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A Brief Look at American History

 

            President Jackson hated the Bank of the United States. No bank in America had more power than it, and Jackson mistrusted monopolistic banking. The Bank of the U.S. controlled much of the nation's gold and silver. The President of the Bank was Nicholas Biddle. The war between Jackson and Biddle erupted in 1832, when Daniel Webster and Henry Clay presented Congress with a bill to renew the Bank of the United States' charter. The re-charter bill was passed through Congress, but was vetoed by President Jackson. The veto not only stopped the bank bill, but increased the power of the President. Jackson said that the bank was unconstitutional, but was actually saying that he personally found it harmful to the nation. The Supreme Court had said that the Bank of the U.S. was constitutional earlier. Jackson decided he was going to slowly shrink the amount of money in the Bank by using it to pay for day-to-day expenses of the government, this way the Bank of the U.S. would surely die. .
             Indian Removal Policy .
             Many Americans were moving south and erasing and redrawing treaty lines over and over again. The Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Seminoles were trying hard to learn the ways of the whites. Most whites felt that the Indian's attempts weren't good enough. In 1828, Georgia Legislature declared the Cherokee tribal council illegal. It asserted its own rule over Indian affairs and lands. The Cherokees appealed this move to the Supreme Court, which said Georgia's move was unconstitutional. President Jackson wanted to open Indian lands to white settlement, and refused to recognize the Court's decision. He proposed a removal of the remaining eastern tribes. The removal was supposed to be voluntary, but ended up not being. The tribes would move west of the Mississippi, where they would be permanently free of whites. The removal policy led to the forced removal of more than 100,000 Indians. Countless Indians died on forced marches.


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