were repealed. The acts of the new court were treated as null. The new court seized the records, and held them by military force. Civil war was avoided only by the moderation of the old court party. The Legislature repealed the law constituting the new court, but the Governor vetoed the repeal.1 It was passed over his veto, December 30, 1826. By resignations and new appointments among the judges, the court was reconstituted as a single anti-relief body in the years 1828-29.

In 1827 the currency of the States in the Mississippi Valley was fairly good. There remained only $800,000 of Commonwealth paper out, and this was merchandise, not currency.2 The bank held notes of individuals to the amount of one and a half millions, and real estate worth $30,592. Hence there was due to it a balance from the public, after all its notes should be paid in, of $600,000. Its debtors had this to pay in specie or its equivalent, or else the bank would get their property. This sum, therefore, fairly represents the net final swindle which the relief system perpetrated on its dupes, to say nothing of its effects on creditors and on the general prosperity of the State. The bank never had over $7,000 capital even spent upon it. Its total issue of bits of paper was printed with the denomination dollars up to three millions. By this issue it had won $600,000 worth of real property, or twenty per cent in five years. Who got this gain? It seems that there

1 31 Niles, 310.

2 32 Niles, 37.

must have been private and personal interests at stake to account for the rage which was excited by the decisions which touched this bank, and by the intensity of friendship for it which was manifested by a leading political clique. Undoubtedly the interest was that of the clique of politicians who got lucrative offices, power, and influence through the bank. Wherever a Bank of the State was set up, the development of such a clique, with all the attendant corruptions and abuses, took place.

In 1828 the parties were still relief and antirelief, the former for Jackson, the latter for Adams. The ideas, however, had changed somewhat. A "relief" man, in 1828, meant a State rights man and strict constructionist, who wanted to put bounds to the supposed encroachments of the federal power, especially the judiciary, and indeed to the constitutional functions of the judiciary in general. Metcalf, the anti-relief candidate for Governor, in 1828, defeated Barry, the relief candidate, after a very hard fight,1 but the State gave 7,912 majority for Jackson.

Two later decisions of the Supreme Court may here be mentioned, because they carried forward the same constitutional tendency which has been described. They were connected with the political movements which have been mentioned, and with those which came later.

In Bank of the Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. Wister et al. (1829),2 it was held that the 2 2 Peters, 318.

1 Collins, 93.

bank must pay specie on demand in return for a deposit which had been made with it of its own notes, although these notes were, when deposited, worth only fifty cents on the dollar. It had been provided in the act establishing the bank that it should pay specie. The bank tried to plead the non-suability of a State, but it was held that, if the State was sole owner and issued as a sovereign, it would be non-suable. Then, however, the notes Iwould be bills of credit. If the State issued as a banker, not a sovereign, then it was suable under the decision in the case of the Planter's Bank of Georgia. In Craig vs. Missouri (1830),1 a law of Missouri (1821) establishing loan offices to loan State currency issues on mortgages was declared unconstitutional as to the notes issued, which were bills of credit. In this decision bills of credit were defined.

1 4 Peters, 410.

CHAPTER VII

INTERNAL HISTORY OF JACKSON'S FIRST ADMIN

ISTRATION

JACKSON came to power as the standard-bearer of a new upheaval of democracy, and under a profession of new and fuller realization of the Jeffersonian democratic-republican principles. The causes of the new strength of democracy were economic. It gained strength every year. Everything in the situation of the country favored it. The cotton culture advanced with great rapidity, and led to a rapid settlement of the Southwestern States. The Ohio States filled up with a very strong population. Steamboats came into common use, and they had a value for this country, with its poor roads, but grand rivers, bays, sounds, and lakes, such as they had for no other country. Railroads began to be built just after Jackson's election. The accumulation of capital in the country was not yet great. It was inadequate for the chances which were offered by the opening up of the continent. Hence the industrial organization did not take the form of a wages organization. Individuals, however, found the chances of very free and independent activity, which easily pro

duced a simple abundance. The conditions were such as to give to each a sense of room and power. Individual energy and enterprise were greatly favored. Of course, the effect on the character of the people was certain. They became bold, independent, energetic, and enterprising. They were versatile, and adapted themselves easily to circumstances. They were not disturbed in an emergency; and they were shrewd in dealing with difficulties of every kind. The State constitutions became more and more purely democratic, under the influence of this character of the people. Social usages threw off all the forms which had been inherited from colonial days. The tone of mind was developed which now marks the true, unspoiled American, as distinguished from all Europeans, although it has scarcely been noticed by the critics. who have compared the two; namely, the tone of mind which has no understanding at all of the notion that A could demean himself by talking to B, or that B could be raised in his own estimation or that of other people by being spoken to by A, no matter who A and B might be. Ceremonies, titles, forms of courtesy and etiquette, were distasteful. Niles did not like it that members of Congress were called "honorable.” 1 He criticised diplomatic usages. He devoted a paragraph to denunciation of a fashionable marriage in Boston, which took place in King's (!) Chapel, and at which the people cheered the groom. He objected to the

1 37 Niles, 378.