Sign Kentucky Banking Permission Slip Later

Industry sign banking kentucky permission slip later

all right hello everybody welcome to history of money professor barth here history professor at arizona state university lecture number 23 i have to say this is one of my favorite lectures of the semester maybe my favorite maybe my favorite because i'll tell you what this story of the bank war the bank war in the 1830s andrew jackson versus henry clay and nicholas biddle is one of the most exciting episodes in all of monetary history in my view and especially in u.s monetary history it's a drama and i have to say i'm just really excited excited about this lecture for the first part part a we're going to introduce the cast of characters the cast of characters in the political realm we're going to take a look at two competing parties and especially two can be men henry clay versus andrew jackson so let's go ahead and dive right into it there is the american flag right at the beginning of the 1820s beautiful beautiful flag there is the united states and the all the territory out west not yet organized into states but we see the east of the mississippi river things have for the most part taking shape well in the 1820s we have the emergence of what historians call the second party system the second american party system and without going into too much detail the two parties are the whigs and the democrats now the whigs assumed the hamiltonian mantle of a stronger more active role for the federal government their interpretation of the constitution like hamilton is a lot broader leaving for more flexibility for the federal government to act and to do various activities for example the wigs support a protective tariff a tariff design not to raise revenue per se although it has that effect but primarily to protect american industry primarily up north democrats who represent the old jeffersonian wing and have a much more limited view of the federal government's powers they interpret the constitution constitution much more to the letter oppose the protective tariff they argue that there's nothing in the constitution giving the government permission to do something like that to intervene in the economy in that way wigs also support using federal dollars federal funds in order to finance the building of infrastructure projects like roads and canals bridges democrats say no that's unconstitutional there's nothing in the constitution giving congress the power to do something like that but for our purposes there is another policy question on which they differ and that is on the question of the bank of the united states and the man leading the charge for the weak party and leading the charge on rechartering the bank in the united states is none other than henry clay henry clay one of the most important statesmen in the history of american politics henry clay is a great example of a man who never became president and yet his political uh importance in in american history vastly out exceeds many men who actually were elected president henry clay was born in 1777 illustrious career in the congress he was born in virginia but at age 20 he moved to kentucky uh established a full a flourishing lock or legal career and uh and then became a plantation owner had tobacco on hemp plantation 600 acres with 60 slaves he represented the west and [Music] in henry clay again a lustrous career in the house and the senate he served three non-consecutive terms as speaker of the house he helped to elect john quincy adams in 1824 to become president of the united states and in turn was made secretary of state he serves four separate terms in the senate he ran for president five times five times three of those times he got the nomination two other times he didn't get the nomination but three of those times he got the weak party nomination and lost the election but massively influential and he designed this uh policy program which he called the american system the american system and the american system supported protective tariffs for american industry supported uh federal dollars for infrastructure projects and supported rechartering the banking united states now clay was a lot different from hamilton hamilton was thoroughly elitist and unapologetic about it um hamilton did not necessarily bother trying to convince the common man right common farmers to get behind his deal he assumed they would side with jefferson clay it reaches out to that portion of the public clay seeks to win out the farming interests the the he wants to win the west for this vision um he convinces farmers hey look you will really benefit from federally constructed roads you'll benefit from a banking system that can extend credit and so henry clay represents this this view and there was another other big leaders of the party daniel webster was another he was a man born in new hampshire but then moved to massachusetts a giant there in in the senate also served in the house of representatives but especially in the senate he was secretary of state on two different occasions ran for the wake party nomination for president three times but but lost all three of those times but regarded as one of the greatest orders in the history of the senate unlike clay he he was uh not too concerned with appealing to a common man he was uh elitist and and reveled in it in many ways uh but brilliant brilliant man he is also part of the wake party and then there's this man and there's this man andrew jackson andrew jackson six foot one tall skinny actually very lean i think it was a better way to maybe frame it big bushy eyebrows look at those eyebrows large forehead with his hair brush back high above it piercing blue eyes a captivating figure hot tempered a bit stubborn not afraid to buck the system a remarkable man a a once in a lifetime type of type of uh uh politician once he gets involved in politics andrew jackson was born in waxhaw north carolina to a very poor scotch irish family in 1767 he was only nine years old when the u.s declared independence from great britain he joined the militia as a messenger when he was only 13 years old and uh there he is right there young andy and in 1781 he was captured by the british one of the officers pictured here uh demanded that young andy uh clean his boots and to refuse and so the british officer slashed him with the sword leaving him permanent scars on his left hand and on his head young andy's mother died when he was 14 years old just a year later um his father neglected a note his father died three weeks before he was born and so when his mother died when he was 13 he was 14 he was essentially you know he was parentless and and uh andy left the war with an intense hatred for the british um and uh uh and um andy was uh a bit of an unusual figure for for um for the time compared to other politicians of that era he had only a very very sparse education only a sparse education when he was growing up he was more interested in brawls and cockfighting than he was in in reading and even as an adult he was known to occasionally misspell a word in his written speeches and [Music] he wasn't the first