The term "Bank War," as all Truthers should know, applies to President Andrew Jackson's epic effort which blocked the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States, based in Philadelphia. He almost paid with his life for "killing the bank" and also opposing the secessionists of the day --- surviving miraculously when a would-be assassin fired two different revolvers which both misfired on a cold humid day in January of 1835.
A less intense, though still very contentious and generally well known, "Bank War" transpired during the administration of the nation's first president, George Washington. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (and others) were strongly opposed, with Secretary of the Treasury and Bank Father Alexander Hamilton (Levine) strongly in favor. Hamilton prevailed and thus was born the Central Bank.
But did you know that there was a
3rd Bank War which, for its deadliness and its high drama, may have surpassed
the better known versions? It's an amazing story that should be better known.
Bank War # 1: Hamilton vs Jefferson. Pro-Bank Hamilton prevails. Years later, Jefferson's sitting Vice President, Aaron Burr, would kill Hamilton in a duel. // Bank War # 2: Andrew Jackson vs Henry Clay. The vicious attacks launched at Jackson and his wife during the 1832 Campaign caused Rachel Jackson to die of a heart attack. Jackson -- inaugurated as a widower president in 1833 -- soon found himself at war with Henry Clay and the Banker Syndicate. Jackson would later say that he "regretted not shooting Henry Clay and hanging John C Calhoun).
* Editor's Note: There may have been
FOUR Banks War because the War of 1812 (-1815) followed on the heels of the
death of the First US Bank in 1811. The war debts were then used as an argument
to squeeze President James Madison and Congress to reverse position and
institute a 2nd Bank (which happened in 1816) -- "Coincidence" ???
1 & 2. Pro-Jackson political cartoons from the 1830s
always depicted Henry Clay, Nicholas Biddle (and sometimes John C Calhoun) as
demonic agents of the Bank which Jackson battled. // 3. Jackson won the
"Bank War" and put down Calhoun's secessionist attempt in South
Carolina -- and then he was shot at by a "lone gunman." (surprise
surprise)
Vice President John Tyler assumed the presidency upon the apparent poisoning death of President William Henry Harrison -- which occurred just 31 days into Harrison's term -- in April of 1841. Senate leaders such as John C. Calhoun (SC / of the Secessionist Clique) and Henry Clay (KY / of the Central Banking Clique) had tried to "muscle" General Harrison early on, but to no avail. So, one or both factions evidently murdered him. (See "Dig 'em Up!).
Upon the elevation of Tyler, American expansionists (especially in the
South) now had a man who was supportive of the movement to annex the
independent Republic of Texas to the United States -- even if it might trigger
a war with Mexico (which never recognized its former province of Texas as a new
state). However, the Central Banking Clique soon discovered that Tyler (also an
ex-military man, a Captain) was not going to be pushed around by the Clay Gang
either. Tyler had no interest in reestablishing the Central Bank which Jackson
had killed just a few years earlier. Clay (Jackson's former nemesis) and Tyler
were about to clash.
General-turned-President Harrison's sudden death by
poisoning elevated another tough military man, former Captain John Tyler. When
Tyler (Image 3) like Harrison, boldly asserted his leadership, the Clay Clique
and certain elements of the press disrespectfully dubbed him, "His
Accidency" -- a swipe at his office having been assumed, by fate, not by
election.
1 & 2. The reestablishment of the 2nd Central Bank was
Senator Henry Clay's obsession. // 3. Cartoon from the 1830s Bank War depicts
Henry Clay sewing Andrew Jackson's lips shut. Clay had just led the Senate move
which officially censored Jackson for boldly removing government funds from his
cherished bank.
***A DRAMATIC SEQUENCE OF EVENTS ***
* August 16, 1841 / Veto of the First Bank Bill:
President
Tyler surprises and enrages fellow members of Senator Henry Clay's Whig Party
by using his presidential power to veto a bill to revive the Second Bank of the
United States.
