations—
a proposition well understood at the time as intended
to authorize the establishment of a national bank,
which was to issue a currency of bank notes on a capital
to be created to some extent out of government stocks.
Although this proposition was refused by a direct
vote of the Convention, the object was afterwards
in effect obtained by its ingenious advocates
through a strained construction of the Constitution.
The debts of the Revolution were funded at prices
which formed no equivalent compared with the
nominal amount of the stock, and under circumstances
which exposed the motives of some of those who
participated in the passage of the act to distrust.
The facts that the value of the stock was greatly enhanced
by the creation of the bank, that it was well understood that
such would be the case, and that some of the advocates of
the measure were largely benefited by it belong to the
history of the times, and are well calculated to diminish
the respect which might otherwise have been due to the
action of the Congress which created the institution.
On the establishment of a national bank it became
the interest of its creditors that gold should be superseded
by the paper of the bank as a general currency.
A value was soon attached to the gold coins which
made their exportation to foreign countries as a
mercantile commodity more profitable than
their retention and use at home as money.
It followed as a matter of course, if not designed
by those who established the bank, that the bank became
in effect a substitute for the Mint of the United States.
Such was the origin of a national bank currency,
and such the beginning of those difficulties which
now appear in the excessive issues of the
banks incorporated by the various States.
Although it may not be possible by any legislative
means within our power to change at once the system
which has thus been introduced, and has received the
acquiescence of all portions of the country, it is certainly
our duty to do all that is consistent with our constitutional
obligations in preventing the mischiefs which
are threatened by its undue extension.
That the efforts of the fathers of our government to
guard against it by a constitutional provision were
founded on an intimate knowledge of the subject has been
frequently attested by the bitter experience of the country.
The same causes which led them to refuse their sanction
to a power authorizing the establishment of incorporations
for banking purposes now exist in a much stronger degree
to urge us to exert the utmost vigilance in calling into
action the means necessary to correct the evils resulting
from the unfortunate exercise of the power, and it is
hoped that the opportunity for effecting this great good
will be improved before the country witnesses
new scenes of embarrassment and distress.
Variableness must ever be the characteristic of a
currency of which the precious metals are not the chief
ingredient, or which can be expanded or contracted without
regard to the principles that regulate the value of those
metals as a standard in the general trade of the world.
With us bank issues constitute such a currency,
and must ever do so until they are made dependent
on those just proportions of gold and silver as a circulating
medium which experience has proved to be necessary
not only in this but in all other commercial countries.
Where those proportions are not infused into the
circulation and do not control it, it is manifest that
prices must vary according to the tide of bank issues,
and the value and stability of property must stand
exposed to all the uncertainty which attends the
administration of institutions that are constantly
liable to the temptation of an interest distinct from
that of the community in which they are established.
The progress of an expansion, or rather a depreciation,
of the currency by excessive bank issues
is always attended by a loss to the laboring classes.
This portion of the community have neither
time nor opportunity to watch the ebbs
and flows of the money market.
Engaged from day to day in their useful toils,
they do not perceive that although their wages are
nominally the same, or even somewhat higher,
they are greatly reduced in fact by the rapid increase of
a spurious currency, which, as it appears to make money
abound, they are at first inclined to consider a blessing.
It is not so with the speculator, by whom
this operation is better understood,
and is made to contribute to his advantage.
It is not until the prices of the necessaries of life become so
dear that the laboring classes cannot supply their wants out
of their wages, that the wages rise and gradually reach a
justly proportioned rate to that of the products of their labor.
When thus, by depreciation in consequence of the quantity
of paper in circulation, wages as well as prices become
exorbitant, it is soon found that the whole effect of the
adulteration is a tariff on our home industry for the
benefit of the countries where gold and silver circulate
and maintain uniformity and moderation in prices.
It is then perceived that the enhancement of the price
of land and labor produces a corresponding increase
in the price of products until these products do not
sustain a competition with similar ones in other countries,
and thus both manufactured and agricultural productions
cease to bear expectation from the country of the
spurious currency, because they cannot be sold for cost.