president to not have a college education george washington didn't have a college education nor was he the last abraham lincoln didn't have a college education harry truman also didn't have a college education um but that's that's where he's coming from and it allowed andrew jackson when he was older it sort of allowed him to continue to relate to the common people to the common man even after he became quite successful and quite wealthy andrew moved out to tennessee was one of the founding uh people frontiersmen of tennessee moved up the ranks actually served in politics for a bit including national politics in tennessee then he was elevated to commander of the tennessee militia and had some success there on one side story in 1806 a man insulted his marriage i won't go into all the details of that but um andrew challenged him to a duel allowed the man to have the first shot man shot his pistol hit andy in the chest he stumbled back collected himself took his pistol and shot a man and killed him andrew survived of course andrew had like i said had a lot of success in the militia and then accepted a commission as major general in the u.s army in 1814 by this point uh he was becoming nationally known he uh fought the creek indians with much success around this time period and then in 1815 in january he defeated the british handily just spanked the british at the battle of new orleans a remarkable victory against the british and this made him somewhat of a celebrity a bit by this point he's no longer uh the lower class uh boy that he that he grew up he is quite wealthy in fact in 1804 he established a plantation called the hermitage which is right outside of nashville started out with nine slaves by 1844 or excuse me by 1820 he had 44 slaves and then by the 1830s at its peak he had 150 slaves and so this is a very wealthy man and of course you can visit the hermitage today and yet again he he always retained that connection to to a lower class kind of poor uh white folk especially on the frontier he understood them he he knew them he related to them he had great empathy for them and and they had great admiration for andrew jackson andrew jackson was extremely charismatic uh two levels critics labeled him a demagogue but a larger than life personality you could call him a frontier aristocrat of sorts we would say today a blue call blue-collar millionaire he was a folk hero and and again he related to the common man if thomas jefferson was an intellectual right jackson was absolutely the polar opposite jackson is not an intellectual jackson is a populist a populist and what is populism so it's a word that we hear thrown up around a lot today populism is it kind of manifests on both the left and the right and everything in between populism is a style of politics and it's a style of politics that pits the people right or purports to pit the people against the establishment against the elites and jackson is very very successful at this and captures that political spirit the zeitgeist the spirit of the times manifests in in the person of of andrew jackson this is a a famous painting from i think the 1850s but it um illustrates a county election and and here we see um sort of the culture the democratic culture of the day and um and uh what do we see here of course these are all white males and and for many people the first instinct is well that's a very restricted franchise and by our standards it absolutely is before the 1830s the 1820s and 1830s actually the united states had the most liberal franchise of anywhere in the world and that there were no property qualifications whatsoever for voting and so in places in europe and britain very few adult men were able to vote but in the united states no property qualifications and so what it what it led to was a culture a democratic culture in the united states that was quite quite unique highly individualistic and and here we see everything it's a bit of an anarchic scene here you see the man here hungover uh you know drinks being passed around uh dogs running around uh you know maybe some bribes going on uh what a scene and this is jackson's base right i mean this is who jackson he gets his energy from it and these are um uh oftentimes these sort of men are behind jackson now clay as i said oftentimes because clay actually does manage to capture some of this as well for his program and so that's the competition who's going to win this vote is it going to be jackson or clay and clay really thinks that he can get this vote both men are from the west jackson from tennessee clay from kentucky who will who will capture his vote and of course it is jackson jackson is the epitome of of that democratic age i love this cartoon this is from punch magazine a british magazine from around a period life in american hotel life in an american hotel and what do we see here uh there's the british gentleman and he's traveling through america he's at a hotel and and the jacksonian democrat uh points a pistol adam pass the mustard uh and the british gentleman just shocked at the uh at the man's you know at the gall of this man and just you know what have i gotten myself into this is jacksonian culture a caricature obviously jackson runs for president in 1828 he actually ran for president in 1824 won the popular vote but didn't wasn't able to win the electoral college that's a whole different story this time no in 1828 he runs and wins a smashing victory received 56 percent of the popular vote in 68 of the electoral vote and so now jackson has been elected president of the united states this uh hardcore democrat and um and he was i mean just through and through but i don't want to get too off topic but jackson argued that supreme court justices should be made to stand for election he argued against the electoral college and said we should go only for a popular vote he argued for a single term presidency and in other other democratic reforms but now he's been elected president inauguration day march 4th 1829 it took a three-week journey from nashville to washington first by steamboat the pittsburgh and then by carriage from pittsburgh to washington dc large crowds greeted him along the way and then a crowd of about 21 000 people this had never been done before crowd of about 21 000 people came to see the swearing-in then the white house was opened up the doors were opened up for a post-inaugural reception and uh the kill the scene was chaotic the public filled the white house several thousand dollars of broken china the white house was left a complete mess until someone finally had the idea oh let's put a bowl of spike punch out on the white house lawn to entice everybody out of the house and it worked but it consists of shopkeepers and and grimy you know wage workers and and this was jackson's base and and critics were appalled by the scene oh my gosh this is this is what's happening in a nicknamed jackson king mob king mob in fact the his predecessor john quincy adams refused to attend the inauguration and so there he is he's become president sworn in in march 1829 what's he going to do we will find out for part b part b see you there