" The first part of the statement was true, but the
second was distinctly unfair. The Bank, to be sure, had not
established "a uniform and sound" currency. But it had accomplished
much toward that end and was practically the only agency that was
wielding any influence in that direction. The truth is that the more
efficient the Bank proved in this task the less popular it became
among those elements of the people from which Jackson mainly drew his
strength.
Nothing came of the President's admonition except committee reports in
the two Houses, both favorable to the Bank; in fact, the Senate report
was copied almost verbatim from a statement supplied by Biddle. A year
later Jackson returned to the subject, this time with an alternative
plan for a national bank to be organized as a branch of the Treasury
and hence to have "no means to operate on the hopes, fears, or
interests of large masses of the community." In a set of autograph
notes from which the second message was prepared the existing Bank was
declared not only unconstitutional but dangerous to liberty, "because
through its officers, loans, and participation in politics it could
build up or pull down parties or men, because it created a monopoly of
the money power, because much of the stock was owned by foreigners,
because it would always support him who supported it, and because it
weakened the state and strengthened the general government.
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