Section 3

Just Court Cases, Vetoes, Letters, and Quotes

Madison Veto #1

Blocks creation of Episcopalian Church with Federal funds. Vetoed due to 1st Amendment

Madison Veto #5

Blocks rechartering of BUS because he thinks the structure is faulty and would lead to the owners profiting too much

Madison Veto #7

Blocks internal improvements for fear of it leading to a slippery slope of Federal overreach

Monroe Veto #1

Blocks repair of the Cumberland Road since it classifies under internal improvements

Jackson Veto #2

Overridden veto which blocks internal improvements because the national debt is too high and needs to be paid off first

Jackson Veto #5

Blocks the rechartering of the national bank

Tyler veto #1

Blocks the creation of the Fiscal Bank of the US and says it won’t function properly

Tyler veto #2

Blocks bill for managing revenue via Fiscal Bank of the US and says it gives the FBUS an unfair advantage over state banks

Tyler veto #8

Blocks funding for creation and repairs of harbors and rivers as it classifies as internal improvements and therefore it is the responsibilities of the states

Polk veto #2

Blocks $1.3 million for internal improvements uses Jackson’s example of the Wabash river

Washington’s Farewell Address

Washington resigns after 2 terms and warns future presidents about the dangers of sectionalism, partisanship, and foreign alliances

Washington to James McHenry 1798

Letter to Adams’s Secretary of State which discusses officer recruitment in the Additional Army and how the French are untrustworthy

Jefferson to John Taylor 1798

A letter to fellow politician which talks about a patent for a new type of plow, but then diverges into a discussion about how Federalists are going to ruin the country via war, taxes, and the abolition of the constitution

Washington to John Trumball 1799

Letter which talks about how the Democratic-Republicans are causing issues with France due to their partisanship. He also says that he won’t run for president again, but will serve as a soldier shall war break out

Jefferson’s Inaugural Address 1801

A Speech which says that everyone needs to work together, and that the people must oppose a tyrannical government. It also says that the country needs to shift to a pro-weak government, pro agricultural nation, and promote freedom

Quincy Adams to Uriah Tracy 1804

Letter which talks about how he wants to get rid of the 3/5ths Compromise to break the South’s overinflated power

Hamilton-Burr Duel by William Coleman 1804

A Collection of notes which discusses a duel between Hamilton and Burr. It talks about how Hamilton prevented Burr from being the Governor of New York and how Hamilton shot into the air, but Burr shot him in his ribs

Jefferson on the Burr Conspiracy 1807

Burr tried to conquer Oklahoma and Texas and establish his own empire, but was betrayed by fellow conspirator General Wilkinson. He was tried for treason in the Supreme Court, but was let go due to lack of evidence

Hartford Convention from Niles Weekly Register 1815

Portrays the Hartford Convention negatively as it said that the Convention wanted to divide the Union, which would allow the British to conquer the North and the South

Amendments Proposed by the Hartford Convention 1814

(1) Abolish the 3/5ths Compromise, so representation in only by the free people

(2) A new state can only be accepted into the Union with a 2/3rd majority

(3) Embargoes can only last for 60 days at maximum

(4) Embargoes can only be initiated with a 2/3rds majority

(5) Need 2/3 majority to declare war unless the country is defending itself

(6) Naturalized Citizens can not hold public office

(7) President can’t be reelected and presidents can’t be from the same state in a row

Should nothing happen after the convention, there is a call for another Convention in Boston to take even more drastic actions

Madison to Congress 1815

Speech which calls for more internal improvements (which were lacking in the War of 1812), a National University in DC, and support for fledgling Democracies

Jefferson to John Holmes 1820

A letter in which he points out that the South states trying to expand slavery via the Missouri Compromise will cause greater resistance and the abolition of slavery. He also says division will hurt the Union

Madison on Voting Rights 1821

Discusses how universal voting is important, but how to incorporate effectively without minoritizing land owners. He then gives options like different groups voting for different branches of government or larger districts

Rise of the 2nd Party System by Clay 1823

Letter to Thomas J. Wharton which shows the rise of the Democratic Party while also talking about elections and emancipations

