The Age of Jackson and the Art of American Power, 1815-1848

10. The Spoils

128 10 The Spoils The Jackson cause is the cause of democracy and the people against a corrupt . . . aristocracy. Globe I tell you gentlemen, it’s all politics. Andrew Jackson Money is power. Andrew Jackson Among the worst mistakes a foe of Andrew Jackson could make was not to take him at his word. Jackson never hid his intention eventually to break the Bank of the United States by yanking out its federal deposits. Yet reasonable people had trouble believing that even Jackson would commit such a devastating economic and political act. When Senator Daniel Webster expressed his fear that the president would carry through his threat, second bank president Nicholas Biddle dismissed the notion. He “will not dare to remove them” because to do so “will be a declaration of war which cannot be recalled.”¹ After years of struggle between them, Biddle still misunderstood his nemesis. The Spoils 129 Jackson always spoiled for a fight whereby he could portray himself as championing all that was good and his enemies all that was evil. Of course, in doing so, he simply projected his own deep unresolved pathologies onto hated others. Previously, this reality had been lost on his followers, who always zealously backed him to the hilt no matter what. This time was different. His announcement that he would withdraw the bank’s federal deposits and spread them among “pet banks” at first provoked mostly embarrassed silence and throat clearing. Nearly all of his closest advisers were afraid of such a blatantly vindictive measure, which would most likely wreck the economy even as it reimbursed the president’s financial allies. James Hamilton gingerly suggested that the withdrawal might lead to a “great disturbance in commercial affairs.”² Vice President Martin Van Buren, Treasury Secretary Louis McLane, and Secretary of War Lewis Cass urged Jackson to postpone the removal at least until January 1834 so that Congress might be convinced to back the policy. Jackson curtly dismissed the notion. He knew that he could never muster majorities in both houses of Congress to support his scheme to destroy the bank. He derided the naysayers as “overawed by the power of the bank. It cannot overawe me. I trust in my God and the virtue of the People.”³ Jackson’s angry denunciations of any compromise cowed nearly all of his inner circle. Then there were Amos Kendall and Roger Taney, who egged him on. Jackson embarked Kendall on a trip around the country to identify allied banks to reward with financial chunks of the institution’s carcass. Kendall promised Jackson that he would “raise up powerful friends.”4 Jackson’s strongest congressional allies were Representative James Polk and Senator Thomas Hart Benton. In their respective chambers, they vilified the bank in one long impassioned speech after another and spearheaded official investigations into allegations of bank corruption. The investigations backfired when the reports not only cleared the institution and Biddle of any wrongdoing but lauded the bank’s efficiency, fairness, and profitability. This simply spurred Polk, Benton, and others to inject more venom and lies into their speeches. They insisted that Jackson alone could determine the fate of the monster bank’s deposits and simply denied the reality that its charter clearly charged Congress with this power. The Spoils 130 Jackson had hoped that Treasury Secretary McLane would be his hatchet man in destroying the bank. When McLane balked, Jackson transferred him to the unfilled secretary of state position on May 29; he then tapped William Duane to be the treasury secretary on June 1, 1833. The shake-up, however, did not resolve the impasse. Duane also refused on both legal and practical grounds Jackson’s request to loot the bank. Doing so would clearly violate the bank’s charter, and depositing the funds in the pet banks would wreck the economy. Jackson tried to break Duane to his will during several meetings and exchanges of letters from June through September. Finally, Jackson’s ever-brittle patience snapped. On September 20, 1833, he ordered Duane to transfer the deposits. When Duane stood fast, Jackson fired him three days later.5 Once again, Jackson racked up a first in American political history —no president had ever before fired a secretary for refusing to obey an order. That same day, the president named Roger Taney his new treasury secretary and replaced him as attorney general with Benjamin Butler, a New York lawyer and member...