This is the process by which specie
is banished by the paper of the banks.
Their vaults are soon exhausted
to pay for foreign commodities.
The next step is a stoppage of specie payment—
a total degradation of paper as a currency—
unusual depression of prices, the ruin of debtors,
and the accumulation of property in the hands
of creditors and cautious capitalists.
It was in view of these evils, together with the dangerous
power wielded by the Bank of the United States and its
repugnance to our Constitution, that I was induced to
exert the power conferred upon me by the American
people to prevent the continuance of that institution.
But although various dangers to our republican institutions
have been obviated by the failure of that bank to extort
from the government a renewal of its charter,
it is obvious that little has been accomplished except a
salutary change of public opinion toward restoring to the
country the sound currency provided for in the Constitution.
In the acts of several of the states prohibiting the circulation
of small notes and the auxiliary enactments of Congress
at the last session forbidding their reception or payment
on public account, the true policy of the country has
been advanced and a larger portion of the precious
metals infused into our circulating medium.
These measures will probably be followed up in due time
by the enactment of state laws banishing from circulation
bank notes of still higher denominations, and the object
may be materially promoted by further acts of Congress
forbidding the employment as fiscal agents of such banks
as continue to issue notes of low denominations and throw
impediments in the way of the circulation of gold and silver.
The effects of an extension of bank credits
and over-issues of bank paper have been
strikingly illustrated in the sales of the public lands.
From the returns made by the various registers and
receivers in the early part of last summer it was
perceived that the receipts arising from the sales of the
public lands were increasing to an unprecedented amount.
In effect, however, these receipts amounted
to nothing more than credits in bank.
The banks lent out their notes to speculators.
They were paid to the receivers and immediately
returned to the banks, to be lent out again and again,
being mere instruments to transfer to speculators
the most valuable public land and pay the
government by a credit on the books of the banks.
Those credits on the books of some of the Western banks,
usually called deposits, were already greatly beyond their
immediate means of payment, and were rapidly increasing.
Indeed, each speculation furnished means for another;
for no sooner had one individual or company paid in the
notes than they were immediately lent to another for a
like purpose, and the banks were extending their
business and their issues so largely as to alarm
considerate men and render it doubtful whether
these bank credits, if permitted to accumulate, would
ultimately be of the least value to the government.
The spirit of expansion and speculation was not
confined to the deposit banks, but pervaded the
whole multitude of banks throughout the union and
was giving rise to new institutions to aggravate the evil.
The safety of the public funds and the interest of the
people generally required that these operations should
be checked; and it became the duty of every branch
of the general and state governments to adopt all
legitimate and proper means to produce that salutary effect.
Under this view of my duty I directed the issuing of
the order which will be laid before you by the Secretary
of the Treasury, requiring payment for the public lands
sold to be made in specie, with an exception until the
15th of the present month in favor of actual settlers.
This measure has produced many salutary consequences.
It checked the career of the Western banks and
gave them additional strength in anticipation of
the pressure which has since pervaded our Eastern
as well as the European commercial cities.
By preventing the extension of the credit system
it measurably cut off the means of speculation
and retarded its progress in monopolizing the
most valuable of the public lands.
It has tended to save the new states from a
non-resident proprietorship, one of the greatest
obstacles to the advancement of a new country
and the prosperity of an old one.
It has tended to keep open the public lands
for entry by emigrants at government prices
instead of their being compelled to purchase
of speculators at double or triple prices.
And it is conveying into the interior large sums in silver
and gold, there to enter permanently into the currency
of the country and place it on a firmer foundation.
It is confidently believed that the country will find
in the motives which induced that order and the
happy consequences which will have ensued
much to commend and nothing to condemn.
It remains for Congress if they approve the policy which
dictated this order to follow it up in its various bearings.
