Of Leaders Past: Andrew Jackson

There is plenty to be tossed around about the negative acts of Andrew Jackson's Presidential life and history but like all past leaders his life is complex and full of contradictions, good and bad. Despite those negatives here are a few quotes that leave you with the impression that he was at least a man of mind and integrity.

Quotes:

One man with courage makes a majority.
Unless you become more watchful in your states and check the spirit of monopoly and thirst for exclusive privileges you will in the end find that... the control over your dearest interests has passed into the hands of these corporations.
Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges... which are employed altogether for their benefit.
It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.
Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.
As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending.
Fear not, the people may be deluded for a moment, but cannot be corrupted.
I cannot consent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an Emperor or a King my republican feelings and principles forbid it the simplicity of our system of government forbids it.
I feel in the depths of my soul that it is the highest, most sacred, and most irreversible part of my obligation to preserve the union of these states, although it may cost me my life.
The brave man inattentive to his duty, is worth little more to his country than the coward who deserts in the hour of danger.
Americans are not a perfect people, but we are called to a perfect mission.

Electoral College

Jackson repeatedly called for the abolition of the Electoral College by constitutional amendment in his annual messages to Congress as President.^[19][20] In his third annual message to Congress, he expressed the view "I have heretofore recommended amendments of the Federal Constitution giving the election of President and Vice-President to the people and limiting the service of the former to a single term. So important do I consider these changes in our fundamental law that I can not, in accordance with my sense of duty, omit to press them upon the consideration of a new Congress."^[21] The institution remains to the present day.

Opposition to the National Bank

The Second Bank of the United States was authorized for a twenty year period during James Madison's tenure in 1816. As President, Jackson worked to rescind the bank's federal charter. In Jackson's veto message (written by George Bancroft), the bank needed to be abolished because:

• It concentrated the nation's financial strength in a single institution.
• It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
• It served mainly to make the rich richer.
• It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
• It favored northeastern states over southern and western states.
• I have always been afraid of banks. -Andrew Jackson