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American History #61 - Economic Crisis Results as Jackson Aims to Shut Bank
American History #62 - Jackson's Victory Over the Bank of the US
American History #63 - Trouble Grows Deep in the Heart of Texas
American History #64 - Jackson, 'the People's Friend,' Leaves Office
American History #65 - Christmas in America During the 19th Century
American History #66 - New President Deals with Old Problems
American History #67 - US Gets a New President in 1837, and a Depression
American History #68 - The Rise of the Movement Against Slavery
American History #69 - Whigs See a Chance to Defeat Van Buren in 1840
American History #70 - The Brief Presidency of William Henry Harrison
61.THE MAKING OF A NATION - American History Series: Economic Crisis Results as Jackson Aims to Shut Bank
Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
Andrew Jackson was elected president in eighteen twenty-eight. He was popular with voters. But he was not sure he wanted to run for re-election in eighteen thirty-two. He was getting old. He suffered from health problems. Yet he wanted to give voters a chance to show their approval of his programs.
So Jackson made a decision. He would run again. If he won, however, he would resign after the first or second year. He would leave the job to his vice president.
Now, this week in our series, Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long continue the story of Andrew Jackson and his presidency.

Andrew Jackson
VOICE ONE:
President Jackson spoke of this plan to the man he wanted as his vice president, Martin Van Buren. He made the offer in eighteen thirty, when Van Buren was still his secretary of state. Van Buren thanked Jackson for the offer. However, he rejected it. Van Buren said it would be politically dangerous. He did not want anyone to say that he had been brought into the presidency in secret.
Jackson did not give up his idea. For more than a year, he continued to urge Van Buren to accept the offer. Van Buren continued to say no. He agreed to be Jackson's vice presidential candidate in eighteen thirty-two. But he said he did not want to become president without being elected by the people.
VOICE TWO:
As the election got closer, Jackson's health began to improve. He began to think about serving a second full term.
One thing that helped was an operation to remove a bullet from his arm. He had received the wound during a gun fight with another man about twenty years earlier. It troubled him so badly that sometimes he could not use the arm. Doctors were afraid to remove the bullet. They thought it might cause a terrible shock to his heart.
VOICE ONE:
Early in the election year, a doctor said he believed the bullet could be removed easily. He told the president that it was poisoning his whole body. Jackson asked the doctor to cut out the bullet at once. The operation was over in a few minutes. Jackson's health quickly became much better.
A funny little story was told about that bullet. Someone reportedly said Jackson should give it to the family of the man who shot him. One family member rejected the offer. He said Jackson had possessed the bullet for twenty years. So, he said, under the law, Jackson had clear ownership to it. "Only nineteen years," someone noted. "Oh," the man said, "that is all right. Since Jackson took good care of it, I will forget the extra year."
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Henry Clay
VOICE TWO:
The presidential election campaign of eighteen thirty-two was bitter. President Jackson was, once again, the candidate of the Democratic Party. Henry Clay was the candidate of the National Republican Party.
Clay had the support of Nicholas Biddle, who was head of the Bank of the United States. He also had the support of about two-thirds of the nation's newspapers. This was because most of them owed money to the bank. Most wealthy people supported Clay, too.
Farmers and laborers supported Jackson. They showed their support by marching in parades and holding big, noisy public meetings.
VOICE ONE:
On election day, the people showed that Jackson was still their president. There was a much bigger difference in popular votes between Jackson and Clay than between Jackson and John Quincy Adams four years earlier. As the votes were counted, one of Clay's supporters said: "The news blows over us like a great cold storm."
Jackson received about six hundred eighty-eight thousand popular votes. Clay received about four hundred seventy-three thousand votes. In the electoral college, Jackson got more than four times the number of votes than Clay got. Jackson's vice president would be Martin Van Buren.
VOICE TWO:
Andrew Jackson saw his re-election as proof that the American people approved of his policies. This included his policy to close the Bank of the United States when its charter ended in eighteen thirty-six.
During his second term, Jackson decided on a plan to reduce the bank's economic power. He would stop putting federal money into the bank. Instead, he would put it into state banks. This would greatly reduce the amount of money the Bank of the United States could use.
VOICE ONE:
The plan was not as easy as it seemed. The charter for the bank said federal money had to be kept there unless the secretary of the treasury ordered it put someplace else. President Jackson's treasury secretary was friendly to the bank. He would not give the order.
Jackson would have to dismiss the man and appoint someone who supported his plan. But the treasury secretary was a powerful politician. Jackson could not push him out of the job. He had to find another way. So he decided to reorganize his whole cabinet.
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VOICE TWO:
Jackson named his secretary of state to be minister to France. He named his treasury secretary to be secretary of state. Then he brought in someone new as secretary of the treasury. That turned out to be a mistake.
The new treasury secretary refused to put federal money anywhere but in the Bank of the United States. He also refused to resign when Jackson asked him to resign. So Jackson dismissed him and named yet another new treasury secretary.

