King Andrew. In this
widely distributed
opposition cartoon, King
Andrew, with a scepter in
one hand and a vetoed bill
in the other, tramples on
internal improvements,
the Bank of the United
States, and the
Constitution.
Society
Historical
New-York
theof
Collection
The Second American Party System
407
Jackson and many members of his administration had deep fiscal and moral
concerns about the inflationary boom that accompanied the rapid growth of com-
merce, credit, roads, canals, new farms, and the other manifestations of the Market Revolution in the 1830s. After insisting that his hard-money, anti-inflationary provision be added to the Deposit Act, Jackson issued a Specie Circular in 1836. This provided that speculators could only buy large parcels of public land with silver and gold coins, while settlers could continue to buy farm-sized plots with banknotes. Henceforth, speculators would have to bring wagonloads of coins from east-
ern banks to frontier land offices. With this provision, Jackson hoped to curtail speculation and to reverse the flow of specie out of the South and West. The Specie Circular was Jackson’s final assault on the paper economy. It repeated familiar
themes: It favored hard currency over paper, settlers over speculators, and the
South and West over the Northeast.
THE SECOND AMERICAN PARTY SYSTEM
In his farewell address in 1837, Jackson spoke once again of the incompatibility
between the republic and the Money Power. He warned against a revival of the
Bank of the United States and against all banks, paper money, the spirit of speculation, and every aspect of the “paper system.” That system encouraged greed and
luxury, which were at odds with republican virtue, he said. Worse, it thrived on
special privilege, creating a world in which insiders meeting in “secret conclaves”
could buy and sell elections. The solution, as always, was a society of small producers, a vigilant democratic electorate, and a chaste republican government that granted no special privileges.
“Martin Van
Sitting beside Jackson as he delivered his farewell address
Ruin”
was his chosen successor, Martin Van Buren. In the election
of 1836, the Whigs had acknowledged that Henry Clay, the
leader of their party, could not win a national election. Instead, they ran three sectional candidates: Daniel Webster in the Northeast, the old Indian fighter
William Henry Harrison in the West, and Hugh Lawson White of Tennessee, a
turncoat Jacksonian, in the South. With this ploy, the Whigs hoped to deprive Van Buren of a majority and throw the election into the Whig-controlled House of
Representatives.
The strategy failed. Van Buren had engineered a national Democratic Party that
could avert the dangers of sectionalism, and he questioned the patriotism of the
Whigs and their sectional candidates, asserting, “true republicans can never lend their aid and influence in creating geographical parties.” That, along with his association with Jackson’s popular presidency, won him the election. Van Buren carried 15 of the 26 states and received 170 electoral votes against 124 for his combined opposition. His popular plurality, however, was less than 51 percent.
Van Buren had barely taken office when the inflationary boom of the mid-
1830s collapsed. Economic historians ascribe the Panic of 1837 and the ensuing
depression largely to events outside the country. The Bank of England, concerned
over the flow of British gold to American speculators, cut off credit to firms that 408