由美国银行引发的争辩

Welcome to the MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. The question of continuing the Bank of the United States became a serious political issue in the national election of eighteen thirty-two.

The head of the bank, Nicholas Biddle, had become very powerful. Biddle refused to recognize that the government had the right to interfere in any way with the bank's business. The bank was privately operated but could make loans with taxpayers' money.

President Andrew Jackson understood the power of the Bank of the United States. He opposed giving the bank a new charter. Jackson said the Bank of the United States was dangerous to the liberty of Americans. The bank, he said, could build up or pull down political parties through loans to politicians.

The bank, he said, would always support those who supported the bank. He proposed to form a new national bank, as part of the Treasury Department. This week in our series, Stewart Spencer and Maurice Joyce continue the story of the Bank of the United States.

In the election year of eighteen thirty-two, the bank still had four years left to continue. Its charter would not end until eighteen thirty-six. Jackson had been urging Congress to act early, so that the bank could -- if its charter were rejected -- close its business slowly over several years. This would prevent serious economic problems for the country.

Many of Jackson's advisers believed he should say nothing about the bank until after the election. They feared he might lose the votes of some supporters of the bank. Biddle felt that this might be the best time to get a charter.

Henry Clay, the presidential candidate of the National Republicans, helped Biddle to make this decision. Senator Clay, however, was not thinking of the bank when he gave his advice. Clay needed an issue to campaign on. Most of the people of the country approved of Jackson's programs. Clay could not get votes by opposing successful programs.

But, he was sure that the issue of the bank could get him some votes. The campaign for a new charter was led by the most powerful men in each house of Congress. In the Senate, the bank's supporters included Senator Clay and Daniel Webster.

Former President John Quincy Adams -- now a congressman -- led the bank's struggle in the house. The chief opponent to the bank was Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri. I object to the renewal of the charter, he told the Senate,

because the bank is too great and powerful to be permitted in a government of free and equal laws. I also object because the bank makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer. In the House, Representative Augustin Clayton of Georgia proposed an investigation of the bank. In a speech written by Senator Benton, Clayton charged that the bank had violated its charter a number of times.