Jacksonian Ideology, Currency Control and Central Banking: A Reappraisal
Larry Schweikart1988, The Historian
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Abstract
A C K S O N W ideology, its rhetoric abounding in references to the "common man," remains a source of misunderstanding among historians, especially in regard to J economics. The Jacksonians have often been viewed as champions of laissez-faire economics as well as proponents of small government. In at least one important area, however-that of banking-the Jacksonian program moved in a direction exactly the opposite of laissez-faire and small government. Banking stood center stage as a national issue from the time of Andrew Jackson's bank veto in 1832 until the demise of the Whig-backed national bank schemes at John Tyler's hand in 1841. During these nine years the Jacksonians often attacked Whig attempts to establish a national bank. Many Democratic spokesmen such as William Gouge, Thomas Hart Benton and, at different points in their careers, Alexander McNutt and Thomas Ritchie, advocated an entirely metallic currency, with the implication that the party opposed paper money for ideological reasons, condemning it as a source of inequality. Several of these spokesmen suggested that their dislike of the Bank of the United States [BUS] rested on grounds that it was in essence a national bank.' W R Y SCHWEIKART*
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