“he decreed that all the vast amount of currencies issued by banks in the US had to be backed with gold and silver.”
Andrew Jackson is my Hero.
It’s not that he did that, its under what circumstances and how he did it.
As background, when the plan was made to build the Erie canal, bonds were issued. Since most people could not directly purchase bonds, they did so through their banks, that used US dollars to buy bonds, then printed their own money based to some extent on the specie they kept in reserve.
And the Erie canal was a huge success. Done before schedule and at much less cost, soon commerce was booming, and everyone who bought bonds made a tidy profit. Everybody won.
But then five other states wanted to build their own canal system, all of which depended on connecting the Ohio River to the Great Lakes. Unfortunately the surveying was wrong, and such canal systems would not work. Not knowing this, they issued a huge number of *state-backed* bonds.
Vast numbers of people cashed in their specie and their US dollars to buy such bonds. But with as much specie as they brought to their local banks, as well as US dollars, it was only a fraction of the amount of currency they had to issue for their local economy to function.
First the bonds collapsed when the canal projects failed. And right then, Jackson issued his specie circular. Had he not done so, right then, the crisis could have been deflated. But overnight, this wiped out thousands of banks, and the savings of all the people invested with them.
And the whole mess was dumped on the states, who had no choice but to cancel the bonds, which even to this day they never paid off.
So vast numbers of people not only lost any specie they had, but also US dollars, and any investments they had in bonds.
As far as Jackson goes, he *did not* do this out of any belief that currency should be backed by specie, but purely out of revenge and hatred at the “big city bankers” he despised with a passion.
So not really substantially different from Van Jones, Clover and Piven and their ilk today. Willing to harm millions of innocent people just so they can lash out at those they hate.