Restrictions for African Americans 1824

The Free Blacks had restrictions, such as a lack of citizenship. Gives example of John Harris of Massachusetts who needs to bring many documents along when traveling to the South in order to avoid being mistaken as a runaway slave

Quincy Adams to John McLean 1824

A letter which portrayed John Adams as being a brilliant president while also saying that he himself wants more internal improvements

George Kremer to the Colombian Observer 1824

A letter which states that the National Republicans led by Quincy Adams and Henry Clay are bad and he and other Democrats are mad at them for the Corrupt Bargain

Thomas R. Dew on Virginia Legislature of the Nat Turner Rebellion 1832

In his speech, he proposed that slavery is a good thing, but Virginia overreacted over a slave rebellion, which raised feelings of insecurity

South Carolina Ordinance of Nullification 1832

The state says that the 1828 “Tariffs of Abomination“ are unconstitutional, and will nullify those tariffs. In the case that the Federal Government enforces the tariff, the state will secede

Jackson Proclamation on Nullification 1832

Says that states are unable to nullify Federal law, and therefore the Ordinance of Nullification is unconstitutional. It also says that people are the citizens of the Nation, not the individual state

Webster’s “Constitution is a Compact“ 1833

A speech in which the Compact theory is refuted by saying that the Constitution calls upon the power of the people, not the states

Thomas Dorr addresses the People of Rhode Island 1834

Speech which calls upon the state to expand voting rights to all white men due to the fact that the country was built upon equality and freedom

Sam Morse’s “Foreign Conspiracy in the US“ 1835

He wrote down that Catholic immigrants from Italy and Ireland wanted to overthrow the Protestant US and said that those who don’t think this will happen are ignorant to the conspiracy

Angelina Grimke to Catherine Beecher 1838

A letter which pointed out that abolition of slavery will lead to other reforms such as women’s suffrage, since discrimination of any sort should not be a thing

Robert Purvis’s “Black Philadelphians defend voting” 1838

Asks for Pennsylvania to expand voting to rich free blacks as a change in the constitution blocked blacks from voting

Will Yates’s “Rights of Colored Men“ 1838

A pro-black text which says that black people owe their allegiance to the same nation and therefore should be Citizenship and equal rights as it is their fundamental right

James Buchanan to Henry A. Muhlenberg 1840

Says that Harrison’s whig campaign is silly as he believes there is no chance Harrison will win with his commoner tactics when going up against Martin Van Buren even despite the Democratic Party’s division regarding the Panic of 1837

Garret Smith’s Report to the Liberty Party 1840

The support for abolition during the election of 1840 is increasing and he wants the support to expand to the rest of the country

Henry Garnet’s Address to Slaves 1843

At the National Negro Convention in New York, he says that for blacks to receive their rights and emancipation, they need to resist the wills of the slaveholders

Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Address at Seneca Falls Convention 1848

A speech which says that women need suffrage and that is the only way that women will be happy and the domestic life will be stable

Gerrit Smith to JK Ingalls 1848

Says that while Van Buren is the candidate of the Free Soil Party, he believes that Buren isn’t an ardent supporter of abolition and would only support a president if he is an abolitionist.

Declaration of Sentiments 1848

States that men have oppressed women for long periods of time and treated them unfairly and unequally. Demands that women be given the right to vote, owning property, holding a decent wage, getting education, and being treated fairly.

in Marbury v . Madison

by John Marshall

“It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is. Those who apply the rule to particular cases, must of necessity expound and interpret that rule. If two laws conflict with each other, the courts must decide on the operation of each.”

in Fletcher v. Peck

by John Marshall

“When a law is in the nature of a contract, when absolute rights have vested under that contract, a repeal of the law cannot devest those rights.”

in Martin v. Hunter’s Lessee

by Joseph Story

“That the writ of error in this cause was improvidently allowed under the authority of that act; that the proceedings thereon in the Supreme Court were coram non judice in relation to this Court, and that obedience to its mandate be declined by the Court.”