Much good in my judgment would be produced by
prohibiting sales of the public lands except to actual
settlers at a reasonable reduction of price,
and to limit the quantity which shall be sold to them.
Although it is believed the general government
never ought to receive anything but the constitutional
currency in exchange for the public lands,
that point would be of less importance if the lands
were sold for immediate settlement and cultivation.
Indeed, there is scarcely a mischief arising out of our
present land system, including the accumulating surplus
of revenues, which would not be remedied at once
by a restriction on land sales to actual settlers;
and it promises other advantages to the country in general
and to the new states in particular which cannot fail to
receive the most profound consideration of Congress.
Experience continues to realize the expectations
entertained as to the capacity of the state banks
to perform the duties of fiscal agents for the
government at the time of the removal of the deposits.
It was alleged by the advocates of the Bank of the
United States that the state banks, whatever might be
the regulations of the Treasury Department, could not
make the transfers required by the government
or negotiate the domestic exchanges of the country.
It is now well ascertained that the real domestic exchanges
performed through discounts by the United States Bank
and its 25 branches were at least one-third less than
those of the deposit banks for an equal period of time;
and if a comparison be instituted between the amounts
of service rendered by these institutions on the broader
basis which has been used by the advocates of the
United States Bank in estimating what they consider
the domestic exchanges transacted by it, the result
will be still more favorable to the deposit banks.
The whole amount of public money transferred by
the Bank of the United States in 1832 was $16,000,000.
The amount transferred and actually paid by the deposit
banks in the year ending the 1st of October last was
$39,319,899; the amount transferred and paid between
that period and the 6th of November was $5,399,000, and
the amount of transfer warrants outstanding on that day
was $14,450,000, making an aggregate of $59,168,894.
These enormous sums of money first mentioned have been
transferred with the greatest promptitude and regularity,
and the rates at which the exchanges have been negotiated
previously to the passage of the deposit act were generally
below those charged by the Bank of the United States.
Independently of these services, which are far greater
than those rendered by the United States Bank and its
25 branches, a number of the deposit banks have, with
a commendable zeal to aid in the improvement of the
currency, imported from abroad at their own expense large
sums of the precious metals for coinage and circulation.
In the same manner have nearly all the predictions turned
out in respect to the effect of the removal of the deposits—
a step unquestionably necessary to prevent the evils which
it was foreseen the bank itself would endeavor to create
in a final struggle to procure a renewal of its charter.
It may be thus, too, in some degree with the further
steps which may be taken to prevent the excessive
issue of other bank paper, but it is to be hoped that
nothing will now deter the federal and state authorities
from the firm and vigorous performance of their duties
to themselves and to the people in this respect.
In reducing the revenue to the wants of the
government your particular attention is invited to
those articles which constitute the necessaries of life.
The duty on salt was laid as a war tax,
and was no doubt continued to assist in
providing for the payment of the war debt.
There is no article the release of which from taxation
would be felt so generally and so beneficially.
To this may be added all kinds of fuel and provisions.
Justice and benevolence unite in favor of releasing
the poor of our cities from burdens which are not
necessary to the support of our government and
tend only to increase the wants of the destitute.
It will be seen by the report of the Secretary
of the Treasury and the accompanying documents
that the Bank of the United States has made no
payment on account of the stock held by the
government in that institution, although urged
to pay any portion which might suit its
convenience, and that it has given no
information when payment may be expected.
Nor, although repeatedly requested, has it furnished the
information in relation to its condition which Congress
authorized the Secretary to collect at their last session.
Such measures as are within the power of the executive
have been taken to ascertain the value of the stock
and procure the payment as early as possible.
The conduct and present condition of that bank
and the great amount of capital vested in it
by the United States require your careful attention.
Its charter expired on the third day of March last,
and it has now no power but that given in the 21st section,
“to use the corporate name, style, and capacity for the
purpose of suits for the final settlement and liquidation of
the affairs and accounts of the corporation, and for the sale
and disposition of their estate—real, personal, and mixed—
but not for any other purpose or in any other manner
whatsoever, nor for a period exceeding two years
after the expiration of the said term of incorporation.”
