rency." The rate of increase in their number during the four years equalled 53 per cent. The amount of their capital increased, in the same time, from $145,192,268 to $200,005,944, or at the rate of 37.7 per cent. Their circulation increased from $61,328,878 to $94,839,570, or at the rate of 54.6; their deposits, from $55,559,928 to $75,666,986, or at the rate of 36.2 per cent. The increase of their circulation, including notes and deposits, equalled 45.2 per cent. The preceding statements show the magnitude of the inflation which had taken place so early as Jan. 1, 1834. The period from 1830 to 1834 was distinguished by no remarkable advance in the industries or commerce of the country. It is not probable that any greater rate was required from 1830 to 1834 than from 1820 to 1830. At the rate of increase during the latter period, the number of Banks which would have been in operation on the 1st day of January, 1834, would have been 338; their share capital, $151,190,380; their note circulation, $70,330,348; their deposits, $63,404,856. The excess of increase in the number of the Banks equalled 168; of their capital, $48,815,664; of their note circulation, $24,509,222; of their deposits, $12,262,130. It will be seen that the excess of circulation was in great part made up of notes. The inflation must in a great measure have been caused by new Banks, which were set on foot mostly in small towns. The circulation of such necessarily consisted of notes.

The inflation, which began so soon as it was seen that the attack upon the Bank might succeed, became excessive in the early part of 1833. It was then in a condition to be greatly affected by any untoward event. This speedily came, in October of that year, in the order for the removal of the public moneys then held by the Bank, on deposit, to the amount of about $10,000,000. The transfer at that time of so large a sum from one institution to others could not have taken place without creating great disturbance, even had the act been a perfectly legal and proper one. As it was considered highly revolutionary as well as injurious, a great shock was given to public confidence, and great monetary stringency was the necessary result. People did not dare to lend, or Banks to discount, till matters assumed a more satisfactory shape. The act was strongly opposed by the best men of the President's own party. Both Mr. Van Buren and Mr. Wright believed it was ill-advised, and doubted its legality. Mr. Duane, then

Secretary of the Treasury, refused to execute the order of the President. He was removed, and his place filled by a more supple tool, who was in time further rewarded for his servility, by being made Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. This appointment was undoubtedly made in view of the reversal, should occasion offer, of the decisions of Judge Marshall affirming the constitutionality of the Bank; and of the establishment, by judicial authority, of the doctrines of Mr. Jefferson as to the nature of our government.

As great distress everywhere followed the removal of the deposits, delegation after delegation, representing the various interests of the country, waited upon the President, to state their condition, and solicit his favorable action. As the removal was his act, the distress complained of was in a measure charged upon him; and as he was influenced in all he had done by no higher motive than to gratify an old pique, or to revenge himself upon the Bank for having stood in the way of rewarding his partisans,' he could not conceive these delegations to

1 To find places for the hungry crew that followed in his train, General Jackson, soon after his accession, sought to procure the removal of Mr. Jeremiah Mason from the presidency of the branch Bank at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The charges made against Mr. Mason were that "small and safe loans had been refused to business men in Portsmouth, while at the same time large sums were located out of the State at greater risks." These charges were examined into by the parent Bank, and found to be utterly groundless. The evidence seemed entirely satisfactory to the Secretary of the Treasury. Not so to General Jackson he was determined upon revenge. Mason was an "old Federalist," for whom Isaac Hill, a famous New Hampshire politician holding an important office under government, and one of General Jackson's most trusted advisers, entertained the greatest hatred. He inflamed the mind of the President with artful representations that the action of the Bank in this matter was evidence of a great combination of capitalists, headed by the Bank, in opposition to him:

"That the reader," says Parton, " may see the movements of this gentleman," [Isaac Hill]" as they appeared to General Jackson, and that he may fully understand the process by which the administration were brought into collision with the parent Bank, I will present here a brief condensation of the papers and letters relating to the Portsmouth affair, in the order in which they were produced. The correspondence began in June, and ended in October. I believe myself warranted in the positive assertion, that this correspondence relating to the desired removal of Jeremiah Mason was the direct and real cause of the destruction of the Bank. If the Bank had been complaisant enough to remove a faithful servant, General Jackson, I am convinced, would never have opposed the rechartering of the institution." - Life of General Jackson, by James Parton, vol. iii. p. 260.

An earlier affront, undoubtedly, still rankled in General Jackson's bosom :"An incident," to quote further from Parton, "occurred during the stay of General Jackson at New Orleans, which was afterwards supposed to have made

JACKSON'S TREATMENT OF THE NEW YORK COMMITTEE. 525

be governed by any higher motives than his own. He regarded all presentations of the conditions of the country as insults to himself, and was prompt to repay them in kind. Among the delegations was one representing the bankers and merchants of New York, having upon it six thousand names, asking that the deposits might be restored. This delegation was headed by Mr. James G. King, of New York, - a man of the highest respectability and character, and of stately manners; whose consequence was not a little increased by being a son of the celebrated Rufus King, — one of the most honored in the catalogue of our great names. The following description of the reception with which this delegation met is taken from Parton's Life of Jackson:

"The adventures of one of these deputations, a friendly informant, who witnessed their interview with the President, enables me to relate. The petition of the New York merchants, bearing six thousand signatures, was intrusted to the care of a deputation of great bankers and great merchants, headed by Mr. James G. King. When these worthy gentlemen entered the office of the President, at the White House, they discovered him seated at a table writing, with a long pipe in his mouth, which rested on the table, and revealed the intensity of the President's interest in his work by the volumes of smoke which gushed from its blackened bowl.