in McCulloch v. Maryland

by John Marshall

“That the power to tax involves the power to destroy; that the power to destroy may defeat and render useless the power to create; that there is a plain repugnance, in conferring on one government a power to control the constitutional measures of another, which other, with respect to those very measures, is declared to be supreme over that which exerts the control, are propositions not to be denied.”

in McCulloch v. Maryland

by John Marshall

“We are unanimously of the opinion, that the law passed by the legislature of Maryland, imposing a tax on the Bank of the United States, is unconstitutional and void. This opinion does not deprive the States of any resources which they originally possessed.”

in Cohens v. Virginia

by John Marshall

“By the sixth article of the Constitution, laws of the United States made in pursuance of the Constitution, are declared a part of the supreme law of the land, and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the laws of their State to the contrary notwithstanding. If then, laws of the District be laws of the United States, within the meaning of the constitution, it will follow, that they may be carried to the extent of an interference with every department of State legislation; and whenever they shall so interfere, they are to be considered of paramount authority.”

in Cohens v. Virginia

by John Marshall

“The Constitution and laws of a State, so far as they are repugnant to the Constitution and laws of the United States, are absolutely void. These States are constituent parts of the United States. They are members of one great empire -- for some purposes sovereign, for some purposes subordinate.”

in Worcester v. Georgia

by John Marshall

“The Cherokee nation, then, is a district community occupying its own territory in which the laws of Georgia can have no force. The whole intercourse between the United States and this nation, is, by our constitution and laws, vested in the government of the United States.”

in Prigg v. Pennsylvania

by Joseph Story

“As to the authority so conferred upon state magistrates [to deal with runaway slaves], while a difference of opinion has existed, and may exist still on the point, in different states, whether state magistrates are bound to act under it; none is entertained by this Court that state magistrates may, if they choose, exercise that authority, unless prohibited by state legislation.”

in Farewell Address, by George Washington, on Sept. 17, 1796

“The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”

in Farewell Address, by George Washington, on Sept. 17, 1796

“Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.”

in Farewell Address, by George Washington, on Sept. 17, 1796

“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.”

Washington and the Republicans - Letter to James McHenry, 1798

“The motives ascribed to them are, that in such a situation they would endeavor to divide, & contaminate the army, by artful & seditious discourses, and perhaps at a critical movement, bring on the confusion.”

Washington and the Republicans - Letter to James McHenry, 1798

“that you could as soon scrub the blackamoor white, as to change the principles of a protest Democrat; and that he will leave nothing unattempted to overturn the Government of this Country.”

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, June 4, 1798

“Perhaps this party division is necessary to induce each to watch & delate to the people the proceedings of the other. But if on a temporary superiority of the one party, the other is to resort to a scission of the Union, no federal government can ever exist.”

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, June 4, 1798

“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to it’s true principles.”

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Taylor, June 4, 1798

“A single sentence, got hold of by the Porcupines, will suffice to abuse & persecute me in their papers for months.”

Washington on Political Partisanship, Letter to Jonathan Trumball, July 1799

“Let that party [the Jeffersonian Republicans] set up a broomstick, and call it a true son of Liberty, a Democrat, or give it any other epithet that will suit their purpose, and it will command their votes in toto! 

Washington on Political Partisanship, Letter to Jonathan Trumball, July 1799

“But as no problem is better defined in my mind than that principle, not men, is now, and will be, the object of contention; and that I could not obtain a solitary vote from that Party; that any other respectable Federal character would receive the same suffrages that I should;”

Jefferson’s “First Inaugural Address,” March 4, 1801

“Let us, then, fellow-citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that, having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions. … But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle. We are all Republicans, we are all Federalists.”

Jefferson’s “First Inaugural Address,” March 4, 1801

“possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people? Still one thing more, fellow-citizens -- a wise and frugal Government.”

John Quincy Adams on Slavery in the Early Republic, Letter to Senator Uriah Tracy, 1804

“You will have seen by the proceedings in our Legislature that a serious alarm has of late been so active at the seat of government to establish an impregnable rampart of Slaveholding power, under the false batteries of democracy. . .”

