end would appear to have been called for by the best interests of my country. . . . The result has shown how safe is this reliance upon the patriotic temper and enlightened discernment of the people."1 The remaining history of the Bank of the United States need not be followed in detail. The bank was now thoroughly unpopular, and without support even among the many who discountenanced Jackson's dealings with it. All projects for obtaining a renewal of the national charter failed, and the bank, by a judicious collection of its debts, readjustment of loans, accumulation of specie, and gradual closing of branches, indicated a purpose quietly to wind up its affairs. In February, 1836, however, it obtained a charter from Pennsylvania, under the name of the Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania, and planned to continue its business. In June, the fourteenth section of the bank-charter act, making the bills of the bank receivable in all payments to the United States, was repealed. A controversy over the payment to the United States of the government stock was settled in 1837, when four bonds, payable in September, 1837, 1838, 1839, and 1840, were accepted as security for the indebtedness of $7,886,145.49. The bonds were duly paid, and the connection between the bank and the government ceased. 3 In December, 1834, and again in 1835, Jackson 1 Richardson, Messages and Papers, III., 167. 3 U.S. Statutes at Large, 48. Catterall, Second Bank, 375. urged upon Congress the necessity of providing by law for the regulation of the public deposits in the state banks. The deposit act of June 23, 1836,1 required the secretary of the treasury to designate at least one bank in each state and territory, if possible, as a place of public deposit. No bank, however, was to be allowed to hold such deposits to an amount greater than three-quarters of its capital stock paid in; nor might any bank be selected which did not redeem its notes and bills on demand in specie. The deposit banks were to credit as specie all government deposits, and pay in specie all checks, warrants, or drafts drawn on such deposits; to afford facilities for transferring the funds without charge from place to place, and for distributing the same in payment of the public creditors; and, in general, to render to the government the services previously rendered by the Bank of the United States and its branches. With the provisions for the regulation of the deposits went also, as part of the same act, a plan for the distribution of the surplus revenue among the states. Efforts to divide the measure in the House failed. In the debate in the Senate on Jackson's protest, Benton, the most aggressive champion of the president, announced his intention to introduce, at each succeeding session, a motion to expunge the resolution of censure. Motions to this effect in 1835 and 1836 were tabled, but a third, prefaced by long 1 U. S. Statutes at Large, V., 52-56. preambles which repudiated and abjured all that the Senate had done, was passed January 16, 1837, after a debate of nearly thirteen hours, by a vote of 24 to 19. The manuscript journal of the session of 1833-1834 was brought into the Senate, and the secretary, in obedience to the resolution, drew black lines around the resolution of censure, and wrote across the face thereof, "in strong letters," the words: "Expunged by order of the Senate, this sixteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord 1837." Many members withdrew rather than witness the proceeding; but a crowded gallery looked on, while Benton strengthened his supporters by providing "an ample supply of cold hams, turkeys, rounds of beef, pickles, wines, and cups of hot coffee" in a near-by committee-room.' Jackson gave a dinner to the "expungers" and their wives, and placed Benton at the head of the table. That the action of the Senate was unconstitutional interested no one save the lawyers, for the bank was dead, Jackson was vindicated, and "the people" were enthroned. 1 Senate Journal, 24 Cong., 2 Sess., 81-83. CHAPTER XIV CHANGES AND REFORMS (1829-1837) HEN, in his first inaugural address, Jackson WH declared that the circumstances of his election imposed upon him the task of reform, he held forth the characteristic which was to distinguish his administrations from those of all other presidents. From the beginning of his presidential career to its close, he was incessantly occupied with projects of change, some of the most fundamental of which he was able to carry out with more or less completeness. The establishment of the spoils system in national affairs, the removal of the Indians beyond the Mississippi, the settlement of claims against France and other countries, the opening of the West India trade, the discouragement of internal improvements at federal expense, the destruction of the Bank of the United States, and the payment of the national debt were conspicuous examples of his reforming zeal; and for his success the people, whose idol he was, did him honor. It would be a mistake, however, to suppose that Jackson concerned himself only with these weightier matters of the law. On the contrary, his annual and special messages show intelligent and ceaseless watchfulness of the public welfare, and attention to varied details of government business. Congress, too, though rarely a unit in supporting the president, spent much time in debating projects of reform; and while it negatived more than one praiseworthy proposal, and did not scruple to resort to factious opposition, it could not avoid lending its approval to many of the most important recommendations of the executive. The Jacksonian period was pre-eminently one of political and administrative change, of tearing down and building up, of investigation and reorganization. What was done, whether evil or good, was significant of the pervasive power of a new democratic impulse of which Jackson was the leader. The administration was often far from blameless, and Congress a forum for recrimination and intrigue; but the fruits of success accrued in the main to Jackson and his supporters. Some important parts of the Jackson programme failed altogether to win either popular or legislative countenance. Thus, the amendment of the Constitution so as to provide for the election of president and vice-president by popular vote was urged by Jackson in each of his eight annual messages, and with a wealth of argument that fairly exhausted the subject. The participation of the Senate or House of Representatives in presidential elections, |