<P> From its inception, the Second Bank was unpopular in the newer states and territories and with less prosperous people everywhere . Opponents claimed the bank possessed a virtual monopoly over the country's credit and currency, and reiterated that it represented the interests of the wealthy elite . Jackson, elected as a popular champion against it, vetoed a bill to recharter the bank . He also personally detested banks due to a brush with bankruptcy in his youth . In his message to Congress, he denounced monopoly and special privilege, saying that "our rich men have not been content with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of Congress". </P> <P> In the election campaign that followed, the bank question caused a fundamental division between the merchant, manufacturing and financial interests (generally creditors who favored tight money and high interest rates), and the laboring and agrarian sectors, who were often in debt to banks and therefore favored an increased money supply and lower interest rates . The outcome was an enthusiastic endorsement of "Jacksonism". Jackson saw his reelection in 1832 as a popular mandate to crush the bank irrevocably; he found a ready - made weapon in a provision of the bank's charter authorizing removal of public funds . </P> <P> In September 1833 Jackson ordered that no more government money be deposited in the bank and that the money already in its custody be gradually withdrawn in the ordinary course of meeting the expenses of government . Carefully selected state banks, stringently restricted, were provided as a substitute . For the next generation, the US would get by on a relatively unregulated state banking system . This banking system helped fuel westward expansion through easy credit, but kept the nation vulnerable to periodic panics . It was not until the Civil War that the Federal government again chartered a national bank . </P> <P> Jackson groomed Martin van Buren as his successor, and he was easily elected president in 1836 . However, a few months into his administration, the country fell into a deep economic slump known as the Panic of 1837, caused in large part by excessive speculation . Banks failed and unemployment soared . Although the depression had its roots in Jackson's economic policies, van Buren was blamed for the disaster . In the 1840 presidential election, he was defeated by the Whig candidate William Henry Harrison . However, his presidency would prove a non-starter when he fell ill with pneumonia and died after only a month in office . John Tyler, his vice president, succeeded him . Tyler was not popular since he had not been elected to the presidency, and was widely referred to as "His Accidency". The Whigs expelled him, and he became a president without a party . </P>

Periods of european thought that affected political culture in the early united states