Before the expiration of the charter the stock-holders
of the bank obtained an act of incorporation from the
legislature of Pennsylvania, excluding only the United States.
Instead of proceeding to wind up their concerns
and pay over to the United States the amount due
on account of the stock held by them, the president
and directors of the old bank appear to have transferred
the books, papers, notes, obligations, and most or all
of its property to this new corporation, which entered
upon business as a continuation of the old concern.
Amongst other acts of questionable validity, the notes
of the expired corporation are known to have been
used as its own and again put in circulation.
That the old bank had no right to issue or re-issue
its notes after the expiration of its charter cannot be denied,
and that it could not confer any such right on its substitute
any more than exercise it itself is equally plain.
In law and honesty the notes of the bank in circulation
at the expiration of its charter should have been called in
by public advertisement, paid up as presented, and,
together with those on hand, canceled and destroyed.
Their re-issue is sanctioned by no law
and warranted by no necessity.
If the United States be responsible in their stock
for the payment of these notes, their re-issue
by the new corporation for their own profit
is a fraud on the government.
If the United States is not responsible, then there is no legal
responsibility in any quarter, and it is a fraud on the country.
They are the redeemed notes of a dissolved partnership,
but, contrary to the wishes of the retiring partner and
without his consent, are again re-issued and circulated.
It is the high and peculiar duty of Congress to decide
whether any further legislation be necessary for the
security of the large amount of public property now held
and in use by the new bank, and for vindicating the rights
of the government and compelling a speedy and honest
settlement with all the creditors of the old bank,
public and private, or whether the subject shall be left
to the power now possessed by the executive and judiciary.
It remains to be seen whether the persons who as
managers of the old bank undertook to control the
government, retained the public dividends, shut their
doors upon a committee of the House of Representatives,
and filled the country with panic to accomplish their own
sinister objects may now as managers of a new bank
continue with impunity to flood the country with a
spurious currency, use the $7 million of government stock
for their own profit, and refuse to the United States all
information as to the present condition of their own property
and the prospect of recovering it into their own possession.
The lessons taught by the Bank of the United States
cannot well be lost upon the American people.
They will take care never again to place so tremendous
a power in irresponsible hands, and it will be fortunate
if they seriously consider the consequences which are likely
to result on a smaller scale from the facility with which
corporate powers are granted by their state governments.
It is believed that the law of the last session
regulating the deposit banks operates onerously
and unjustly upon them in many respects,
and it is hoped that Congress, on proper representations,
will adopt the modifications which are
necessary to prevent this consequence.
The report of the Secretary of War ad interim and the
accompanying documents, all which are herewith laid before
you, will give you a full view of the diversified and important
operations of that department during the past year.
The military movements rendered necessary
by the aggressions of the hostile portions of the
Seminole and Creek tribes of Indians, and by other
circumstances, have required the active employment of
nearly our whole regular force, including the Marine Corps,
and of large bodies of militia and volunteers.
With all these events so far as they were known
at the seat of government before the termination
of your last session you are already acquainted,
and it is therefore only needful in this place to lay
before you a brief summary of what has since occurred.
The war with the Seminoles during the summer was
on our part chiefly confined to the protection of our
frontier settlements from the incursions of the enemy,
and as a necessary and important means for the
accomplishment of that end, to the maintenance
of the posts previously established.
In the course of this duty several actions took place,
in which the bravery and discipline of both officers and men
were conspicuously displayed, and which I have deemed it
proper to notice in respect to the former by the granting
of brevet rank for gallant services in the field.
But as the force of the Indians was not so far weakened
by these partial successes as to lead them to submit,
and as their savage inroads were frequently repeated,
early measures were taken for placing at the disposal
of Governor Call, who as commander in chief of the
Territorial militia had been temporarily invested with
the command, an ample force for the purpose of
resuming offensive operations in the most efficient
manner so soon as the season should permit.