Nicholas Biddle
VOICE ONE:
This man immediately ordered that after October first, eighteen thirty-three, all federal money was to be put into twenty-three state banks. He did not withdraw the government money already in the Bank of the United States. He said this money could be used to make payments until it was all gone.
Nicholas Biddle, the head of the bank, fought back. He ordered the immediate repayment of all bank loans. He also withdrew from public use large numbers of bank notes. People had been using the notes as money.
VOICE TWO:
These actions caused serious economic difficulties throughout the country. Many businesses failed. They could not pay back their loans or borrow the money they needed. As businesses failed, workers lost their jobs.
Nicholas Biddle said the Jackson administration was responsible for all the trouble. He said the bank was forced to take firm measures, because it was losing government money. He told people to protest to the administration. Critics of President Jackson's bank policy called him "King Andrew the First."
VOICE ONE:
Groups of businessmen called on the president at the White House. They urged him to put government money back into the bank. Jackson told one group: "I will never restore the money. I will never renew the charter of the Bank of the United States. If you want help, go to Nicholas Biddle. "
VOICE TWO:
The president's actions worried even some of his supporters. There could be serious long-term effects of closing the Bank of the United States. Some of his supporters in Congress went to see him. They warned him of reports that a mob was forming to march on Washington. They told him that the mob planned to seize the Capitol building until Congress returned government money to the bank.
"Gentlemen," Jackson said, "I will be glad to see this mob on Capitol Hill. I will hang its leaders high. That should stop forever all attempts to control Congress by force."
We will continue our story of Andrew Jackson's second term as president next week.
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ANNOUNCER:
Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Rich Kleinfeldt and Sarah Long.
Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our programs can be found along with historical images at . Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION, an American history series in VOA Special English.
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A half-hour of VOA Special English can be found every day, on radio or online. We start with the latest world news, followed by a short feature and then a fifteen-minute program. On Friday it's our magazine show AMERICAN MOSAIC. Then, on Saturday we present a different short story every week on our program AMERICAN STORIES. And on Sunday we bring you the life stories of famous and not-so-famous Americans on PEOPLE IN AMERICA.
62THE MAKING OF A NATION - American History Series: Jackson's Victory Over the Bank of the US
Welcome to the MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
The national election of eighteen thirty-two put Andrew Jackson in the White House for a second term as president. One of the major events of his second term was the fight against the Bank of the United States. Jackson believed that the bank had grown too powerful. He urged Congress not to renew the bank's charter to do business. He also stopped putting federal money into the Bank of the United States. Instead, he put the money into state banks.

