His annual average for internal improvements was a paltry $1. 3 million concentrated on the river system and lighthouses. South Carolina stirred his patriotism and indignation, however, when it threatened the Union and declared nullification of the Tariff of 1828.
Jackson was firm and uncompromising and ordered that the duties be collected, regardless.
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When a lower compromise tariff was passed, by Congress, North Carolina repealed its nullification laws. Apparently, Jackson was the people’s president only for the whites. Under guise of humanitarian concern to the Native American’s culture, he adjusted his policy of national sovereignty to that of the States when it came to the forcible relocation of the Native Americans.
Adding insult to injury, or to a quarter of the 15,000 Cherokees which was literally death, the $6 million cost for the removal was even deducted to the $9 million awarded to them. His weak grasp of the economic and financial aspects of governance was again made apparent when he fought the Bank of the United States (B. U. S. ) which he deemed unconstitutional, exercise privilege monopoly and benefited only the bankers of the Northeast.
When he got re-elected, he embarked to weaken the B. U. S. by transferring the Federal Funds to selected state banks. Each of these state banks issued paper money and soon the flood of bank notes caused inflation made worse by land speculation in the West. The 1836 Specie Circular came too late that when the new President, Martin Van Buren came into office, a financial panic had already swept the country.
