President in the whole United States, in 1832. The "Globe" dragooned the whole Jackson party into the support of Van Buren, not without considerable trouble. The convention adopted an address prepared by Kendall, containing a review of Jackson's first administration.1

May 7, 1832, a national republican convention of young men met in Washington. William Cost Johnson was president. The convention ratified the nominations of Clay and Sergeant, and passed a series of resolutions in favor of tariff and internal improvements, and approving the rejection of Van Buren's nomination as minister to England.2

During the spring and summer Biddle took quarters in Washington, from which he directed the congressional campaign on behalf of the recharter. He was then at the zenith of his power and fame, and enjoyed real renown in Europe and America. He and Jackson were pitted against each other personally. Biddle, however, put a letter in Livingston's hands, stating that he would accept any charter to which Jackson would consent. Jackson never fought for compromises, and nothing was heard of this letter. Jackson drew up a queer plan of a "bank," which he thought constitutional and suitable, but it remained in his

1 Kendall's Autobiography, 296.

3 Livingston was on the side of the Bank.

253.

2 42 Niles, 206, 236.

Hunt's Livingston,

4 Ingersoll, 268. On the same page it is said that Biddle was talked of for President of the United States.

drawer.

The anti-Bank men affirmed that Biddle

was corrupting Congress.

The charter passed the Senate June 11th, 28 to 20, and the House, July 3d, 107 to 85. It was sent to the President July 4th. The Senate voted to adjourn July 16th. It was a clever device of theirs to force Jackson to sign or veto by giving him more than ten days. They wanted to force him to a direct issue. It is not probable that there was room for his will to be any further stimulated by this kind of manoeuvring, but he never flinched from a direct issue, and the only effect was to put him where he would have risked his reëlection and everything else on a defiant reply to the challenge offered. Niles says 2 that, a week before the bill passed, the best informed were as six to half a dozen," whether the bill, if passed, would be vetoed, but that, for the two or three days before the bill was sent up, a veto was confidently expected. The veto was sent in, July 10th. The reasons given for it were: (1) The Bank would have a monopoly for which the bonus was no equivalent... (2) One fifth of the stockholders were foreigners. Banks were to be allowed to pay the Bank of the United States in branch drafts, which individuals could not do. (4) The States were allowed to tax the stock of the Bank owned by their citizens, which would cause the stock to go out of the country.

1 Ingersoll, 283.

3

66

2 42 Niles, 337.

(3)

3 Congress has chartered national banks as follows: 1791, 1815 (vetoed), 1816, 1832 (vetoed), 1841, two bills, both vetoed, 1863.

(5) The few stockholders here would then control it. (6) The charter was unconstitutional. (7) The business of the Bank would be exempt from taxation. (8) There were strong suspicions of mismanagement in the Bank. (9) The President could have given a better plan. would increase the distinction poor.

(10) The Bank between rich and

The bill was voted upon again in the Senate July 13th, yeas 22, nays 19. The veto therefore remained in force; and if the Bank was to continue to exist Jackson must be defeated. The local bank interest, however, had now been aroused to the great gain it would make if the Bank of the United States should be overthrown. The Jackson party thereby won the adhesion of an important faction. The safety-fund banks of New York were bound into a solid phalanx by their system, and they constituted a great political power. The chief crime alleged against the Bank of the United States was meddling with polities. The safety-fund banks of New York were an active political power organized under Van Buren's control, and they went into this election animated by the hope of a share in the deposits. The great Bank also distributed pamphlets and subsidized newspapers, fighting for its .existence. The Jackson men always denounced this action of the Bank of the United States as corrupt, and as proof of the truth of Jackson's charges.

Jackson got 219 electoral votes; Clay, 49; Floyd, 11, from South Carolina, the nullification

ticket; Wirt, 7, from Vermont. There were two vacancies — in Maryland. Clay carried Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, and Kentucky, and five votes in Maryland. For Vice-President Van Buren got 189. Pennsylvania would not vote for him. She gave her 30 votes to William Wilkins. Sergeant got 49 votes; Henry Lee, of Massachusetts, 11, from South Carolina; Ellmaker, 7. At this election South Carolina alone threw her vote by her Legislature. The popular vote was 707,217 for Jackson; 328,561 for Clay; 254,720 for Wirt. Jackson's majority, in a total vote (excluding South Carolina) of 1,290,498, was 123,936. In Alabama there was no anti-Jackson ticket.

CHAPTER X

TARIFF, NULLIFICATION, AND THE BANK DURING JACKSON'S SECOND ADMINISTRATION

GENERAL JACKSON now advanced to another development of his political philosophy and his political art. No government which has felt itself strong has ever had the self-control to practise faithfully the non-interference theory. A popular idol at the head of a democratic republic is one of the last political organs to do so. The belief in himself is of course for him a natural product of the situation, and he is quite ready to believe, as he is constantly told, that he can make the people happy, and can "save the country" from evil and designing persons, namely, those who do not join the chorus of adulation. A President of the United States, under existing social and economic circumstances, has no chance whatever to play the rôle of Cæsar or Napoleon, but he may practise the methods of personal government within the limits of the situation. Jackson held that his reëlection was a triumphant vindication of him in all the points in which he had been engaged in controversy with anybody, and a kind of charter to him, as representative, or rather tribune, of the