on lectures and history arizona state university professor jonathan barth teaches a class about the rise of andrew jackson and his presidency. he focuses on president jackson's clashes with whig party members such as henley clay and daniel webster in the bank wars in fact 1930s. this class is about 55 minutes. >> well, good morning, everybody. and welcome to american history. my name is jonathan barth. you all know me as professor barth. and i am a history professor at arizona state university in conjunction with two very stellar world-class programs and there they are on the screen. the school of historical, philosophical and religious studies, quite a mouthful, so we

call this shiperk great program and the center for political thought and leadership or ptl, another stellar program, if this lecture intrigues you, you should check out our center. we're doing some big things. and finally, if you are interested in learning more about yours truly, oh, there we are, www.professorbarth.com. read about me on that website. well, a generation of politicians has passed. alexander hamilton dies in a duel in 1804. james madison pictured there on the right retires from politics and dies in 1836. john adams, and thomas

jefferson, die on the same day july 4th, 1826. 50 years to the day of the signing of the declaration of independence pretty incredible you can't make something like that up. but america is changing. a market revolution is sweeping the young republic. mass commercialization. profit making. new opportunities for investment. inventions, entrepreneurship, a burst in the population. look at that population explosion from 1 million in 1750 to 13 million by 1830. this is a young population average age about 17 years old. aggressive, energetic, highly individualistic, oftentimes reckless. a burgeoning population.

factories have sprouted up all across the north, especially new england. producing textiles and other manufactured goods. outside of the cities, outside of new england, an agricultural boom. in ohio, in pennsylvania, wheat exports off the charts. in the south, a new plant, cotton, that drug of a plant. creating that soft, durable, textile. spreading all throughout the south, entrenching that slave system deeper and deeper in the south, cotton takes off. and if you're going to have textiles, cotton, going to have wheat, you need transportation. so we have roads being built, turnpikes, connecting rural markets to waterways and to atlantic port cities. steam boats by the 1820s and 1830s trekking up and down the

mississippi river. canals, canal mania, canals built all across the country, the most famous being the erie canal, completed in 1825 connecting the hudson river to lake erie what an accomplishment that is. if you have canals, plantations, and factories you need credit and here to we have lots and lots of credit. banks sprouting up all across the united states from three banks in 1790s to several hundred banks by the 1820s, banks chartered by the states, stay within that particular state's boundary and each one is showing their own currency. sitting on top of those state banks is the mother bank. right. the chief bank. the central bank. the bank of the united states and this is the second bank of the united states because as you

recall, from earlier in the semester there was a first bank of the united states. 1791 alexander hamilton. pushes through congress a bank of the united states. this bank a private bank with stockholders and dividends. this bank hamilton says will benefit not only financial -- private financial interests but will benefit the country, the public, how will it benefit the public, because the treasury, the u.s. treasury, will deposit money in the bank, money coming in from taxes and the treasuries, can also borrow money from the bank. this bank has a 20-year charter but it has lots of opponents. you remember, that chief opponent, thomas jefferson, hates the bank. the bank jefferson believes is an institution that imperils american liberty by elevating to

power a wealthy financial elite, nonproductive elite. jefferson opposes it and jefferson comes to power in 1800, so does his party the bank of the united states the first bank the charter expires in 1811, but one year later a war erupts with britain. that war is a very expensive war. the national government finds itself in tremendous fiscal straights. after the war is finished five years later the democratic republicans, the party of jefferson, charter a second bank of the united states and this second bank much like the first, also will have a 20-year charter. this charter will run out in 1836 and presumably congress and the president in good faith will renew the charter. so there you have it. and there are bumps along the road, right, after the bank is

