iance of the
facts, as unconstitutional. But Jackson, strong in the support of the
nation, could afford to disregard such natural ebullitions of bad
temper. The charter of the Bank lapsed and was not renewed, and a few
years later it wound up its affairs amid a reek of scandal, which
sufficed to show what manner of men they were who had once captured
Congress and attempted to dictate to the President. The Whigs were at
last compelled to drink the cup of humiliation to the dregs. Another
election gave Jackson a majority even in the Senate, and in spite of the
protests of Clay, Webster and Calhoun the censure on the President was
solemnly expunged from its records.

After the triumphant termination of the Bank, Jackson's second term of
office was peaceful and comparatively uneventful. There were indeed some
important questions of domestic and foreign policy with which it fell to
him to deal. One of these was the position of the Cherokee Indians, who
had been granted territory in Georgia and the right to live on their own
lands there, but whom the expansion of civilization had now made it
convenient to displace. It is impossible for an admirer of Jackson to
deny that his attitude in such a matter was too much that of a
frontiersman. Indeed, it is a curious irony that the only American
statesman of that age who showed any disposition to be careful of
justice and humanity in dealing with the native race was John C.
Calhoun, the uncompromising defender of Negro Slavery. At any rate, the
Indians were, in defiance, it must be said, of the plain letter of the
treaty, compelled to choose between submission to the laws of Georgia
and transplantation beyond the Mississippi. Most of them were in the
event transplanted.

Jackson's direction of foreign policy was not only vigorous but
sagacious. Under his Presidency long-standing disputes with both France
and England were brought to a peaceful termination on terms satisfactory
to the Republic. To an Englishman it is pleasant to note that the great
President, though he had fought against the English--perhaps because he
had fought against them--was notably free from that rooted antipathy to
Great Britain which was conspicuous in most patriotic Americans of that
age and indeed down to very recent times. "With Great Britain, alike
distinguished in peace and war," he wrote in a message to Congress, "we
may look forward to years of peaceful, honourable, and elevated
competition. Everythin