The Bank War by Kahan Paul;

Author:Kahan, Paul; [Kahan, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Westholme Publishing

The net effect was that Jackson was now surrounded by people far more uniformly hostile to the bank, which only reinforced Jackson’s determination to curtail its power and influence.

That being said, Jackson was also committed to keeping the bank issue out of the upcoming presidential campaign. In October, Biddle met with McLane, who told him, “the Pres. is perfectly confident of his election—the only question is the greater or the less majority, but he is sure of success & wishes to succeed by a greater vote than at the first election.” The implication was clear: Jackson’s reelection took precedence over his concerns about the bank, at least temporarily, and the president was loath to do anything that might cost him votes. Yet McLane also passed along a not-so-subtle threat: should Biddle try to corner the president into rechartering the bank during the presidential election, Jackson “might on that account be disposed to put his veto on it.”77 McLane’s statement to Biddle certainly explains the more temperate tone in the president’s third annual message. Not wanting to alienate Biddle, who might force the divisive recharter issue, Jackson softened his rhetoric. In a memo to himself about Jackson’s impending third annual message, Biddle wrote, “The President is to say that having previously brought the [issue of rechartering the bank] to Congress, he now leaves it with them. The Secretary [of the Treasury] is to recommend the renewal. This later point pleases me much.”78

While this might at first glance appear to be a victory for the bank, it is important not to read too much into McLane’s statement. At no point did Jackson promise to sign a recharter bill after the election; he merely threatened—through the Treasury secretary—to veto any such bill that crossed his desk before the presidential election. It was the classic heads-I-win-tails-you-lose proposition: Jackson would get what he wanted (no divisive political issues to depress his vote total in key states like Pennsylvania) while retaining his freedom of action when it came to the bank, which had to be rechartered no later than March 1836. In fact, in a letter to John Randolph, a former Virginia senator and minister to Russia, Jackson actually repudiated McLane’s statements to Biddle. Jackson wrote:

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