chartered, you will recall from the last lecture the panic of 1819 explodes. this massive bubble in western land speculation, a bubble caused largely by the bank, by all of this new bank currency, creates a bubble and then the burst. but the country recovers from the panic of 1819, fairly quickly, and so the second bank of the united states survives that panic and goes into the 1820s with very little opposition. most americans by the mid-1820s have come to accept the bank, the market revolution is fully under way. but it's not just the economy that is changing. it is the political arena that is changing. two new political parties. the whigs and the democrats. bucking heads. who are these whigs and democrats? will representing new england for the whigs we have daniel

webster, a lawyer from massachusetts. one of the most brilliant orators in u.s. congressional history. quite an impressive figure, dana webster is. we have in massachusetts, john quincy adams, son of the second president of the united states, john adams. he, too, is a whig. but then most famously, of course, we have henry clay, hailing from the state of kentucky, and clay, well, clay ends up running for president five times. just can't get in. can't seem to do it. but nonetheless, henry clay is one of the most important political figures in american history. what does clay do? clay has a program, a system, an

american system, and that american system is threefold. henry clay says, first, we need to have protective tariffs on american manufacturing. and sure enough, henry clay, when he becomes secretary of state under president john quincy adams, adams signs into law a new tariff, the tariff of 1828, raising the tariff from 25% to 45%. that's one heck of a tariff, 45%. why do they do that? to protect american manufacturers and textile gods. clay also says, we need federally funded internal improvements, using federal dollars to finance the building of roads, canals, bridges, and so forth. and then finally, clay says, we need to recharter that bank of

the united states. unlike jefferson or excuse me, unlike hamilton, however, clay frames his defense of the bank of the united states in common man rhetoric. hamilton said the bank is good for financial interests, right. clay says the bank is good for farmers. the bank is good for mechanics, for manufacturers. the bank is good for the country as a whole. we need to recharter this bank and there's the whig party platforms, the whigs support clay's american system. the whigs support utilizing the powers of the federal government to stimulate economic activity and they adopt a broad interpretation of the constitution. the federal government, the whigs say, does have the right to engage in this activity and

most of the whigs are going to come from new england, because of the tariff, right, those factories are in new england, but also from the west. this what is distinguished clay from hamilton. hamilton makes no appeals to the west. clay is from the west. clay's internal improvements in the bank he hopes will get some western votes. but they have opposition and there's that democratic party, the democrats, oppose the american system. the democrats adopt a strict interpretation of the constitution, a very limited view of the federal government's powers. the democrats appeal to farmers, to wealthy plantation owners in the south, but also to common ordinary people to wage earners, to working class labors, laborers in places like new york. new york definitely a hotbed for democratic activity, the south an the west. new york we have martin van buren, a democrat, later

president of the united states, he later leads the democratic party and joins the anti-slavery free soil party. we'll get to that in a fewer lecture. representing the south for the democrats, we have another legendary figure, john c. calhoun. calhoun, a rabid defender of slavery. but also, a rabid opponent of the tariff. he hates that tariff so much, in fact, that calhoun calls the tariff of 1828 the tariff of abominations. this 45% tariff, calhoun says, discriminates against the south and sure enough, calhoun, that same year, in 1828, authors in secret and does so in secret because he's vice president of the united states at the same time, just to give you an idea of how muddy the political world is back then, calhoun authors in secret an essay advocating

nullification, the idea that the states can nullify or make null and void any federal law that they deem unconstitutional, south carolina does not nullify this tariff yet but it puts the idea in their head. well, from the west, we have andrew jackson. andrew jackson. and there he is. right. the man. probably the most colorful president in united states' history. i say probably. i think we could state almost objectively the most colorful president in u.s. history. a giant of a figure. tall, he stood at 6'1". that was very tall for that day and age. 6'1". skinny. bushy eyebrows. hair brushed high above a very