Major General Jesup was also directed, on the
conclusion of his duties in the Creek country,
to repair to Florida and assume the command.
The result of the first movement made by the forces
under the direction of Governor Call in October last,
as detailed in the accompanying papers,
excited much surprise and disappointment.
A full explanation has been required of the causes
which led to the failure of that movement,
but has not yet been received.
In the meantime, as it was feared that the health of
Governor Call, who was understood to have suffered
much from sickness, might not be adequate to the crisis,
and as Major General Jesup was known to have
reached Florida, that officer was directed to assume
command, and to prosecute all needful operations
with the utmost promptitude and vigor.
From the force at his disposal and the dispositions
he has made and is instructed to make, and from the
very efficient measures which it is since ascertained
have been taken by Governor Call, there is reason
to hope that they will soon be enabled
to reduce the enemy to subjection.
In the meantime, as you will perceive from the report
of the Secretary, there is urgent necessity for
further appropriations to suppress these hostilities.
Happily for the interests of humanity, the hostilities
with the Creeks were brought to a close soon after your
adjournment, without that effusion of blood which
at one time was apprehended as inevitable.
The unconditional submission of the hostile party
was followed by their speedy removal to the
country assigned them West of the Mississippi.
The inquiry as to alleged frauds in the purchase
of the reservations of these Indians and the causes
of their hostilities, requested by the resolution of the
House of Representatives of the 1st of July last
(1836-07-01) to be made by the President,
is now going on through the agency
of commissioners appointed for that purpose.
Their report may be expected during your present session.
The difficulties apprehended in the Cherokee country
have been prevented, and the peace and safety of that
region and its vicinity effectually secured, by the timely
measures taken by the War Department, and still continued.
The discretionary authority given to General Gaines
to cross the Sabine and to occupy a position as far West
as Nacogdoches, in case he should deem such a step
necessary to the protection of the frontier and to the
fulfillment of the stipulations contained in our treaty
with Mexico, and the movement subsequently
made by that officer have been alluded to
in a former part of this message.
At the date of the latest intelligence from Nacogdoches
our troops were yet at that station, but the officer who
has succeeded General Gaines has recently been advised
that from the facts known at the seat of government there
would seem to be no adequate cause for any longer
maintaining that position, and he was accordingly instructed,
in case the troops were not already withdrawn under the
discretionary powers before possessed by him, to give
the requisite orders for that purpose on the receipt of the
instructions, unless he shall then have in his possession
such information as shall satisfy him that the maintenance
of the post is essential to the protection of our frontiers
and to the due execution of our treaty stipulations,
as previously explained to him.
While the necessities existing during the present year
for the service of militia and volunteers have furnished
new proofs of the patriotism of our fellow citizens,
they have also strongly illustrated the importance of
an increase in the rank and file of the regular Army.
The views of this subject submitted by the Secretary of War
in his report meet my entire concurrence, and are earnestly
commended to the deliberate attention of Congress.
In this connection it is also proper to remind you
that the defects in our present militia system
are every day rendered more apparent.
The duty of making further provision by law for organizing,
arming, and disciplining this arm of defense has been
so repeatedly presented to Congress by myself and my
predecessors that I deem it sufficient on this occasion to
refer to the last annual message and to former executive
communications in which the subject has been discussed.
It appears from the reports of the officers charged with
mustering into service the volunteers called for under the
act of Congress of the last session that more presented
themselves at the place of rendezvous in Tennessee than
were sufficient to meet the requisition which had been made
by the Secretary of War upon the governor of that state.
This was occasioned by the omission of the governor to
apportion the requisition to the different regiments of militia
so as to obtain the proper number of troops and no more.
It seems but just to the patriotic citizens who repaired to
the general rendezvous under circumstances authorizing
them to believe that their services were needed and would
be accepted that the expenses incurred by them while
absent from their homes should be paid by the government.
