Chapter Three: ANDREW JACKSON: THE LAST ANTI- ELITIST PRESIDENT: The Federal Reserve Conspiracy by Antony Sutton from archive.org

Chapter Three: 

ANDREW JACKSON: THE LAST ANTI- 
ELITIST PRESIDENT 



The original charter for the Second Bank of the United 
States was limited in time, unlike the present Federal Reserve 
System. A new charter for the (Second) Bank of the United States 
to replace the expiring grant was passed by Congress in July 
1832, and President Andrew Jackson promptly vetoed the charter, 
with an emphatic message of major historical interest. 

According to modern academic opinion the Jackson veto is 
"legalistic, demagogic and full of sham." (1) In fact, on reading the 
message today Andrew Jackson was clearly prophetic in his 
warnings and arguments to the American people. In the first 
inaugural address in January 1832, Jackson stated his position on 
the bank and renewal of the charter: 

As the Charter of the Bank of the United States will 
expire in 1836, and its stockholders will most probably apply 
for a renewal of their privileges; in order to avoid the evils 
resulting from precipitancy in a measure involving such 
important principles and such deep pecuniary interests, I feel 
that I cannot in justice to our constituents and to the parties 
interested too soon present it to the 



17 



The Federal Reserve Conspiracy 

deliberate consideration of the Legislature and the people. 

The constitutionality of this law has been well 
questioned.. .because it grants to those who hold stock exclusive 
privileges of a dangerous tendency. Its expediency is denied by a 
large portion of our citizens. ..and it is believed none will deny that 
it has failed in the great end of our establishing a uniform and 
sound currency throughout the United States. (2) 

Andrew Jackson's personal view on the Second Bank of the 
United States is contained in a memorandum in Jackson's own 
handwriting written in January, 1832. (3) 

The opinion shows how far present constitutional interpretation 
has diverged from the intent of our founding fathers. Jackson's opening 
argument is that all "sovereign power is in the people and the states," 
and then argues that in cases, such as the power to grant corporations, 
where the power is not expressly given to the general (Federal) 
government, then "no sovereign power not expressly granted can be 
exercised, by implication." The key is "implied power." There are no 
implied powers in the Constitution. 

Jackson goes on to argue that it may be possible for "necessity" to 
give power to grant charters to banks and corporations, but this must be 
a "positive necessity not a fained one." And then only within the ten 
mile square of Washington, DC itself does Congress have such 
sovereign power. Jackson argues as follows: 

It is inconsistent with any of the powers granted that our 
government should form a corporation and become a member of it. 
The founders were too well aware of the corrupting influence of a 
great moneyed monopoly upon government to legalize such a 
corrupting monster 



18 



Andrew Jackson: The Last Anti-Elitist President 

by any grant either expressed or implied in the Constitution. 

The extraordinary difficulty and massive political power that 
Jackson faced in fighting the "money monopoly" and its influence 
is shown in his letter to Hugh L. White, dated April 29, 1831 
(Vol. 4, page 271): 

The great principles of democracy which we have both 
at heart to see restored to the federal government cannot be 
accomplished unless by a united cabinet who labor to this 
end. The struggles against the rechartering of the United 
States Bank are to be met. The corrupting influence of the 
Bank upon the morals of the people and upon Congress are 
to be fearlessly met.... 

Many who you would not have supposed have secretly 
enlisted in its ranks and between bank men nullifiers and 
internal improvement men it is hard to get a cabinet who will 
unite with me heart and hand in the great task of democratic 
reform in the administration of our government. 

By 1833 the struggle over the rechartering of the Bank of the 
United States had degenerated into a conflict between Andrew 
Jackson and his secretary of the treasury, William J. Duane and 
ultimately led to dismissal of Duane. Jackson wanted to withdraw 
all government deposits from the private Bank of the United 
States while Duane refused to order removal of the deposits. 

In a letter dated June 26, 1833 (Vol. 5, page 111) Andrew 
Jackson expands on his demand for withdrawal of government 
deposits from the Bank of the United States, and proposes that 
one bank be selected in each of various cities to receive 
government deposits. State banks with good credit would be 
preferable to the concentration of 



19 



The Federal Reserve Conspiracy, 



government funds in one bank which was a private 
monopoly. 

The letter was accompanied by a paper explaining Jackson's 
views on possible government relations with the Bank of the 
United States and the future. Included was this straightforward 
statement: 

The framers (of our Constitution) were too well aware 
of the corrupting influences of a great moneyed monopoly 
upon government to legalize such a corrupting monster by 
any grant either express or implied in the constitution. 

Bank corporations are brokers on a large scale, and 
could it be really urged that the framers of the Constitution 
intended that our Government should become a Government 
of Brokers? If so, then the profits of the National Brokers 
Shop must enure to the benefit of the whole people, and not a 
few privileged moneyed capitalists, to the utter rejection of 
the many. 