large forehead with piercing blue eyes. look at those eyes. jackson was a hot tempered man. he was a bit stubborn and oftentimes bullheaded. he had strong convictions and he knew when he was owe poesds to something he stood up to that system. well, he had a few nicknames, in fact, as well. andrew jackson. he went by the name old hickory. old hickory. tough as old hickory wood. his second nickname, you won't believe this, shark knife. who has a nickname like shark knife. andrew jackson has a nickname like shark knife. what's andrew jackson's story. jackson was born in 1767 in waxal, north carolina. he was born and his parents died at an early age. he was an orphaned raised with

very -- with no parental restraints. as a young boy he got into brawls and fights. he wasn't all that interested in learning or reading. jackson was 9 years old at the time of the american revolution and you'll see young andy right there in the middle. 9 years old. at age 13, he joined the militia as a messenger. and at one point, he ran into a british officer and the officer told young andy, clean my boots. and young andy said, i ain't cleaning your boots. the officer took his sword, slashed young andy, leaving a permanent scar on his left hand and the left side of his head. well, jackson went on to the -- to help found the state of tennessee, got married, in 1806, someone insulted his wife, he challenged the man to a duel,

shot him. he shot him. the only president in the united states history who has ever killed a man, that's andrew jackson, sharp knife. well andrew jackson joins the military. he joins the military and fights the creek indians in 1814. fights the seminole indians in 1817 and in 1815, earns his fame through the battle of new orleans. this spectacular victory against the british, even though again as you remember, the war was already over. that doesn't seem to matter because this elevates andrew jackson to celebrity status and that is, indeed, what jackson is. a celebrity. he has some political experience. he serves about two years in the u.s. senate, but that's really all. jackson, well, he's also very wealthy. very, very wealthy. there's his plantation.

the hermitage. it starts out 1804, jackson has nine slaves. by the 1830s jackson has well over 100 slaves and slaves are very expensive. most common people cannot afford any at all. jackson has over 100. he's a very, very wealthy man. very well-to-do. well jackson enters like i said, enters the senate in 1823. in 1824 he runs for the presidency, a four-way race between jackson, adams, william crawford and henry clay. jackson wins the popular vote, 42%. jackson also wins the most electoral votes, but jackson does to the win a majority of electoral votes. so the contest goes to the house of representatives. henry clay is speaker of the house, henry clay cannot stand andrew jackson. his rival in the west. henry clay strikes a deal with

john quincy adams and says, tell you what, i'll get the votes you need in the house of representatives if you make me secretary of state. the deal is made. adams wins in the house of representatives, becomes president. clay is elevated to secretary of state. andrew jackson furious with this corrupt bargain, this rigged election. jackson vows, i will get my revenge in four years. sure enough he does. 1828, two-man contest, jackson versus adams. jackson wins in a landslide and look at that electoral map, quite an impressive victory. landslide victory. how does he do it? how does he do it? the answer is simple, democracy. democracy. jackson benefits from universal

male suffrage. we call this period jacksonen democracy, property qualifications for all free men in the united states are eliminated. no property required to vote. double the number of voters in 1828, then you saw in 1824. jackson uses this to his advantage and wages a political campaign that utilizes a form of politics we call populism. populism. populism is a political term that has come up quite a bit in the last now years. what is populism? well, populism is not an ideology per se. you can find populism on the left, you can find populism on the right. populism is a style of politics, a style of politics that speaks

to the interests, to the hopes, to the fears of common, ordinary people. populists tend to pit the people versus the elites. the people versus the establishment. populists tend to warn of nefarious forces in positions of power, whether those positions of power are in government or in the corporate world. nefarious forces. and the cherry on top, populists often benefit from charismatic personalities. very often, with populism, you'll see populists emerge who uses the sheer force of personality to rally people around him and then to use that charisma to attack what he claims, at least, in his defense, to attack corrupt entrenched interests.

