Book review: Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini

Andrew Jackson by Robert V. Remini is exactly what I wanted to read as a biography of the seventh President of the United States. While the author has written numerous works about Andrew Jackson, this book is a concise 225 page biography published in 1966 but contains everything you’d want to know about the subject. It covers Andrew Jackson’s childhood and his early days as a Tennessee lawyer and congressman. Jackson’s rise to fame as the hero of the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812 as well as his campaigns against the Seminole Indians in Florida are included, as is his presidency.

What sparked my interest to read a biography of a President whose term of office ended 170 years ago? The answer is in “the bank war.” As President, Andrew Jackson took on and defeated the Second Bank of the United States, the nation’s central bank at the time and a precursor to today’s Federal Reserve. According to the book, Jackson “regarded the Bank as dangerous to the liberty of the American people because it represented a fantastic centralization of economic and political power under private control. It was a ‘monopoly’ with special privileges, and yet it was not subject to presidential, congressional, or popular regulation. Only the financial interest of the B.U.S. (Bank of the United States) constituted any real control of this ‘monster,’ and to Jackson that was no control at all.”

In vetoing the recharter of the Second Bank of the United States (previous U.S. central banks were granted only 20 year charters by Congress), Jackson “did what he believed was his sworn duty as chief executive: to terminate the ability of the Bank to ‘control’ the American people and their government.”

Jackson’s views about central banks are just as relevant today as they were in 1832.