"Excuse me a moment, gentlemen,' said the President, half rising, and bowing to the group. Have the goodness to be seated.' "In a few minutes he pushed back his paper, rose, and said, "Now, gentlemen, what is your pleasure with me?'

"The members of the deputation were introduced to the President by the gentleman whose recollections of the scene I am now recording. Mr. King then began, in his usual deliberate and dig

a lasting impression upon his mind, and to have been a remote cause of important events. He came into collision with the Bank of the United States. Desiring to take with him to Florida a sum of money, with which to defray the first expenses of organizing his government, he sent an aid-de-camp to the branch of the United States Bank at New Orleans to learn whether the Bank would advance ten or fifteen thousand dollars on a draft to be drawn by General Jackson upon the Department of State. The messenger returned with the reply, that the branch Bank had no authority to advance money upon drafts. The mother Bank, said the cashier, had expressly forbidden him to negotiate drafts. The aide-de-camp remonstrated, and pointed out the inconvenience that might result from the refusal; but the cashier was immovable, as he was bound to be." - Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. ii. p. 596.

Such were the causes, or rather the occasion, which led to General Jackson's famous war upon the Bank of the United States, which aroused the fiercest personal and political animosities, and which was so disastrous in its consequences to the whole nation. It could never have become such a potent element of strife, but from its relation to the great questions which concerned the nature and powers of the central government.

nified manner, to state the object of the interview; which was to inform the President of the embarrassment under which the merchants of New York were laboring, and to ask such relief as the executive alone was supposed to be able to afford. Mr. King had uttered only a few sentences of the address which he had meditated, when the president interrupted him with an irrelevant question: "Mr. King, you are the son of Rufus King, I believe?' "I am, sir,' was the reply.

"Whereupon the President broke into a harangue which astonished the grave and reverend seigniors to whom it was addressed. "Well, sir,' said the President, Rufus King was always a Federalist, and I suppose you take after him. Insolvent, do you say? What do you come to me for, then? Go to Nicholas Biddle. We have no money here, gentlemen. Biddle has all the money. has millions of specie in his vaults at this moment lying idle, and yet you come to me to save you from breaking. I tell you, gentlemen, it's all politics.'

He

He

"He continued to speak in a strain like this for fifteen minutes, denouncing Biddle and the Bank in the manner usual to him, and gradually working himself up to a high degree of excitement. laid down his pipe; he gesticulated wildly; he walked up and down the room; and finished by declaring, in respectful but unmistakable language, that his purpose was unchangeable, not to restore the deposits. He ceased at length. The deputation, correctly surmising that their mission was a failure, rose to retire, and were dismissed by the President with the utmost politeness. The gentleman who had introduced the deputation left the apartment with them; but was overtaken by a messenger, as he was descending the stairs, who informed him that the President wished him to return. He accordingly went back to the office, where he found the President exulting over the result of the interview. Oh! didn't I manage them well?' he exclaimed. The only object of the President in calling him back was to enjoy a chuckle with him over the scene that had transpired."1

Such was the manner in which were received delegations composed of the most distinguished and most honored citizens of the republic. Was it strange that other nations should regard our government with disgust and wonder, ignorant of the cause of such brutalities, and of the good which still existed and grew strong by their side?

As the stringency of 1833-34 was not followed by the suspension of specie payments, there was no lack of money so soon as confidence was in a measure restored. After a slight check, a spirit of speculation again seized upon the nation, the

1 Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. iii. pp. 549, 550.

strength of which was strikingly illustrated by the creation, in 1834, of 198 new Banks, whose aggregate capital equalled $31,144,393. The aggregate note circulation of the country increased, during the year, from $94,839,570 to $103,692,495; the deposits, from $75,666,986 to $83,180,365. All this was but a prelude to the mighty movement which was to follow. On the first day of January, 1836, the note circulation of the Banks had reached $140,301,038, and their deposits $115,104,440; making the total increase of circulation $68,632,618 in a single year, the rate of increase for the year equalling 36.6 per cent. The inflation continued, although with less force, during the following year. On the first day of January, 1837, the number of Banks had increased to 788; their paidup share capital, to $290,772,091; their note circulation, to $149,185,890; their deposits, to $127,397,185: making the total circulation $276,583,075, against $116,888,826 in 1830, -the rate of increase in the seven years equalling 136.6 per cent.

The result of this enormous increase of paper money was an extravagance of expenditure never before seen in this country; nor in any other, with the exception of England during the existence of the South Sea Bubble, and of France during that of the Mississippi Scheme. There were, literally, not sufficient objects of expenditure within reach of the people. To provide them, vast importations of foreign goods were made; the amount of these increasing from $108,118,310, in 1833, to $189,980,035, in 1836. After speculation had raised the price of all kinds of merchandise to an extraordinary pitch, it was turned toward landed property, which, throughout the whole country, was carried to prices often exceeding many times its value. There was at the time one great holder of this kind of property, the United States, which continued to sell at the old rate of $1.25 the acre. Here seemed to be opened an inexhaustible mine. All that had to be done to realize immediate wealth was to buy at this rate, and sell at prices five or ten fold greater. The consequence was that the sales of land rose from 3,856,227 acres, realizing the sum of $4,972,284, in 1833, to 20,074,870, realizing $25,167,833, in 1836. The receipts from the public lands in 1835 and 1836 equalled the sum of $41,167,637. These immense sales were apparently the only thing that attracted the attention or the apprehensions