* August 18, 1841 / Violence at the White House:
Late at
night, an angry mob "spontaneously" shows up at the White House,
firing guns in the air and hanging Tyler in flaming effigy in front of the
mansion. The unprotected President is living there with his large family. His
daughters are especially terrified. Other such pro-Bank protests
"spontaneously" spring up in other cities.
* September 9, 1841:
Veto of a Second Bank Bill:
Evidently believing that they had sufficiently
intimidated Tyler, the Clay Clique passes a second bank bill (with some
cosmetic tweaks). Undaunted by it all, Tyler vetoes that bill as well!
* September
11, 1841: Whig Boss Clay Declares War on Tyler
All of Tyler's cabinet, with the
exception of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, resign in protest. Tyler is
then expelled from the Whig Party, rendering him a man without a political
party.
* August, 1842: Talk of Impeachment
A House Committee considers Tyler
impeachment, but then decides against it. Tyler, upon hearing the allegations
of abuse of power and breaking pledges, challenges the House to go through with
impeachment so that he may defend himself. Tyler wrote:
"I am charged
with offenses against the country so grave and heinous as to deserve public
disgrace and disfranchisement. I am charged with violating pledges which I
never gave, with usurping powers not conferred by law, and above all, with
using the powers conferred upon the president by the Constitution from corrupt
motives and for unwarrantable ends.
THE
SEQUENCE 1. Veto Message # 1 // 2. Ugly mob, gunfire and a burning effigy of
Tyler at the White House // 3. Veto Message # 2 // 4. The mighty Henry Clay
AGAIN declares war against a sitting US President.
* September
10, 1842: First Lady Tyler Dies Suddenly
First Lady Leticia Tyler entered the
White House in poor health, having survived a stroke in 1837. By all accounts,
Mrs. Tyler -- though seldom seen in public -- was physically stable and
mentally engaged. So, when she suffers the second stroke in 1842, her sudden
death comes as a shock to the Tyler family, who had believed that she had long
since stabilized (1). Was her death, at age 51, really due to natural causes?
Or, given the mortal danger that President Tyler is facing, something more
sinister?
* January, 1843: Another Impeachment Effort
Whig Party Congressman John
Botts introduces Articles of Impeachment against Tyler. But the effort does not
pass the House. Had the Botts-Clay plot to remove Tyler succeeded, the
President Pro Tempore of the US Senate (a pro-Bank Clay man) would have become
president because Tyler (who only became president after Harrison was poisoned)
did not have a Vice President.
* February 28, 1844: The USS Princeton
Explosion:
A deadly disaster occurs on board the USS Princeton when a newly
designed big gun dubbed "the "Peacemaker" explodes during a
demonstration for President Tyler and his guests on the Potomac River. The
explosion kills several high-profile officials, including Tyler's Secretary of
State Abel Upshur and his Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer. Others
injured include a United States Senator and the ship's Captain. The
deadliest-ever single-day incident for the U.S. government spares Tyler only
because he had been delayed chatting below deck after all had been summoned on
deck for the final demonstration shot. Had Tyler been standing next to his
Cabinet members, he would probably have also been killed.
* November 1844: Clay
Runs for President
The final effort of the 67-year-old Henry Clay to restore the
Central Bank ends with the close election of 1844 -- in which James Polk edges
out Clay in one of the closest races in American history. Clay, with the
support of the big bankers, had previously run against Andrew Jackson -- losing
to him in 1832. Polk is a Jacksonian through and through -- his candidacy
blessed by Jackson himself. Efforts to reimpose a Central Bank would then go
dormant until the Panic of 1907.
Andrew Jackson may have "killed the
Bank" --- but it was John Tyler who heroicly blocked Clay's Clique from
resuscitating it when it was still relatively easy to do.
1. First
Lady Leticia Tyler "died suddenly." Though in poor health, it came as
an unexpected surprise to the family. // 2. Clay's boy Botts tried to have
Tyler impeached // 3. Murder on the Potomac! The "misfire" killed two
of Tyler's Cabinet members. Tyler was lucky. // 4. The election of 1844 was a
squeaker! But Andrew Jackson's anti-Bank man, James Polk, stopped Henry Clay. A
few months after leaving office in 1849, Polk "died suddenly."
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