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by jon l. shebel, publisher
A Blind Disposition
The election of Andrew Jackson 160 years ago this November ushered in a radical
transformation of American politics. It also brought to power a man who would save the
country even as he ruined its economy.
Jackson was a self-made man, barely literate with atrocious grammar and spelling. He
was a stubborn and bitter man, famous for his volatile temper. As America’s first
territorial governor of Florida, perceived indignities suffered at the hands of
Spain’s last territorial governor inspired Jackson to imprison the official on
trumped-up charges.
Jackson only stayed on as governor for three months, leaving to pursue higher
ambitions. In 1824, he failed in his first bid for president; four years later he
succeeded.
Almost immediately upon taking office, Jackson faced the Nullification Crisis, as South
Carolina threatened to secede from the union in a huff over high tariffs. The president
dodged catastrophe by talking tough while negotiating a tariff reduction.
After that, Jackson’s first term dissolved into virtual paralysis, spawned by a
simmering conflict over the controversial wife of his secretary of war, John Eaton. Peggy
O’Neale Eaton, a boisterous and flirtatious woman, infuriated the upright matrons of
the capital city. Jackson’s stubborn defense of Mrs. Eaton created a rupture in his
own Cabinet, leading to the creation of the Kitchen Cabinet, an informal group of
advisers. It was the pre-cursor of today’s proliferating
White House cadre of handlers and spinners.
In 1834, Jackson sent Eaton to Florida as its third territorial governor. Eaton found
little peace there. The Second Seminole War broke out in late 1835, precipitating an
already brewing economic crisis brought on by his mentor’s misguided populism.
Like many self-made, rough-hewn men, Jackson hated traditional institutions of wealth
and prestige, particularly banks. Jackson’s animus toward banks was based partly on
irrational prejudice and partly on a level of information deep enough to make him
dangerous but not deep enough to make him wise.
The particular target of presidential venom was the Second Bank of the United States. A
symbol of big government and a warehouse of power, the Bank represented everything
despicable to this believer in the goodness of "regular" people. His ideology
blinded Jackson to the Bank’s role as a reliable source of capital for the growing
nation. The Bank’s benevolent influence helped create the prosperity of
Jackson’s first term, which sheltered him from his critics and gave him his landslide
victory in 1832.
So, Jackson forged ahead with his imbecilic attack on the Bank and the nation lost the
one stabilizing force in its banking community.
Jackson’s last term ended before the inevitable financial crisis occurred. Martin
Van Buren, his
vice president and handpicked successor, was left to absorb the full force of public anger
when the financial panic of 1837 collapsed into a full-scale depression. Van Buren would
lose his bid for reelection in 1840 to the opponents of Jacksonian democracy.
In Florida, the banking collapse would singe Jackson’s proteges, who had developed
into an anti-Jackson ruling elite that benefited by the foolhardy banking scheme set loose
by Old Hickory himself.
In 1838, the anti-banking party grabbed control of the convention called to draft a
constitution for Florida, the first step toward the territory’s admission in the
United States. Into that constitution would go a clause prohibiting bankers from holding
elected office.
In March of 1845, Florida was admitted to the Union under that Constitution, which
would survive for 16 years until Florida seceded from the Union. The state’s first
Legislature convened on June 23, 1845 and immediately adjourned to mourn the passing of
Andrew Jackson 15 days earlier.
Jon L. Shebel is president & CEO of Associated Industries of Florida and
affiliated companies.
Sept/Oct 1998 -- Florida Business Insight, PO Box 784, Tallahassee, Fla.
32302
(850)224-7173, insight@aif.com |
