Posted on 08/24/2020 6:44:58 AM PDT by SJackson
And just as is the case today, that President had to kill it, or it would kill him.
The far-Left rioters who attempted to topple the statue of Andrew Jackson in Washington, DC’s Lafayette Square several weeks almost certainly know nothing whatsoever about him. What they were told in the Antifa indoctrination camps that are called higher education these days is that he was largely responsible for the forcible exile of Native Americans from the Eastern United States, the Trail of Tears, and is thus to be reviled and hated forever. What they were not told is something that may have made them hate him even more: Andrew Jackson was responsible for destroying the first deep state cabal of shadowy, unelected powerbrokers in American history.
As Rating America’s Presidents: An America-First Look at Who Is Best, Who Is Overrated, and Who Was An Absolute Disaster explains, President Jackson took on that cabal, which centered around the Bank of the United States, because of its unaccountability and influence over the electoral process. The Bank was a private corporation that kept the public treasury; its advocates contended that it was necessary to put the nation’s finances in order; its foes, the foremost of whom was Jackson, argued that it was an unconstitutional power grab by the federal government. It was dangerous, then as now, to turn power over the public funds to an oligarchy of private financiers; the possibility for corruption, and for a de facto second government developed by buying favors until large enough to challenge the government of the United States, was immense.
Jackson called the Bank of the United States a “monster,” and denounced its “power and corruption.” He charged it with interfering in the political process and bribing elected officials and journalists with “loans” so that they would do its bidding. There was ample evidence for this. The New York Courier and Enquirer, which up until the 1832 election had opposed the Bank, received a substantial loan from it and suddenly became a vocal supporter of rechartering the Bank. The pro-Jackson Washington Globe accused pro-Bank senators George Poindexter of Mississippi and Josiah Johnston of Louisiana of accepting enormous bribes in return for their support of the Bank, and indeed, Poindexter had received from the Bank a $10,000 loan ($300,000 today) and Johnston one of $36,000 (over $1 million today). These were by no means the only loans the Bank gave to politicians.
Jackson warned that if the Bank, a “mere monied corporation,” could use its money to buy politicians, “then nothing remains of our boasted freedom except the skin of the immolated victim.” He told his close friend and advisor Martin Van Buren: “The Bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!”
He did. The Bank’s charter, the document that gave it the United States government’s permission to exist, didn’t expire until 1836, but in early 1832, the president of the Bank, Nicholas Biddle, applied for a new charter. His sole reason for doing this was to force Jackson to refuse to recharter the Bank; Biddle assumed that Jackson’s opposition to the Bank would be unpopular and lead to his defeat in the upcoming election, and so he wanted to make sure the president committed publicly to this opposition during the campaign season.
Jackson duly vetoed a bill for rechartering the Bank in July 1832, whereupon Biddle poured massive amounts of money into the campaign of Jackson’s opponent, Henry Clay. Clay campaigned on the issue of the Bank, but this issue did not prove as popular as he and Biddle had hoped. The American people saw Jackson as their champion against moneyed interests that were corrupting the body politic. Clay was resoundingly defeated, with 49 electoral votes against Jackson’s 219.
Rating America’s Presidents shows history in the process of repeating itself. Today, President Trump is, like Jackson, facing a coterie of secretive and unaccountable forces that hold undue sway over the course of American domestic and foreign policy. As in Jackson’s war against the Bank of the United States, Trump must destroy these forces, or they will destroy him – and in this case, likely take the nation down as well. Just as in 1832, these powerful forces are hoping by means of a presidential election to restore and cement their hegemony. The future of America as a free society, in which officials are accountable to the people, hangs in the balance.
bump
That “cabal” was probably a bunch of stinking lawyers.. It’s pretty much the same thing Trump is dealing with today...
Goldwater faced it in election time. Mitt Romney’s dad was the GOP’s uniparty leader at the time.
That’s one of the reasons President Trump has a portrait of Jackson in a prominent place in the White House.
Who says we don’t have a spoils system now?
Isn’t that the Deep State?
We got “wing men” and “ Vive la Resistance.”
The good thing about the Spoils System is that the next administration could fire their asses. Try firing anybody in the Civil Service ( an oxymoron ) today.
Nixon wasn’t exactly a boy scout though
Ugh. Andrew Jackson, first Democrat president, started the “spoils system.”
Now, unlike President Trump, Jackson did have some years in the political wilderness after the election of 1824 to know who his supporters and loyalists were, so when he won the election of 1828 he was pretty much ready to replace the existing bureaucracy. After cleaning out the White House of his drunk supporters.
Reagan
Thanks for posting this. Happy Monday!
“Nixon wasn’t exactly a boy scout though.”
I know that I am one of a very small minority who think that The Nixon Administration should have been lauded as heroes instead of being figuratively assassinated.
Watergate was, in fact, an issue of national security. They were trying to keep a known-communist, ( McGovern,) out of the White House. The Congress and the Senate should have been pinning medals on the entire administration.
Fiorello La Guardia vs. Tammany Hall is the model Trump is following. As a New Yorker he would know the history very well.
In a way, the spoils system would be better than what we have now. The President could fire every government employee. Many of the Deep Staters are career government employees. secure in the knowledge that their jobs are safe, no matter who is President.