that's what populism is. andrew jackson is a populist. andrew jackson inaugurated into the presidency in 1829. and in celebration of his presidency, he throws a party. opens up the white house lawn to the public. hundreds of people from around the country pour in to the white house lawn, shopkeepers, wage earners, common, ordinary, everyday americans, sleeping on hotel room floors and in hallways, they pack in on the white house lawn. a spiked punch bowl and whiskey is being passed around. it's one heck of a party and jackson is stoked. the people are ready for a jackson administration and as you can imagine these guys don't like it one bit. they look at what's going on and oh, this disgusts them. imagine what daniel webster thought of something like this. he's not going to like it too

much. jackson is ready. is the country ready for jackson. what's this man going to do? there's no telling. he's a loose cannon, right. what's going to happen? well henry clay says all right, we lost that election, that's fine, clay says, i'm going to push through my american system. and he begins with internal improvements. clay says, we need a road, we've got all these farmers from my home state of kentucky, we need a road that stretches from lexington, kentucky, to maysville, kentucky, right there along the ohio river. and i want to use federal dollars to build that road.

the bill goes on jackson's -- arrives on jackson's desk after the flies through congress. jackson responds and vetoes the bill. the maysville road veto. one of the first famous vetoes in presidential history. clay very upset. but this is just the beginning. just the beginning. all right. clay says, you vetoed my internal improvements bill, let's try another plank of the american system. let's try a new tariff. the tariff of 1832. now this is a strange tariff because it seems to contradict clay's program. the tariff of 1832 lowers the tariff from 45% to 35%. why does clay do this? well, you'll recall, that tariff

of abominations, in 1828, south carolina and other states in the south are very angry about this. clay fears that maybe 45% is pushing it too much. let's lower it a little bit. high enough still, but just a little bit, to soften some of that opposition. the bill arrives on andrew jackson's desk. president jackson signs the bill. signs the bill. all sounds good. oh, well, south carolina, isn't so pleased with this bill. south carolina nullifies the tariff of 1832. why would they do this? it lowered the tariff. south carolina says, not enough. not enough. this tariff is unconstitutional. we have a right to declare this tariff null and void and if you do not respect our nullification of this bill, of this tariff, we

will secede from the united states. unbelievable. what's going to happen? what's andrew jackson going to do? calhoun is a democrat. well, jackson gets word of this and jackson could not be more furious with john c. calhoun. for jackson, this is an affront to his authority as president. jackson signed the bill. jackson says, quote, to say that any state may at pleasure secede from the union is to say that the united states is not a nation. jackson asked congress to pass a force bill. this bill will permit the president to send 50,000 u.s. troops into south carolina.

jackson prepares the u.s. navy, the u.s. navy now off the coast of south carolina, jackson's ready to invade the state of south carolina. what's going to happen, the nullification crisis, we're on the brink of a civil war over a tariff, who would have thought. henry clay at the last moment, desperate, passes a compromised tariff in the midst of this crisis a compromised tariff that lowers the tariff gradually over a ten-year period, by the end of ten years in stages, that tariff will only be 25%. between this compromised tariff, in between jackson's force bill, south carolina backs off and accepts the tariff. calhoun does not like jackson, right. he didn't like jackson anymore than henry clay does.

but south carolina, they back off. jackson called their bluff. just to prove a point, though, the south carolina legislature nullified the force bill. jackson said whatever. go ahead and do that. oh, well, henry clay, jackson says well, i never thought i would say this, andrew, but, thank you. jackson goes, oh, clay, oh, clay, i'm not done. clay says, you're not done? what do you mean you're not done? what else is there? jackson says, well, there's one other thing. the bank. clay looks at him. the bank? it's funny you mention that, andrew, because i was thinking that maybe we would go ahead and charter this bank a little

early, why not. we don't need to wait until the last moment. it's, you know, 1832, let's get going. let's recharter this bank. i mean you are on board with that, right, mr. president? jackson, well, not only am i not on board, mr. clay, but i am ready to wage war against this bank of the united states and here we have it, the bank war. one of the most dramatic events in united states history. the charter of that second bank will expire very shortly. whigs in congress wish to recharter it early. jackson, to their surprise, they didn't expect this, doueclares s

