Bank War - Veto

Veto

Jackson vetoed the legislation on July 10, 1832, delivering a carefully crafted message to Congress - and the American people. One of the most "popular and effective documents in American political history", Jackson outlined a major readjustment to the relative powers of the government branches.

The executive branch, Jackson averred, when acting in the interests of the American people; was not bound to defer to the decisions of the Supreme Court, nor to comply with legislation passed by Congress. Further, executive power was no longer limited to suppressing clear violations of the Constitution – it could be asserted on social, political or economic grounds. Jackson characterized the BUS as merely an agent of the executive branch, acting through the Department of the Treasury. As such, declared Jackson, Congress was obligated to consult the chief executive before initiating legislation affecting the Bank. Jackson had claimed, in essence, legislative power as president. Ignoring the Second Bank of the United States’ value in stabilizing the country’s finances Jackson message provided no concrete proposals for an alternate institution that would regulate currency and prevent over-speculation – the primary purposes of the BUS.

Polemically, the veto message was “a brilliant political manifesto” that called for the end of monied power in the financial sector and a leveling of opportunity under the protection of the executive branch. Jackson perfected his anti-Bank themes, pitting the idealized “plain republican” and the “real people” – virtuous, industrious and free - against a powerful financial institution – the “monster” Bankwhose wealth was purportedly derived from privileges bestowed by corrupt political and business elites. To those who believed that power and wealth should be linked, the message was unsettling. Daniel Webster charged Jackson with promoting class warfare.

In presenting his economic program Jackson was compelled to obscure the fundamental incompatibility of the hard-money and easy credit wings of his party. On one side were Old Republican idealists who took a principled stand against all paper credit in favor of metallic money. Yet the bulk of Jackson’s supporters came from easy lending regions that welcomed banks and finance, as long as local control prevailed. By diverting both groups in a campaign against the central bank in Philadelphia Jackson cloaked his own hard-money predilections, which, if adopted, would be as fatal to the inflation favoring Jacksonians as the BUS was purported to be.

Too late, Clay “realized the impasse into which he had maneuvered himself, and made every effort to override the veto.” The pro-Bank interests failed to muster a supermajority - achieving only a simple majority of 22-19 in the Senate and on July 13, 1832, the veto was sustained.