The Hamilton-Burr Duel, from A Collection of Facts and Documents, relative to the Death of Major-General Alexander Hamilton by William Coleman, 1804

“Take care of that pistol; it is undischarged, and still cocked; it may go off and do harm. Pendleton knows” (attempting to turn his head towards him) ‘that I did not intend to fire at him.’”

Message to Congress on the Burr Conspiracy, Thomas Jefferson, January 22, 1807

“I proceed to state, under the reserve therein expressed, information received touching an illegal combination of private individuals against the peace and safety of the Union, and a military expedition planned by them against the territories of a power in amity with the United States, with the measures I have pursued for suppressing the same.”

Message to Congress on the Burr Conspiracy, Thomas Jefferson, January 22, 1807

“I received intimations that designs were in agitation in the Western country unlawful and unfriendly to the peace of the Union, and that the prime mover in these was Aaron Burr…”

The Hartford Convention and State of the War of 1812 from the Niles Weekly Register, January 28, 1815

“If the negotiations at Ghent shall not have very considerable advanced before the news of the “‘Hartford convention’ reaches the cabinet of London, I am clearly of opinion, that they will be suspended, or shuffled off, until the proceedings are known; for nothing is more evident than that the war is prosecuted for revenge or ambition;”

Amendments to the Constitution Proposed by the Hartford Convention, 1814

“It will in the opinion of this Convention be expedient for the Legislatures of the several States to appoint Delegates to another Convention, to meet at Boston, in the State of Massachusetts, on the third Thursday of June next with such powers and instructions as the exigency of a crisis so momentous may require.”

James Madison Asks Congress to Support Internal Improvements, 1815

“Among the means of advancing the public interest the occasion is a proper one for recalling the attention of Congress to the great importance of establishing throughout our country the roads and canals which can best be executed under the national authority. No objects within the circle of political economy so richly repay the expense bestowed on them; there are none the utility of which is more universally ascertained and acknowledged; none that do more honor to the governments whose wise and enlarged patriotism duly appreciates them.”

Letter to John Holmes, Thomas Jefferson, April 22, 1820

“But this momentous question, like a fire bell in the night, awakened and filled me with terror. I considered it at once as the knell of the Union. It is hushed, indeed, for the moment. But this is a reprieve only, not a final sentence.”

Letter to John Holmes, Thomas Jefferson, April 22, 1820

“if, in that way, a general emancipation and expatriation could be effected; and, gradually, and with due sacrifices, I think it might be. But as it is, we have the wolf by the ears, and we can neither hold him, nor safely let him go.”

Letter to John Holmes, Thomas Jefferson, April 22, 1820

“I regret that I am now to die in the belief, that the useless sacrifice of themselves by the generation of 1776, to acquire self-government and happiness to their country, is to be thrown away by the unwise and unworthy passions of their sons, and that my only consolation is to be, that I live not to weep over it.”

James Madison, Note to His Speech on the Right of Suffrage, 1821

“And whenever the Majority shall be without landed or other equivalent property and without the means or hope of acquiring it, what is to secure the rights of property agst. the danger from an equality & universality of suffrage, vesting compleat power over property in hands without a share in it: not to speak of a danger in the mean time from a dependence of an increasing number on the wealth of a few?”

James Madison, Note to His Speech on the Right of Suffrage, 1821

“No free Country has ever been without parties, which are a natural offspring of Freedom. An obvious and permanent division of every people is into the owners of the Soil, and the other inhabitants. In a certain sense the Country may be said to belong to the former.”

James Madison, Note to His Speech on the Right of Suffrage, 1821

“the security for the holders of property when the minority, can only be derived from the ordinary influence possessed by property, & the superior information incident to its holders; from the popular sense of justice enlightened & enlarged by a diffusive education;”

The Rise of the Second Party System, Letter to Thomas J. Wharton, Henry Clay, 1823

“The slave interest was too predominant for us and we were beaten at the elections, but in several important ones, we lost by very small majorities. My opinion is unchanged. I advised the Delegate from Missouri to strive to get a provision inserted in the Constitution of that State for gradual emancipation.”

