of Central Bank in the United States, spoke the following:
“It is maintained by some that the bank is a means of executing
the constitutional power “to coin money and regulate the value
thereof.” Congress have established a mint to coin money and
passed laws to regulate the value thereof. The money so
coined, with its value so regulated, and such foreign coins as
Congress may adopt are the only currency known to the
Constitution. But if they have other power to regulate the
currency, it was conferred to be exercised by themselves, and
not to be transferred to a corporation. If the bank be
established for that purpose, with a charter unalterable
without its consent, Congress have parted with their power for
a term of years, during which the Constitution is a dead
letter. It is neither necessary nor proper to transfer its
legislative power to such a bank, and therefore
unconstitutional.”
“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often
bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes.
Distinctions in society will always exist under every just
government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth
can not be produced by human institutions. In the full
enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior
industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled
to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to
these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to
grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make
the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble
members of society — the farmers, mechanics, and laborers —
who have neither the time nor the means of securing like
favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the
injustice of their government. There are no necessary evils in
government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would
confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its
rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the
rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.”
“I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of
the United States. I have had men watching you for a long
time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the
bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you
won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost,
you charged it to the Bank. You tell me that if I take the
deposits from the Bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten
thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is
your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand
families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers
and thieves. I have determined to rout you out and, by the
Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you
out. “
—Andrew Jackson, 1834, on closing the Second Bank of the United States;