opposition to the bank. where does this come from? seems to come out of nowhere. jackson did not run his campaign in 1828 against the bank. in fact, jackson made no mention of the bank during his presidential campaign. there was no hint he was going to do something like this. now all of a sudden jackson unleashes a torrent of insults and there you sh v some. first of all jackson says, the bank is unconstitutional. the bank, jackson says, is a monopoly, an unconstitutional mow nop may. not only is it a monopoly, jackson says it's a monster and those are quotes, the monster. jackson says. jackson warns that if this bank is rechartered, we will see in this nation the creation of a new moneyed aristocracy, a financial elite that will overthrow this young republic. we must do everything we can to

stop this nefarious thing, this den of vipers he calls it, den of vipers, pretty strong language. he calls it the hydra of corruption. a hydra. that mythical, multi-headed beast. jackson says, this is a hydra of corruption. what evidence does he have? is this bank truly corrupt as he says? well as evidenced, jackson points out, 59 members of congress, jackson says, 59 members of congress own stock in the bank of the united states. they have a financial interest in pushing this recharter through. not only that, daniel webster, while he's serving in the senate, is also a director of this private bank. a hydra of corruption from jackson's point of view and i, andrew jackson, am going to take this bank down.

henry clay cannot believe it. you're mad. jackson says, no, you're mad. can't believe you're doing this, jackson. jackson looks at clay, oh, yeah. clay, how many times are you going to run for president, clay? huh? two times. three times, four times, five times. how many times do you have to lose, clay, before you realize you can't win, clay. clay is out of his mind, can't believe you're going on. you're bluffing, clay says. i'm not bluffing, mr. clay. i'm not bluffing. i'm going to take this bank down if it's the last thing i do, believe me, i'm going to do it. clay does not believe jackson. congress is in an uproar. all of a sudden what is going to happen. should we side with clay? should we side with jackson? should the bank be rechartered. the number one issue on

everyone's mind. jackson has some enemies. he has some enemies. not just clay. but the president of the bank himself, nicolas bitle. nicolas bitle. a man who really could not be more opposite from andrew jackson. they shared something in common. they were both very determined, very stubborn and bullheaded. but biddle was extremely well educated. jackson didn't have a college education. the only president in our history before or since, accepting george washington, who did not have a college education. biddle at age 10 admitted into the university of pennsylvania. age 10. five years later, if that wasn't enough, biddle transfers to princeton university. at age 15. and he is a genius, a financial

wizard. he knows what he's talking about. but that's also biddle's downfall. he's elitist. he's arrogant. he's a bit -- well a bit -- pretentious. and because of that pretentiousness, well, he looked at someone like jackson like is this really going on. jackson, he doesn't know anything he's talking about. he sees jackson as an unsophisticated dimwit and i just need to ride over this guy. he doesn't have any idea what he's talking about. but the country in an age of jacksonen democracy who are they going to side with, right? nicolas biddle earns the nickname czar nicolas. here's a cartoon, pro-jackson cartoon. faded so you have to forgive me.

old hickory and bully nick going at it. bully nick. and well, not only do we have nicolas biddle, we also have an election coming up. jackson versus clay. the presidential election of 1832. what an election. the drama. look at this. unbelievable. the future of the country. financially speaking, hanging in the balance. you cannot find two greater opponents. clay, in conjunction with daniel webster, he has a plan for his election. clay pushes through congress that summer, just a few months before election day, a bill to recharter the bank of the united states. why does clay do this?

