In 1830, Jackson's opponents sent two internal improvement bills to President Jackson for his signature, just before adjourning. The move looks to be a political stunt to force Jackson's hand and create a campaign issue that would put Henry Clay in the White house in 1832. Rather than issue a veto, President Jackson held on to the bills for further consideration. By doing so, he used a process called the pocket veto to kill the bills without sending a statement of approval or disapproval. It was a savvy political move on the part of Andrew Jackson, and in his 1830 State of the Union address he explained his reason for not signing the bill.
"Almost at the moment of the adjournment of your last session two bills -- the one entitled "An act for making appropriations for building light houses, light boats, beacons, and monuments, placing buoys, and for improving harbors and directing surveys", and the other "An act to authorize a subscription for stock in the Louisville and Portland Canal Company" -- were submitted for my approval. It was not possible within the time allowed for me before the close of the session to give to these bills the consideration which was due to their character and importance, and I was compelled to retain them for that purpose. I now avail myself of this early opportunity to return them to the Houses in which they respectively originated with the reasons which, after mature deliberation, compel me to withhold my approval."What is a pocket Veto? If a president fails to sign a bill and cannot return the bill to Congress within a 10-day period because Congress is not in session, it is considered vetoed, and cannot be overridden as such. This is called a pocket veto, and the only action Congress can take is to re-introduce the bill in the next session. President Andrew Jackson was not the first to use the power of the pocket veto, but he was the first to use it for political purposes. During President Jackson's two terms he vetoed twelve bills, of which five were regular vetoes and seven were pocket vetoes. Not one of these vetoes were overridden, as was the case with all presidential vetoes until 1845. Twelve vetoes may not sound like much today, but up until the Civil War, Jackson retained the record for the most presidential vetoes. Following the war, President Johnson vetoed 29 bills and Ulysses S. Grant vetoed 93. For comparison, during Franklin Roosevelt administration vetoed 635 bills, 263 of which were pocket vetoes. In 1830, both bills that Jackson vetoed dealt with internal improvement. The first was an Act to make appropriations for building light houses, light boats and improving harbors, and the second an act to authorize the public purchase of stock in the Louisville and Portland Canal Company. While, Jackson did not communicate to Congress any intentions regarding these bills, it is hard to imagine that members of Congress would not have known that Jackson would have reservations. First, Jackson often shared his concern regarding public debt and his intentions to reduce government spending. Jackson suggested that large improvement projects should not be started until after, the United States paid off its debts from the War of 1812. Second and most of all, President Jackson had just recently vetoed the Maysville Road Act which he called unconstitutional. In the Maysville Veto, Jackson made it very clear that it would be unconstitutional for the federal government to take full jurisdiction of any roads or canals within a state. More pertinent to the Louisville proposal, Jackson also suggested that Congress did not have the power to appropriate money to fund projects that remain under the jurisdiction of a state.
When Jackson vetoed the Maysville Act, it was a direct threat the Anti-Jacksonians led by Henry Clay who had for years spearheaded what is called the American System. Clay supported the use of tariffs to protect American industry, and federally funded internal improvements to nurture and support commerce and manufacturing within the United States. Congress failed to override the Maysville Veto by votes of 96 to 90 in the House and 21 to 17 in the Senate. The opposition to Jackson's veto was harsh not only in Congress, but in public as well. The newspapers of the day published opposing views, reporting that Jackson had alienated himself from his manufacturing friends in the North and his frontier friends in the West. In a letter dated Mary 29, 1830 to Henry Clay, Daniel Webster tells us that the "passage of the Indian bill, and the rejection of Maysville Turnpike bill, have occasioned unusual excitement". In this letter, we find out what the fight was really about. First, it was about the upcoming Presidential election of 1832 and second, it was about control of the Senate. The Jacksonians currently had a very slim margin of control in the senate at 25 seats to the Anti-Jacksonians 23, and they wanted to make Jackson's opposition to federally funded internal improvement bills an election issue. By delivering these two bills to President Jackson just before Senate adjourned on May 31st, they could force the President to issue two more vetoes and generate further "unusual excitement". The election of 1831 was just around the corner, and there was one man whose seat was particularly at-risk, and that was David Barton from Missouri. Barton had recently switched to being an Anti-Jacksonian Senator and his candidacy was now at risk. Regarding Mr. Barton's re-election, Clay wrote:
"I am told there is a good chance, or some chance, of Mr. Barton's re-election. This is matter of very great importance. Nothing, indeed, is more momentous to the country than the approaching election of Senators to the next Congress".
The "crisis" which is arriving or "rather has arrived" may have been the veto of the Maysville Turnpike Bill, but the contest at hand was the presidential election of 1832. Daniel Webster saw this as an opportunity for the people to rise and demand change. Politics were different in 1832, much different than today. Today, Presidential candidates begin their campaigns early and personally speak out forcefully and very negatively against the current administration. In 1830, it was thought best for the candidate to be quiet and let others tear down the current administration. This is the advice that Webster was giving to Clay. He told Clay that nothing could keep him out of the race, because the people would bring him out "nolens volens", whether he liked it or not. Nevertheless, it was not time for Henry Clay to hit the campaign trail, but rather it was time for the party to be re-ignited and demand that Clay run against Jackson in 1832 and the "great ground of difference will be Tariff and Internal Improvements". Webster was telling Clay hold his tongue, and rather than speak out against Jackson's veto, let the party and the people do it for him. In this paragraph from Webster's letter there is no doubt in my mind, that Webster wanted to use Jackson's veto of the Maysville Turnpike and potentially the Louisville and Portland Company into an election issue, one that the country would decide between Andrew Jackson and Henry Clay.
"On the whole, my dear sir, I think a crisis is arriving, or rather has arrived. I think you can not be kept back from the contest. The people will bring you out, nolens volens. Let them do it. I advise you, as you will be much watched, to stay at home; of if you wish to travel, visit your old friends in Virginia. You will hear from the North, every town and village in it, on the 4th of July. Parties must, now, necessarily, be started out anew; and the great ground of difference will be the Tariff and Internal Improvements. You are necessarily at the head of one party, and General Jackson will be, if he is not already identified with the other. The question will be put to the country. Let the country decide it."
References
Presidency.ucsb.edu. (2019). Second Annual Message | The American Presidency Project. [online] Available at: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/second-annual-message-3 [Accessed 28 Jan. 2019].Clay, H. (1896). Works of Henry Clay: Correspondence, ed. by Calvin Colton. Henry Clay Publishing Company, pp.274-276. [online] Available at: https://books.google.com/books?id=hDlkAo91giMC [Accessed 28 Jan. 2019].
Senate.gov. (2019). Andrew Jackson Vetoes. [online] Available at: https://www.senate.gov/reference/Legislation/Vetoes/Presidents/JacksonA.pdf [Accessed 29 Jan. 2019].
Sprecht, J. (2019). Andrew Jackson and the Problem of Internal Improvements. [online] Digital.library.unt.edu. Available at: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc164079/m2/1/high_res_d/n_04741.pdf [Accessed 29 Jan. 2019].
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