Jackson probably had fewer enemies than Trump does.
Agreed.Wanna know how the Pubbies could smash the Democabal???
All it would take, IMHO, would be for the Republican House minority Leader to announce that, if the Republicans took a majority in the House in ’20, and if the margin of victory was black congressmen of the Tim Scott ilk, the new Speaker of the House would be a black conservative.
That would take self-sacrifice to the point of self-abnegation, granted - but it could produce a self-fulfilling prophecy which would shatter Biden’s “they want to put y’all back in chains” canard permanently.
Electing a Black Democrat to the presidency was never going to end that trope, it only added a powerful voice to it. But giving real power to a black Republican??? IMHO the Democrats would never be the same after that hit them. They would be on the defensive in their own center-city strongholds.
Exactly
Just months before Jackson took office his close friend and Secretary of War, John Eaton, married Margaret "Peggy" Timberlake of whom Washington socialites disapproved due to her questionable upbringing and rumors concerning her past. When the other cabinet members' wives refused to associate with Mrs. Eaton, Jackson was forced to defend his friends, especially since John Eaton had defended Rachel Jackson so vigorously during the 1828 campaign. He demanded Mrs. Eaton be accepted into Washington's social circles. This became known as the "Eaton Affair."
At the same time, several of Jackson's cabinet members, thinking he would only serve one term, were positioning themselves to succeed him as president. These divisive actions resulted in Jackson showing favor only to those who socialized with the Eatons and proved their loyalty to him in other ways.
To rid himself of the immediate controversy, Jackson dismissed his entire cabinet in 1831 except for the Postmaster General. In time, this caused Jackson to turn to a group of unofficial advisers. His opponents labeled them his "Kitchen Cabinet" because of their "back door" access to the President.
Despite the Eaton Affair, Jackson still managed to roll up his sleeves and accomplish his reform, retrenchment and economic plans.
Jackson took office with great expectations to cleanse government of corruption and restore the nation's finances. Washington's elite feared that Jackson would fire everyone that held government positions, even the competent, and replace them with his own people. Although Jackson replaced only about ten percent of the government officers he held power over, it was a high percentage compared to his predecessors.
The officers he replaced were largely inept, corrupt or were politically opposed to Jackson. For this, Jackson is credited with what he called "the principle of rotation in office," but others would label it the "spoils system."
Jackson kept a watchful eye over government expenditures and congressional appropriations. In one instance, he vetoed a road bill approved by Congress. On top of being too costly, the bill only benefitted one area of the country and failed to improve the nation's defenses. Prior to Jackson, presidents had only vetoed legislation they believed to be unconstitutional. Jackson established a new principle of vetoing legislation as a matter of policy.
Jackson's spending controls along with increased revenue enabled him to pay off the national debt in 1835 and keep the nation debt free for the remainder of his term. This is the only time in the nation's history that the federal government was debt free.Andrew Jackson's Time in Office as President | The Hermitage
Jackson was the last POTUS to be elected to a second term until Abraham Lincoln, while US Grant was reelected but served out both his terms. After Grant and until Eisenhower, no Republican managed to be elected twice in his own right and serve out both terms.
That depression was the cause for his turning on his Cherokee allies who had fought with them so he could take their gold rich land.
Didn't work of course.
But it is ironic to try to portray the author of the "spoils system" as some sort of honest man trying to root out corruption.
Thanks for posting that review of Jackson. One of the first things I noticed, was that POTUS had a portrait of Jackson portrayed prominently.
I told Hubby, I think he’s going to go after the Fed. He’s obviously well prepared for the fight—that one elderly lady told the Fox News guy—he needs a cape and an S, cause no one but Superman could withstand what he has. (words to that effect).
George Washington 1789-1797 John Adams 1797-1801
Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809 James Madison 1809-1817 James Monroe 1817-1825 John Quincy Adams 1825-1829 Andrew Jackson 1829-1837 Martin Van Buren 1837-1841 William Henry Har... 1841-1841 John Tyler 1841-1845 James K. Polk 1845-1849 Zachary Taylor 1849-1850 Millard Fillmore 1850-1853 Franklin Pierce 1853-1857 James Buchanan 1857-1861 Abraham Lincoln 1861-1865 Andrew Johnson 1865-1869 Ulysses S. Grant 1869-1877 Rutherford B. Hayes 1877-1881 James A. Garfield 1881-1881 Chester A. Arthur 1881-1885 Grover Cleveland 1885-1889 Benjamin Harrison 1889-1893 Grover Cleveland 1893-1897
William McKinley 1897-1901 Theodore Roosevelt 1901-1909 William Howard Taft 1909-1913 Woodrow Wilson 1913-1921 Warren G. Harding 1921-1923 Calvin Coolidge 1923-1929 Herbert Hoover 1929-1933 Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933-1945 Harry S. Truman 1945-1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961 John F. Kennedy 1961-1963 Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-1969 Richard Nixon 1969-1974 Gerald Ford 1974-1977 Jimmy Carter 1977-1981 Ronald Reagan 1981-1989 George H. W. Bush 1989-1993 Bill Clinton 1993-2001
George W. Bush 2001-2009 Barack Obama 2009-2017 Donald Trump 2017-
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
