Carolina QuotesGentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!
Andrew Jackson Carolinian
Source
Reputedly from the original minutes of the Philadelphia committee of citizens sent to meet with President Jackson (February 1834), according to Andrew Jackson and the Bank of the United States (1928) by Stan V. Henkels as published by his son Stan V. Henkels Jr. - online PDF. John Carney at Business Insider has disputed its authenticity alleging Henkels made unreliable claims about historical documents. — A different version of this quote is provided by Henkels in a 1912 copy of The Publishers' Weekly (p. 2039).
- year
- 1834
- locator
- p. 2039
disputed
Cite this record
“Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of…” Andrew Jackson. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-15F8913BF5. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/15f8913bf5
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Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.
As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience, and of the press, it will be worth defending.
To the victors belong the spoils.