Andrew Jackson Veto Analysis

President Andrew Jackson vetoed the bill for re-chartering the Second Bank of the United States because its powers were unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States. On July 10, 1832, President Jackson vetoed the bill for re-chartering the Second Bank of the United States and then sent it back to Congress with his suggestions. Congress and Jackson’s cabinet were astounded to hear of his veto! It took a week after it had been passed by congress to retrieve the yes or no go call from Jackson. Congress and the majority of Jackson’s cabinet actually favored the recharter. He decided to present his reasoning of the veto in a lengthy message and this message came to be one of the most important state papers of his presidency. Although Jackson knew the bank would be convenient for the government, he envisioned that the powers of the already existing National Bank would transfer over to this newly proposed Second Bank. This was where he worried because the National Bank’s powers were unauthorized by the Constitution. Jackson viewed this proposal as subversive of the rights of the States and dangerous to the liberties of the …show more content…
In Jackson’s veto message, he argued that the bank’s charter gave it large amounts of market power. Specifically, this power came from the markets that moved financial resources around the country and into and out of other nations. This market power immensely increased the bank’s profits and hence its stock price. He said that it “operated as a gratuity of many millions to the stockholders,” who, Jackson claimed, were mostly “foreigners.” Jackson then suggested to create a wholly government-owned bank instead, or at least to auction the Second Bank of the United States’ monopoly privileges to the highest bidder. This was all to be done in an attempt to make it more fairer to most Americans living in the United