clay says, i think jackson's bluffing. there's no way. in an election year he would do something so risky and so bold as to reject a bill like this. the bank bill pat house. the bank bill passes the senate. the bank bill arrives on the president's desk. veto. jackson stuns the world. and vetoes the bill. unleashing a veto message in which he rails against that bank of the united states. reprinted in newspapers all across the country. now we have an election. just a few months away from the election and again this question of the bank is on everybody's mind. it's the number one issue everyone is talking about it. here's another cartoon. look at that. got to love that cartoon. pro-jackson cartoon. remember the hydra, that hydra of corruption, jackson going up

that -- going up against that financial beast. and well jackson, it's a hard campaign for jackson. nicolas biddle flexes his muscle. nicolas biddle, on behalf of the bank, gives henry clay a $50,000 campaign donation. quite a lot of money for those days. not only that, but the bank, for years already, has been funding and loaning money to newspapers all across the country. and that press, that press, all of a sudden in a couple months before the election, just piling on to jackson, things look really bad. jackson, what's he going to do? what's he going to do? is he going to win? things don't look so good. but jackson is confident. jackson is confident in tmidst this trial, jackson says, quote, the bank is trying to kill me,

but i will kill it. jackson says. i will kill it. and well, what happens? the election occurs. election day comes about. victory for jackson. jackson wins the election in a landslide. clay wins five states. jackson takes the bulk of the states. you'll notice south carolina refuses to vote for jackson in the middle of that nullification crisis. jackson wins the election and victory for the jacksonens. this cartoon here, 1833, pretty interesting cartoon. i took a -- just a back stor, when i was in graduate school i took a digital history course. we had an assignment, we had to take an old photograph or old black and white cartoon and use photo shop to color it in. i had never used photo shop

before so i taught myself how to use photo shop. i thought this cartoon is interesting. it's kind 1/2 bof in bad shape. not bad. for a beginner, right. look at the imagery in this cartoon. pretty incredible. there standing behind jackson the common man. enthusiastically patting his on the back. the bankers, the financiers running away in fear, look at that, the newspapers, the press, all spread out on the ground, they've been defeated. and then look at the demon face. right. oh, and look at the columns, the following columns. what's that all about? well, familiar with the gospels. you'll know that there was time, just one time, that jesus became violent. when was that? when jesus pulled out his whip

and drove out the money changers from the temple, jesus saying get out of my temple to those money changers. jackson, like christ, has driven the match-up changers out of the temple. this is a phenomenal victory for jacksonen democracy. but it's not over. it's not over. jackson, 1833, you'll notice the charter doesn't run out until 1836. jackson says oh, i got to put up with this bank for three more years. i can't do that. there's no telling what these guys are going to try to pull. i've got to kill this bank now. sure enough, jackson, after he wins the election, removes all federal deposits, all treasury deposits, from the bank, starving the bank to death, removing those federal deposits

early and then transferring them to state banks, to pro-jackson state banks. the bank must shut down. these pro-jackson state banks by jackson opponents are pet banks, these are pets of an droig jacks -- andrew jackson. the whigs are furious with jackson. this is a whig cartoon. look at that. king andrew i trampling on the u.s. constitution. you see there, the constitution. internal improvements. the u.s. bank overstepping his constitutional authority, the whigs say, born to demand and many are opposed to jackson. some democrats aopposed to jackson, not just calhoun. he's taken dictator-like steps, he's too king-like, they say. but jackson wins this victory. you'll notice what's that

document jackson's holding up driving the bankers out, order of the removal of the public's money deposited from the u.s. bank, that's in reference to the removal of federal deposits. years later when jackson is on his death bed he's asked, jackson, what was your most proud accomplishment? jackson has four words. i killed the bank. that's it. i killed the bank. his proudest accomplishment. sure enough, from 1836 to 1913, 77 years, in this country, no central bank, no central bank. in 1913, the congress chartered a new central bank. a central bank called the federal reserve. this federal reserve, well, you could teach a whole class on the