I accordingly recommend that a law to this effect be passed
by Congress, giving them a compensation which will cover
their expenses on the march to and from the place of
rendezvous and while there; in connection with which
it will also be proper to make provision for such other
equitable claims growing out of the service of the
militia as may not be embraced in the existing laws.
On the unexpected breaking out of hostilities in Florida,
Alabama, and Georgia it became necessary in some
cases to take the property of individuals for public use.
Provision should be made by law for indemnifying
the owners; and I would also respectfully suggest
whether some provision may not be made,
consistently with the principles of our government,
for the relief of the sufferers by Indian depredations
or by the operations of our own troops.
No time was lost after the making of the requisite
appropriations in resuming the great national work of
completing the unfinished fortifications on our sea-board
and of placing them in a proper state of defense.
In consequence, however, of the very late day at which
those bills were passed, but little progress could be
made during the season which has just closed.
A very large amount of the moneys granted at your
last session accordingly remains unexpended;
but as the work will be again resumed at the earliest
moment in the coming spring, the balance of the existing
appropriations, and in several cases which will be laid
before you, with the proper estimates, further sums for the
like objects, may be usefully expended during the next year.
The recommendations of an increase in the Engineer
Corps and for a reorganization of the Topographical Corps,
submitted to you in my last annual message,
derive additional strength from the great embarrassments
experienced during the present year in those branches
of the service, and under which they are now suffering.
Several of the most important surveys and constructions
directed by recent laws have been suspended in
consequence of the want of adequate force in these corps.
The like observations may be applied to the Ordnance
Corps and to the general staff, the operations of which
as they are now organized must either be frequently
interrupted or performed by officers taken from the line
of the Army, to the great prejudice of the service.
For a general view of the condition of the military
academy and of other branches of the military service
not already noticed, as well as for further illustrations
of those which have been mentioned, I refer you
to the accompanying documents, and among the
various proposals contained therein for legislative
action I would particularly notice the suggestion
of the Secretary of War for the revision of the
pay of the Army as entitled to your favorable regard.
The national policy, founded alike in interest and
in humanity, so long and so steadily pursued by this
government for the removal of the Indian tribes originally
settled on this side of the Mississippi to the West of that
river, may be said to have been consummated by the
conclusion of the late treaty with the Cherokees.
The measures taken in the execution of that treaty
and in relation to our Indian affairs generally will
fully appear by referring to the accompanying papers.
Without dwelling on the numerous and important topics
embraced in them, I again invite your attention to the
importance of providing a well-digested and comprehensive
system for the protection, supervision, and improvement
of the various tribes now planted in the Indian country.
The suggestions submitted by the Commissioner
of Indian Affairs, and enforced by the Secretary,
on this subject, and also in regard to the establishment
of additional military posts in the Indian country,
are entitled to your profound consideration.
Both measures are necessary, for the double purpose
of protecting the Indians from intestine war, and in other
respects complying with our engagements with them,
and of securing our western frontier against incursions
which otherwise will assuredly be made on it.
The best hopes of humanity in regard to the aboriginal race,
the welfare of our rapidly extending settlements,
and the honor of the United States are all deeply
involved in the relations existing between this
government and the emigrating tribes.
I trust, therefore, that the various matters submitted
in the accompanying documents in respect to those
relations will receive your early and mature deliberation,
and that it may issue in the adoption of legislative
measures adapted to the circumstances
and duties of the present crisis.
You are referred to the report of the Secretary of the
Navy for a satisfactory view of the operations of the
department under his charge during the present year.
In the construction of vessels at the different
navy yards and in the employment of our ships
and squadrons at sea that branch of the service
has been actively and usefully employed.
While the situation of our commercial interests
in the West Indies required a greater number than
usual of armed vessels to be kept on that station,
it is gratifying to perceive that the protection
due to our commerce in other quarters
of the world has not proved insufficient.
Every effort has been made to facilitate the equipment
of the exploring expedition authorized by the act
of the last session, but all the preparation necessary
to enable it to sail has not yet been completed.