Increasing Restrictions on African Americans, Certificate of Citizenship by Massachusetts, issued by Ezekiel Savage for John Harris, 1824

“not having made provision for Persons of Colour to obtain Certificates of Citizenship at the Custom Houses; this is granted to show that the said John Harris is a Citizen of the United States of America, and ought to be respected accordingly,”

John Quincy Adams Calls for a Vigorous Role of Government, Letter to John McLean, John Quincy Adams, 1824

“The question of the power of Congress, to authorize the making of internal improvements, is, in other words, a question, whether the people of this Union, in forming their social compact, avowedly for the purpose of promoting their general welfare, have performing their work in a manner so ineffably stupid, as to deny themselves the means of bettering their own condition.

US vs. Thomas Cooper 1800

Judge: Samuel Chase and Richard Peters

Issues: Constitutionality of the Sedition Acts

Articles/Amendment involved: 1st Amendment

Question: Can the government limit seditious speech if it is true?

Conclusion: found guilty of publishing a sedition article, fined $400, and imprisoned for six months. Shortly after the trial, the Sedition Acts were repealed.

Marbury vs. Madison 1803

Justice: John Marshall

Issues: Constitutional status of judicial appointments

Articles/Amendment involved: Article 1, 2, and 3

Question: Do plaintiffs have a right to receive their commissions? Does the Supreme Court have the authority to order the delivery of their commissions?

Opinion written by: John Marshall

Conclusion: The secretary of state was in the wrong, however, the Court also found the Judiciary Act of 1789 to be unconstitutional as it extended the Court's original jurisdiction and modified the Constitution. In the end, Marshall established the principle of judicial review which strengthened the Court's power while able to find a way not to force the Court into a situation where it would have to enforce its ruling without the means to do so.

Fletcher vs. Peck 1810

Justice: John Marshall

Issues: Contract clause being overturned by a state

Articles/Amendment involved: Article 2 Section 10 and Article 4

Question: Could a contract be invalidated by the state legislature?

Opinion written by: John Marshall

Conclusion: The Court found the legislature's repeal of the law unconstitutional as the sale between 2 parties was a binding contract. It cannot be invalidated due to the constitutional safeguard on contracts.

Martin vs Hunter’s Lessee 1816

Justice: John Marshall

Issues: Constitutional status of state court rulings

Articles/Amendment involved: Article 3 and 4 Clause 2

Question: Can the Supreme Court appellate review state court cases involving federal law?

Opinion written by: Joseph Story

Conclusion: The Constitution grants federal courts the power to review state court rulings that deal with federal laws. The Court stated that federal interpretations of federal law supersede state interpretations.

McCulloch vs. Maryland 1819

Justice: John Marshall

Issues: Constitutional status of Second Bank

Articles/Amendment involved: Article 1

Question: Does Congress have authority to establish a bank? Can state law interfere with congressional powers?

Opinion written by: John Marshall

Conclusion: The Court ruled that Congress had the power to incorporate the bank as a part of the Necessary and Proper Clause. Also, states could not tax federal government institutions since that would give them the power to limit or destroy federal creations.

Cohens vs. Virginia 1821

Justice: John Marshall

Issues: Constitutional status of hierarchy in court system

Articles/Amendment involved: Article 3 and 4

Question: Does the Supreme Court have the power to review the Virginia Supreme Court's ruling?

Opinion written by: John Marshall

Conclusion: The Court ruled that the Supreme Court has jurisdiction to review state criminal proceedings and cases involving constitutional questions. If a state law violates a federal law, the state law is void. The lottery was a local matter which gave the state the right to fine the individuals.

Worcester vs. Georgia 1832

Justice: John Marshall

Issues: Constitutional status of Indian tribes

Articles/Amendment involved: Supremacy Clause (Article 4 Clause 2)

Question: Can a state regulate agreements between its citizens and the Cherokee Nation?

Opinion written by: John Marshall

Conclusion: Writ of error was issued to the Superior Court of Gwinnett County, Georgia, The Georgia law violates 1802 "An act to regulate trade and intercourse with the Indian Tribes," 1791 Treaty of Holston, and other acts established Cherokee standing and territory. The decision established the states could not enforce laws on Native land.