The opinion recalled that in December 1831 Congress 
petitioned for a renewal of the bank charter and Jackson had 
vetoed the bill. As Jackson was then a candidate for reelection 
this in effect brought the veto directly before the electorate and in 
approving the president the public also condemned the bill as both 
"inexpedient and unconstitutional." 

In other words Jackson argued that his veto had already 
received public approval. Therefore, Jackson continued, "the duty 
of the bank was to wind up its concerns in such a manner that will 
produce the least pressure upon the money market." 

Jackson recalled the extraordinary and rapid increase of 
government debt to the bank which had grown by $28 



20 



Andrew Jackson: The Last Anti-Elitist President 

million or 66 percent in a period of 16 months. Jackson commented as 
follows: 

The motive of the enormous extension of loans can no longer 
be doubted. It was unquestionably to gain power in the country 
and force the government through the influence of the debtors to 
grant it a new charter. 

This must be the first and last statement from an American 
President declaring what many now suspect: that certain banks (but not 
all bankers) use debt as a political weapon for control. We cannot 
include all bankers because bankers in Catholic countries, for example, 
are forbidden on grounds of religion from using debt for control. This 
would amount to usury. 

Jackson goes on to outline the reasons for his wish to sever 
connections between the bank and the government: 

a leading objection is that the Bank of the United States has 
the power and in that event will have the disposition to crush the 
state banks particularly those which may be selected by the 
government as the depositories of its funds and thus cause wide 
spread distress and ruin throughout the United States. 

Then Jackson makes an argument strange to the ears of those 
reading in the 20th century: 

The only currency known to the Constitution of the United 
States is gold and silver. This is consequently the only currency 
which that instrument delegates to Congress the power to 
regulate. 

This suggests that Andrew Jackson would have considered the 
present Federal Reserve System, a private 



21 



The Federal Reserve Conspiracy 

bank-owned monopoly, to be unconstitutional and in fact "the money 
monster" in new form. 

President Andrew Jackson's final message on March 4, 1837 was 
unbelievably prophetic in its content - and the last time an American 
President was sufficiently independent of the elitist powers behind the 
scenes to publicly warn American citizens of the dangers to their 
freedoms and livelihood. Here is an extract from Jackson's final 
message to the American people: 

The distress and alarm which pervaded and agitated the 
whole country when the Bank of the United States waged war 
upon the people in order to compel them to submit to its demands 
cannot yet be forgotten. The ruthless and unsparing temper with 
which whole cities and communities were oppressed, individuals 
impoverished and ruined, and a scene of cheerful prosperity 
suddenly changed into one of gloom and despondency ought to be 
indelibly impressed on the memory of the people of the United 
States. 

If such was its power in a time of peace, what would it not 
have been in a season of war, with an enemy at your doors? No 
nation but the free men of the United States could have come out 
victorious from such a contest; yet, if you had not conquered, the 
government would have passed from the hands of the many to the 
few, and this organized money power, from its secret conclave, 
would have dictated the choice of your highest officials and 
compelled you to make peace or war, as best suited their own 
wishes. (6) 
Even while Jackson wrote this message to the American people 

our government had passed "from the hands of the many to the hands of 

the few." Moreover, the few "from its 



22 



Andrew Jackson: The Last Anti-Elitist President 

secret enclave" was already dictating political choices, boom and slump 
and war and peace. 

In the United States the Jacksonian Democrats, the Whig tradition 
in American politics, were the last remnant that knew and understood 
the power behind the scenes. Across the Atlantic in England the 
Cobdenites under Richard Cobden and John Bright tried to maintain a 
similar torch of individual freedom. They also failed. 

As Jackson wrote his last message, socialist manifestos were being 
weighed and put to paper. Not to improve the lot of the common man as 
they would have us believe, but as devices to gain political power for 
the elite. 



23 



The Federal Reserve Conspiracy 



Endnotes to Chapter Three 



(1) Bray Hammond, Banks and Politics in America, (Princeton 
University Press, Princeton, 1957) p. 405. It is noteworthy that 
Princeton, one of the Ivy League schools, is a scholastic base of 
the "establishment" and helps perpetuate this onesided historical 
interpretation. 

(2) James A. Hamilton, Reminiscences, p. 149. 

(3) John Spencer Bassett, ed., Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, 
(Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C., 1929-32) vol. 4, p. 389. 

(4) Ibid., p. 271. Jackson was not a skilled writer. He was a man of 
action and principle rather than a man of letters. However, his 
points are clearly there for those with eyes to read. 

(5) Ibid., p. 92. 

(6) Richardson's Messages, Vol. 4, p. 1523. 



24