No means will be spared by the government to fit out
the expedition on a scale corresponding with the liberal
appropriations for the purpose and with the elevated
character of the objects which are to be effected by it.
I beg leave to renew the recommendation made
in my last annual message respecting the enlistment
of boys in our naval service, and to urge upon your
attention the necessity of further appropriations to
increase the number of ships afloat and to enlarge
generally the capacity and force of the Navy.
The increase of our commerce and our position
in regard to the other powers of the world will
always make it our policy and interest to cherish
the great naval resources of our country.
The report of the Postmaster General presents a gratifying
picture of the condition of the Post Office Department.
Its revenues for the year ending the 30th June last
were $3,398,455.19, showing an increase of revenue
over that of the preceding year of $404,878.53,
or more than 13 percent.
The expenditures for the same year were $2,755,623.76,
exhibiting a surplus of $642,831.43.
The department has been redeemed from
embarrassment and debt, has accumulated
a surplus exceeding half a million dollars,
has largely extended and is preparing still
further to extend the mail service, and recommends
a reduction of postages equal to about 20 percent.
It is practicing upon the great principle which
should control every branch of our government
of rendering to the public the greatest good possible
with the least possible taxation to the people.
The scale of postages suggested by the
Postmaster General recommends itself,
not only by the reduction it proposes,
but by the simplicity of its arrangement,
its conformity with the federal currency,
and the improvement it will introduce into
the accounts of the department and its agents.
Your particular attention is invited to the subject
of mail contracts with railroad companies.
The present laws providing for the making of contracts
are based upon the presumption that competition among
bidders will secure the service at a fair price;
but on most of the railroad lines there is
no competition in that kind of transportation,
and advertising is therefore useless.
No contract can now be made with them except such as
shall be negotiated before the time of offering or afterwards,
and the power of the Postmaster General to pay them
high prices is practically without limitation.
It would be a relief to him and no doubt would conduce
to the public interest to prescribe by law some equitable
basis upon which such contracts shall rest,
and restrict him by a fixed rule of allowance.
Under a liberal act of that sort he would undoubtedly be able
to secure the services of most of the railroad companies,
and the interest of the department would be thus advanced.
The correspondence between the people of the
United States and the European nations, and particularly
with the British Islands, has become very extensive, and
requires the interposition of Congress to give it security.
No obstacle is perceived to an interchange of mails
between New York and Liverpool or other foreign ports,
as proposed by the Postmaster General.
On the contrary, it promises, by the security it will afford,
to facilitate commercial transactions and give rise to an
enlarged intercourse among the people of different nations,
which cannot but have a happy effect.
Through the city of New York most of the correspondence
between the Canadas and Europe is now carried on,
and urgent representations have been received from the
head of the provincial post office asking the interposition
of the United States to guard it from the accidents
and losses to which it is now subjected.
Some legislation appears to be called for as well by our
own interest as by comity to the adjoining British provinces.
The expediency of providing a fire-proof building
for the important books and papers of the
Post Office Department is worthy of consideration.
In the present condition of our Treasury
it is neither necessary nor wise to leave essential
public interests exposed to so much danger
when they can so readily be made secure.
There are weighty considerations in the location
of a new building for that department in favor
of placing it near the other executive buildings.
The important subjects of a survey of the coast
and the manufacture of a standard of weights and measures
for the different custom houses have been in progress
for some years under the general direction of the
executive and the immediate superintendence of
a gentleman possessing high scientific attainments.
At the last session of Congress the making of a set
of weights and measures for each state in the union
was added to the others by a joint resolution.
The care and correspondence as to all
these subjects have been devolved on the
Treasury Department during the last year.
A special report from the Secretary of the Treasury
will soon be communicated to Congress, which will
show what has been accomplished as to the whole,
the number and compensation of the persons now employed
in these duties, and the progress expected to be made
during the ensuing year, with a copy of the various
correspondence deemed necessary to throw light on
the subjects which seem to require additional legislation.
