The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1896-01-05

I
its officers were opposed to having the
bank brought 80 prominently into poll
! ucK--they knew that money works best
quietly and in the dark but the dashing
Clay and the sanguine Biddie would have
Il otherwire. THEY felt sucn contempt
for the intellect of Andrew Jackson
this military chieftain" from the wild
West" that they thought it would he
very easy TO force him into a position,
where ii he should veto the bank charter
he would lose the support Of Pcnnsyl-
vanla, and, in fact, of all decent peo-
pie in the country. and If. on the other
hand, he should allow 1t to become q
law, he would stand convicted of incon-
nistency. Besides the present congress
were known TO be in favor Of the bank.
so the bill was presented in both houses
and referred to favorable committces--in
January. 1889.
But Jackson and the democrats were
ready. Benton forced the lighting in
the senate and General Clayton of Geor-
ga made Il series of charges against
| the bank, for which he was to move an
| Investigation ~ the house. This was
bitterly opposed by the strongest parti-
sans of the bank, until it became evident
even to. them that if they shut off in
vestigntion while an application for re-
charter was pending it would be very
damaging to their cause. SO they al.
| lowed the motion to pass, but restricted
| the investigation no violations of the
charter by the Central bank, notwith-
standing that the chief abuses had been
| charged on the branches and limited
the time of the investigation to April
n, thus plainly showing that the bank
question was to be used in the coming
campaign. Besides this the mover of
the Investigation, contrary to the usual
custom, was not made member of
the committee. OF course there was II
ale
ricaliy opposed. the former condcmning
and the latter defending, and third re-
port by John Quincy Adams, who,
Enough a firm friend of the bank was
yet an honest man, and could not be in
volyed in a shameless wh,tewash. The
summary given Ivy w. q. Sumner who
is by no means an admirer of jackson,
states the case snccinctly, Tine student
of the evidence and reports of 1882, if
ha believes the banks statements in the
evidence, will say that the bank was
triumphantly indicated. Two facts.
however, are very striking: /. The most
important of the charges against which
the bank successfully defended itself in
1872 were the very acts OF which 1t was
guilty in 1898 and they were what
ruined it, >. Whether the bank
was thoroughly sincere and above board
in these matters Is Il question on which
an unpleasant doubt is thrown by the
| certainty that il was not thoroughly
| honest in some other matters NOTABLY
the shady postponemcnt of the payment
OF the United States 3 per cents-which
B.ddle was engineering at this time TO
save the bank from the straight into
which Il great imitation of branch
drafts" Ind pushed it. "Riddle,' says
Sumner, was too plausible. In any
| emergency he was ready to write n let.
ter or report to smooth things over and
present a good face, in spite of facts.
Any one who has carefully studied the
history of the bank and Biddlc's state
ments will come to every statement of
his with disagrecable sense of sus-
| picion."
While the committee was investigating
in Philadelphia the fight WAS going on
in Washington with increasing intensity.
Martin Van Burcns nomination rs
minister TO England was rejected by thr
senate, mainly because he had attacked
the bank through the New York legisla-
turc. The senate then, as now, was in
much closer touch with the plutocrats
than the house, which came directly from
the people. This rejection of Van Buren,
won for him the nomination of vice
| president this year, and the presidency
four years later, for Jackson took pains
to see that none of his supporters sui-
fercd for the part they took in aiding
HIM.
The charter passed both houses and
was sent to Jackson on July 4. In six
| days it was returned with veto mes
sage, which went straight to the point.
JackSon'S reasons were stated clearly
and definitely, the following being the
most prominent: / The bank would have
monopoly for which the bonus was
no equivalent .. The business Of the
! bank would he exempt from taxation.
| 3. The president could have given Il
/ better plan 4. The bank would ncreusr
| the distinction between the rich and
| the poor, and D, the charter was unc0u-
stitutionnl-the decision of the supreme
! court to the contrary Notwithstanding.
| AS Jackson well expressed it; The
congress, the executive and the court
must each for itself be guided by its own
| opinion of the constitution. The
authority of the supreme court must
not, therefore, be allowed to control the
congress or the executive when netting
in their legislative capacity, but to have
only such influence as the force of their
reasoning may deserve.
1t was the paragraph which was most
vcously attacked in the following cam
paign. THE savage Jackson had as
saulted the sacred supreme court. He
had cast mud upon the judicial erminc.
The court had spoken, and thar had put
an end to all controversy concern ne the
consttutionality of the bank" etc But
the plain people understood Jackson's
point-which WAS that each department
of our government was intended to act
as check on the others, and for the
president to he bindly subservcnt to the
supreme court would he substituting Il
clique of lawyers appointed for life for
the only direct representative of the
people in the National government And
rs such direct representative and ser
want of the people 1t was always Jack
sons pride to consider himscf. He
knew. too, that the plain people had
not that supc~stitious reverence for the
decision of bench Of Federaist judges
that the wealthy classes had. And what
good democrat. even now. In view OF
the late decision on the income tax would
say that Jackson was wrong?
Henry Clay, Bddle and the National
republicans We're overioyed at what
they considered their success in forcing
Jackson's hand. The subsidized news
papers published all sorts of denuncin-