Prigg vs. Pennsylvania 1842

Justice: Roger Taney

Issues: Constitutional status of fugitive slaves

Articles/Amendment involved: Article 4 and 6

Question: Can a state pass a law that overrules a federal law involving enslaved persons?

Opinion written by: Joseph Story

Conclusion: The Pennsylvania law was unconstitutional as it violated the Fugitive Slave Law, the rights of extradition between states, and the Supremacy Clause. Justice Story added in his opinion that state officials did not have to help enforce fugitive slave laws as they were federal jurisdiction. Each justice wrote their own concurring opinion along with the one dissenting opinion by Justice John McLean who wrote that Pennsylvania's law was not in violation of federal law and Prigg had not followed either. Overall, the decision weakened the enforcement of the current Fugitive Slave Act.

Madison Veto #1

"because the Bill exceeds the rightful authority, to which Governments are limited by the essential distinction between Civil and Religious functions, and violates, in particular, the Article of the Constitution of the United States which declares, that 'Congress shall make no law respecting a Religious establishment."

Madison Veto #1

"would be a precident (sic) for giving to religious Societies as such, a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty."

Madison Veto #5

"it is as reasonable as it is requisite that the Government, in return for these extraordinary concessions to the bank, should have a greater security for attaining the public objects of the institution than is presented in the bill."

Madison Veto #7

"I am constrained by the insuperable difficulty I feel in reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States to return it with that objection to the House of Representatives,"

Madison Veto # 7

"But seeing that such a power is not expressly given by the Constitution, and believing that it can not be deduced from any part of it without an inadmissible latitude of construction and a reliance on insufficient precedents,"

Monroe Veto #1

"I am of the opinion that Congress does not possess this power; that the States individually can not grant it, for although they may assent to the appropriation of money within their limits for such purposes, they can grant no power of jurisdiction or sovereignty by special compacts with the United States. This power can be granted only by an amendment to the Constitution and in the mode prescribed by it."

Jackson Veto #2

"such grants have always been professedly under the control of the general principle that the works which might be thus aided should be 'of a general, not local, national, not State,' character. A disregard of this distinction would of necessity lead to the subversion of the federal system."

Jackson Veto #2

"the cause in which there has been so much martyrdom, and from which so much was expected by the friends of liberty, may be abandoned, and the degrading truth that man is unfit for self-government admitted. And this will be the case if expediency be made a rule of construction in interpreting the Constitution."

Jackson Veto #2

"Notwithstanding the union of the Government with the corporation by whose immediate agency any work of internal improvement is carried on, the inquiry will still remain, Is it national and conducive to the benefit of the whole, or local and operating only to the advantage of a portion of the Union?"

Jackson Veto #2

"How gratifying the effect of presenting to the world the sublime spectacle of a Republic of more than 12,000,000 happy people, in the fifty-fourth year of her existence, after having passed through two protracted wars--the one for the acquisition and the other for the maintenance of liberty--free from debt...This is the more necessary in order that they may be equitable among the several States, promote harmony between different sections of the Union and their representatives, preserve other parts of the Constitution from being undermined by the exercise of doubtful powers or the too great extension of those which are not so."

Jackson Veto #5

The bill"... was presented to me on the 4th July instant. Having considered it with that solemn regard to the principles of the Constitution which the day was calculated to inspire, and come to the conclusion that it ought not to become a law,"

Jackson Veto #5

"One Congress, in 1791, decided in favor of a bank; another, in 1811, decided against it. One Congress, in 1815, decided against a bank; another, in 1816, decided in its favor. Prior to the present Congress, therefore, the precedents drawn from that source were equal. If we resort to the States, the expressions of legislative, judicial, and executive opinions against the bank have been probably to those in its favor as 4 to 1. There is nothing in precedent, therefore, which, if its authority were admitted, ought to weigh in favor of the act before me."

Jackson Veto #5

“More than eight millions of the stock of this bank are held by foreigners. By this act the American Republic proposes virtually to make them a present of some millions of dollars. For these gratuities to foreigners and to some of our own opulent citizens the act secures no equivalent whatever."