federal reserve, right. but in short, one of the country's wealthiest fitnenanci in history, jp morgan, designed the federal reserve. the federal reserve prints our money. a mostly private bank. it prints the money or actually nowadays what it does is digitizes money creation more often than printing and then loans out the money, usually at 1% or 2% interest, where the interest rate is right now, to leading banks, goldman sachs, jpmorgan, to bank of america, all those banks and then they lend it out at a higher rate of interest, making a profit, to people like you or businesses, more often than not, use the new money that's created by the federal reserve and lend it to henl funds to wall street speculator and stock markets and

equities and futures and derivatives. and so it's a very important institution. a cornerstone of the current day banking system. a cornerstone of the currency. that's why if you look closely at a $1 bill, it doesn't say u.s. treasury note on the top, does it? it says federal reserve note. same if you look at a $5 bill right or $10 bill or a $20 bill. look at that. there he is. wow. there he is. andrew jackson himself. that's strange. what is he doing on that bill? call me crazy, but that almost looks intentional. i mean, am i right? that almost looks intentional

almost like a gotcha. we win. kind of like if you went -- if you're a big game hunter, right, a hunter and kill big game, you take that head and you mount it on a wall as a trophy, right. or maybe i'm wrong. i might be wrong. maybe they forget that jackson would be totally opposed to everything it stood for. one way or another, pretty interesting story. what happened in the short term after jackson's presidency. the democrats win in 1836. martin van buren, vice president, defeats daniel webster in the 1836 election. but martin van buren, he runs into some troubles. a new financial panic sweeps the country. the panic of 1837. all those pet banks, those state banks that receive those federal deposits, use those deposits pyramid from them, create new credit, over speculation in western land, creates a happened

bubble, the bubble pops in 1837, the democrats become extremely unpopular across the country, now it's the whigs turn. the whigs have their chance. in 1840 the whigs run against martin van buren. maybe they will run henry clay. the whigs say we'll play it safe. could have been less war heros. the hero of the battle of tippy canoe in 1811. william harrison, well to be safe, we're also going to put on harrison's ticket a democrat, a democrat who is very critical of jackson. john tyler, who is a virginia planter, a jeffersonian, but thought jackson again was too king-like. and so we'll throw a democrat on there. that's going to make this a safe, moderate ticket. no problem here. and they were right. look at that landslide for the

whigs. whigs overwhelmingly win the election. not only that the whigs for the first time control the house, control the senate, control the presidency. henry clay. rubbing his hand. he ready to go. william henry harrison delivers his inauguration speech. a storm comes through washington, d.c. pouring down rain. during the speech, in that rain, william henry harrison, 68 years old, comes down with pneumonia and dies one month later. unbelievable clay says. now john tyler is president. totally not what we planned, clay says. that's okay. we're going to -- tyler is not jackson at least. jackson is not in office. we're going to push through a new bill for a bank, this time he calls it something different, bank of the united states has been a bit stains, the name of

that. he calls it the fiscal bank. the fiscal bank. it flies through the house. it flies through the senate. gets on john tyler's bill. veto. clay can't believe it. vetoes the bill. all right. we're going to try again. clay pushes through another bill. this time, we won't even call it a bank, all right. that's how much the country hates banks. they will call it the fiscal corporation. it's the same thing but renaming it. fiscal corporation. goes through the house. goes through the senate. reaches tyler's desk. veto again. john tyler vetoes the bank bill twice. clay can't believe this is happening. we're going to have to wait four more years, clay says. this is unbelievable we have to put up with this. they wait four years. finally clay says all right, i'm doing it this time. i can't trust anybody but myself. 1844, he runs for president against james k. polk and loses

the election. poor, poor henry clay. well, so that's the bank war episode and it's a -- that's a fun episode, i think. however you feel about the bank war, right. maybe it was good, maybe it was bad, but it was an interesting event, right. well there was a darker side to jackson. a darker side to his presidency. a darker side to populism. and andrew jackson, during his administration, we have one of the harshest, one of the cruelest events in u.s. history and that, of course, is the trail of tears. the removal of roughly 100,000 native americans from the old southwest.