Andrew Jackson
The head of the Bank of the United States was Nicholas Biddle. Biddle fought with all his power to keep the bank open. He created a financial panic and blamed it on President Jackson. Biddle did this by demanding immediate repayment of loans. Businesses struggled without the bank's financial assistance. Workers lost their jobs. President Jackson was warned that a mob could march on Washington. But nothing happened. Most of the battle against the Bank of the United States was fought in Congress.
Now, in this week's program in our series, we continue the story with Bob Doughty and Sarah Long.
VOICE ONE:
Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky led the support for the bank. Clay was head of the opposition political party, the National Republicans. Clay argued his case on the floor of the Senate for three days. He strongly urged the Senate to re-new the bank's charter. He said:
"The country is in the middle of a revolution ... not yet a bloody revolution. But things are happening that point to a total change of the pure republican character of our government. Power is being centered in the hands of one man." He meant President Jackson.
Clay added: "If Congress does not act, the government will fail. And we will all die as slaves." Clay then asked the Senate to condemn Jackson for violating the constitution and the nation's laws. The Senate approved the resolution.
VOICE TWO:
Things went better for Jackson in the House of Representatives. James Polk defended Jackson's opposition to the bank. Polk said: "The bank set itself up as a great, irresponsible, competing power of the government. If the bank wins this fight, no man afterwards can expect to be elected to high office in this country without first surrendering to the bank. The question is," Polk said, "if we shall have the republic without the bank or the bank without the republic."
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VOICE ONE:
As time passed, businessmen began to see that the Bank of the United States was being much tighter in its money policy than was necessary. They began to feel that it was Biddle -- not Jackson -- who was responsible for the serious economic situation in the country. Biddle took no responsibility for the financial crisis. He said:
"The relief must come from Congress, and Congress alone. The bank feels no need to right the wrongs caused by these miserable people. This president thinks he is to have his way with the bank. He is mistaken."

Nicholas Biddle
VOICE TWO:
Biddle then made a serious mistake. He asked the governor of Pennsylvania to make a speech to the state legislature--a speech supporting the bank.
At the same time, Biddle refused to lend the state of Pennsylvania three hundred-thousand dollars. The governor was furious. Instead of making a speech supporting the bank, he made one that sharply criticized it. The upper house of the Pennsylvania legislature agreed with the governor. Although Nicholas Biddle threatened all sorts of action, the upper house passed a resolution that Congress should not give the bank a new charter.
VOICE ONE:
Two days later, the governor of New York proposed that the state sell four or five million dollars of stock for loans to help state banks. The New York legislature approved selling even more.
This action would strengthen the state banks and help to break the power of the Bank of the United States. Nicholas Biddle began to see that the battle was lost. He started making more loans to businesses. The economic panic he had started slowly ended.

A Bank of the United States building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
VOICE TWO:
Jackson's victory over the Bank of the United States was clear. Biddle started to lose the support of many members of Congress. In the House of Representatives, James Polk proposed four resolutions on the bank. One said the bank should not get a new charter.
The second resolution said government money should not be deposited in the bank. The third said the government should continue to put its money in state banks. And the fourth proposed an investigation of the bank and the reasons for the economic panic in the country. All four of these anti-bank resolutions were approved.
VOICE ONE:
One of Biddle's assistants described the feelings of bank officials.
"This day," he said, "should be ripped from the history of our republic. The president of the United States has seized the public treasury in violation of the law of the land. And the representatives of the people have approved his action."
Jackson's words were shorter: "I have won a glorious triumph."
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VOICE TWO:
The other major event of Andrew Jackson's second term as president was the situation in Texas. In an agreement with Spain in eighteen nineteen, the United States had given up its claim to Texas. In exchange, Spain gave the United States all of Florida.
After Mexico won its independence from Spain in eighteen twenty-one, the United States tried to buy Texas. Mexico did not want to sell. When Andrew Jackson became president he, too, tried to buy Texas. Mexico still refused to sell.
VOICE ONE:
Texas was a rich land. But it was empty. Mexico decided to permit Americans to build colonies in Texas. Stephen Austin formed the first colony in eighteen twenty-two. Each farming family in his colony could have about eighty hectares of land.
Each family that wished to rai