LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Andrew Jackson: Congress
built 229 days ago
Jackson was firmly opposed to a national bank, and fought to dismantle the Second Bank of the United States. He vetoed Congress's bill to renew its charter, and began withdrawing money from it. He ... created the Specie Circular, which required land bought from the government to be paid for in specie. Most historians link this to the Panic of 1837, which did not occur until after Jackson had left office.
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With the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln, no nineteenth-century President wielded his powers more aggressively than Andrew Jackson. Among the chief proofs of that was his use of his veto power over Congress. Unlike his predecessors, who invoked that power on strictly constitutional grounds, Jackson felt no such constraint. Instead, he vetoed key congressional measures, not because he deemed them illegal, but simply because he did not like them. In doing so, he set a precedent that vastly enlarged the presidential role in congressional lawmaking.
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In the aftermath of the bill's passage, Jackson made it evident that his signature spelled no retreat from his hard-money policy. In July 1836, he issued the Specie Circular, which directed government agents to receive only gold and silver in payment for public lands after December 1836, a measure designed to diminish land speculation and to "preserve the deposit banks" by increasing the specie backing of bank notes. The Specie Circular generated a storm of protest; Congress passed a bill at the close of Jackson's presidency repealing it, but Jackson pocket vetoed the bill. "I have the great republican principles to sustain, the constitution to preserve, protect and defend, and the most vital principle of it is the currency, and I have to maintain a consistency of character in all my acts to make my administration beneficial to republicanism," he explained.
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The extravagance of Benton's objection, coming from so able a source, is an index to the bitter disappointment of Jackson's followers. The needed "grievance" was furnished when Adams selected Clay as his secretary of state. Many of Jackson's friends interpreted this appointment as the result of a bargain whereby Clay had made Adams president in consideration of obtaining the first place in the cabinet, carrying with it, according to the notion then prevalent, a fair prospect of the succession to the presidency. It was natural enough for the friends of a disappointed candidate to make such a charge. It was to Benton's credit that he always scouted the idea of a corrupt bargain between Adams and Clay. Many people... believed it. In congress, John Randolph's famous allusion to the coalition between Blifil and Black George --"the Puritan and the blackleg" -- led to a duel between Randolph and Clay, which served to impress the matter upon the popular mind without enlightening it; the pistol is of small value as an agent of enlightenment.
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The eager, hardworking, and talented young Jackson soon received a host of political rewards. He became a public prosecutor, attorney general for the Mero District, delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention, a member of Congress, a United States senator, and a judge of the Superior Court of Tennessee. By the year 1800, he was the leader of the Western branch of the Blount-Overton faction.
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In his first Annual Message to Congress, Jackson recommended eliminating the Electoral College. He ... tried to democratize Federal officeholding. Already state machines were being built on patronage, and a New York Senator openly proclaimed "that to the victors belong the spoils.
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