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Thursday, October 13, 2011

Andrew Jackson on Banks and the Political System

Gerard N. Magliocca

"Many of our rich men have not been content with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of Congress. By attempting to gratify their desires we have in the results of our legislation arrayed section against section, interest against interest, and man against man, in a fearful commotion which threatens to shake the foundations of our Union. It is time to pause in our career to review our principles, and if possible revive that devoted patriotism and spirit of compromise which distinguished the sages of the Revolution and the fathers of our Union."

Veto of the Second Bank of the United States, 1832

This is ancient history, of course.

Comments:

The author's two books on Jackson, Bryan and changing constitutional understandings ... down to the meaning of McCulloch v. Maryland & the reach of the federal government ... is pretty germane these days too.
 

What was old is new again.

What confuses many folks about the Tea Party is that it is obviously populist, but not of the progressive demand for more government variety. Rather, the Tea Party is a replay of the earlier libertarian populism of Andy Jackson's Democrats.

Robert Merry offered a good essay on this analogy in the American Spectator recently. http://spectator.org/archives/2011/10/07/andrew-jackson-tea-party-presi
 

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
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