Claims have been made for retrospective allowances in
behalf of the superintendent and some of his assistants,
which I did not feel justified in granting.
Other claims have been made for large increases
in compensation, which, under the circumstances
of the several cases, I declined making
without the express sanction of Congress.
In order to obtain that sanction the subject was
at the last session, on my suggestion and by request
of the immediate superintendent, submitted by the
Treasury Department to the Committee on
Commerce of the House of Representatives.
But no legislative action having taken place, the early
attention of Congress is now invited to the enactment of
some express and detailed provisions in relation to the
various claims made for the past, and to the compensation
and allowances deemed proper for the future.
It is further respectfully recommended that, such being
the inconvenience of attention to these duties by the
Chief Magistrate, and such the great pressure of business
on the Treasury Department, the general supervision of
the coast survey and the completion of the weights and
measures, if the works are kept united, should be devolved
on a board of officers organized specially for that purpose,
or on the Navy Board attached to the Navy Department.
All my experience and reflection confirm the conviction
I have so often expressed to Congress in favor of an
amendment of the Constitution which will prevent in any
event the election of the President and Vice President
of the United States devolving on the
House of Representatives and the Senate,
and I therefore beg leave again to solicit
your attention to the subject.
There were various other suggestions in my last annual
message not acted upon, particularly that relating to the
want of uniformity in the laws of the District of Columbia,
that are deemed worthy of your favorable consideration.
Before concluding this paper I think it due to the
various executive departments to bear testimony
to their prosperous condition and to the ability
and integrity with which they have been conducted.
It has been my aim to enforce in all of them a vigilant
and faithful discharge of the public business,
and it is gratifying to me to believe that there is
no just cause of complaint from any quarter at the manner
in which they have fulfilled the objects of their creation.
Having now finished the observations deemed proper
on this the last occasion I shall have of communicating
with the two Houses of Congress at their meeting,
I cannot omit an expression of the gratitude which is due
to the great body of my fellow citizens, in whose partiality
and indulgence I have found encouragement and support
in the many difficult and trying scenes through which
it has been my lot to pass during my public career.
Though deeply sensible that my exertions have not been
crowned with a success corresponding to the degree
of favor bestowed upon me, I am sure that they will be
considered as having been directed by an earnest desire
to promote the good of my country, and I am consoled
by the persuasion that whatever errors have been
committed will find a corrective in the intelligence
and patriotism of those who will succeed us.
All that has occurred during my administration is
calculated to inspire me with increased confidence
in the stability of our institutions; and should I be spared to
enter upon that retirement which is so suitable to my age
and infirm health and so much desired by me in other
respects, I shall not cease to invoke that beneficent Being
to whose providence we are already so signally indebted for
the continuance of His blessings on our beloved country.6
Notes
1. Correspondence of Andrew Jackson Volume V 1833-1838
ed. John Spencer Bassett, p. 420-421.
2. Arguing About Slavery by William Lee Miller, p. 206.
3. Register of Debates, 24th Congress, 1st session, House, 4041-47
quoted in Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H. W. Brands, p. 524.
4. Arguing About Slavery by William Lee Miller, p. 207-208.
5. Messages and Papers of the Presidents 1789-1908, Volume III,
ed. James D. Richardson, p. 274, 275.
6. Ibid., p. 236-260.
Andrew Jackson to 1812
Andrew Jackson & Wars 1813-15
Andrew Jackson & Indian Wars 1816-20
Andrew Jackson 1821-24
Andrew Jackson 1825-28
President Jackson in 1829
President Jackson & Indians 1829-36
President Jackson in 1830
President Jackson in 1831
Jackson’s Veto & Banks in 1832
President Jackson in 1833
President Jackson in 1834
President Jackson in 1835
President Jackson in 1836
Andrew Jackson 1837-45
Andrew Jackson Summary & Evaluation
This work has not yet been published as a book;
all the chapters are free in this website.