ay's deft
leadership, as we have seen, defeated Jackson's plan for tariff reform.
The short session drew to a close, and Biddle, Clay, and Webster
prepared for renewing their fight when Congress came together in
December.

When the lines began to tighten in the summer of 1833, Duane weakened
and finally refused to withhold the government deposits from the Bank.
He was dismissed from office and Roger B. Taney, the Attorney-General,
took the vacant place and agreed to do Jackson's bidding. From October
1, 1833, the income of the Treasury was placed as it accrued in the
custody of the state banks which had been made ready for the new policy.
Jackson declared that the National Bank had become unsafe and therefore
an unfit place for the keeping of $10,000,000 of the people's money,
the amount then on deposit. But the real reason of the change was social
and political. The President desired to weaken the Bank, lest its
representatives, its masterful lobbyists, and the financial pressure it
was bringing to bear should wrest from Congress a charter which the
people had repudiated.

Meanwhile Biddle had begun his campaign to compel both Jackson and the
people to yield. On August 1, two months before the Treasury began to
place its receipts in the state banks, Biddle ordered a curtailment of
the loans of the National Bank and its branches. In the South and West,
where large sums were needed at that moment to move the cotton and grain
crops, the curtailment was double that of the East. This led to
immediate financial stringency; National Bank notes, the standard money
of the time, became scarce; and gold or silver was absolutely wanting.
The state banks were naturally forced to withhold their accustomed loans
and the anticipated government deposits could not be drawn upon.
Business failures became frequent and laborers were discharged. It was a
panic in the midst of prosperity. The program was executed with callous
heartlessness by Biddle, and with the approval of men like Clay and
Webster, till Congress met in December.

The people were beginning to see what a power they had attacked. Rates
of interest rose from six to fifteen per cent; farms and crops were sold
under the sheriff's hammer at absurdly low prices. The outlook was
anything but bright when the next annual message of the President called
upon the national legislature to aid him in his struggle. Petitions
were pouring into Washington by the thousand, and delegations