cotton is the -- is the big fad of the day. cotton plantations spreading all across the south. and well, standing in the way of the cotton plantations are 125 native americans, the creek, the cherokee, the seminole, other groups. in 1830, both the whigs and the democrats push through congress with jackson's signature the indian removal act, removing or giving the president permission to negotiate with indian tribes to remove them from the old southwest into a new territory, indian territory, what is today oklahoma. jackson defends this by saying oh, look, you know, i want to preserve indian culture. indian culture is at risk and so we're going to move them forcibly into oklahoma where they will forever be able to live in peace. of course a few years later

settlers arrive in oklahoma and want that land as well. but jackson does run into an opponent. and that opponent is that opponent is the supreme court. in 1831, in 1831, the cherokee sue the state of georgia. goes all the way to the supreme court. and chief justice john marshall rules in favor of the cherokee. he says removing their land is unconstitutional. it looks like the plan is done. andrew jackson in typical manner, very jacksonian manner, responds to chief justice marshall and he says justice marshall has made his decision, quote, now let him enforce it. and he completely ignores the decision and the indian removal goes through. the most infamous act, episode

in this removal was the trail of tears in 1838. 1839. 15,000 cherokee and actually next lecture, really look a little closer at this cherokee civilization, because they made a really strong effort to try to comply. wasn't enough. wasn't enough. the cherokee 15,000 of them removed from georgia to oklahoma on a journey on foot that was 116 days. terrible conditions. roughly 1 in 4 cherokee die of disease and/or malnutrition. that's 4,000 cherokee. just to give you an idea. there's the route of the indian removal. this will give you an idea of how bad things were. there was a confederate soldier after the civil war from the state of georgia and he had this

to say about the trail of tears. he said, i fought the war between the states and have seen many men shot. but the cherokee removal was the cruelest work i ever knew. and so the conclusion. what can we say about jackson. what can we say about democracy? what can we say about populism? it's a lot of lessons here, right. i think democracy can do a lot of good, right? democracy can do a lot of good. populism can do a lot of good. strong personalities can do a lot of good. but all three of those things can also do a lot of bad his an well. populism or jacksonian-style democracy is risky. it's almost like rolling the dice. right? you don't know how it's going to turn out.

you don't know. you don't know. most of the time people don't go for populous. during times of uncertainty, during times in which things -- there's a sense there's a corrupt elite system that often will give an avenue to populists. good or bad. demagogue or well meaning. whatever have you. and the avenue can often be exploited. so you have to be careful. you have to be very careful in moments like this. jackson. interesting guy. definitely an interesting guy. well, next class we have a new republic. new republic. the republic of texas. and that republic of texas is going to apply for statehood in the united states and that's

going to cause its own controversy. so that does it. enjoy your weekend. and i will see you on monday. thursday at 7:00 p.m. eastern join american history tv for a live tour of the museum of the american revolution in philadelphia. the museum's president and ceo michael quinn and collections and exhibitions vice president scott stevenson will introduce artifacts and exhibits throughout the museum. including george washington's war tent. and a piece of the old north bridge from the battle of con card. hear stories about the american revolution. and you can participate in the live program with your phone calls and tweets. watch american history tv. live from the museum of the american revolution. thursday starting at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span 3. >> next, the manhattan project

is the subject of a lecture by george mason university history professor martin sherwin. he's the author of "a world destroyed, hiroshima and its legacies." and co-author of a pulitzer surprise winning biography of j. oppenheimer. details the development of the atomic bomb. through the use of atomic bombs on the japanese cities of nag s nagasaki and hiroshima. it's just under two hours. >> our speaker tonight is martin sherwin. he's a professor of history at george mason university. his biography of j. robert oppenheimer won the 2006 pulitzer surprise the national book critic circle award in the english speaking union book award. he's also the awe are though of "a world destroyed, the atomic bomb and the prize