Chapter
Three: ANDREW JACKSON: THE LAST ANTI- ELITIST PRESIDENT: The Federal Reserve
Conspiracy by Antony C. 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 Chapter Four: ROOSEVELT'S SOCIALIST MANIFESTO
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