The veto was used by the first six presidents of the United States a total of nine times. The seventh president, Andrew Jackson, alone exercised the veto twelve times. Jackson utilized the veto to enhance presidential power to match Congress, believing that he was the representative of all the people, protecting them from constitutional, democratic, and economic encroachments. Jackson also used the veto in his personal war against Senator Henry Clay. Below are his three most significant vetoes.
Maysville Road Bill
Writer Jon Meacham called internal improvements in Jackson's time "the pork of the age." Legislators strove to satisfy their constituents with federally funded infrastructure projects. The Maysville Road, a proposed sixty-mile thoroughfare running through Kentucky, was one of those projects. Jackson, and his Secretary of State Martin Van Buren, believed the Kentuckian Clay was pushing the Maysville bill. Jackson was all too happy to veto the bill on May 27, 1830.
Besides Clay, Jackson had other reasons to veto the bill. Determined to pay down the national debt, Jackson wanted to reduce internal improvement appropriations. He also believed federally funded projects encouraged corruption. Lastly, Jackson was a strict constitutional constructionist- he obeyed the clause in the U.S. Constitution that allowed the federal government to regulate interstate commerce only. Multi-state infrastructure projects were okay, but single-state projects, like Maysville, were not.
Bank Recharter Bill
The charter for the Bank of the United States was to expire in 1836. But in 1832, with a presidential election looming, B.U.S. president Nicholas Biddle, along with the support of Clay, decided to press for recharter four years early. Believing that the B.U.S. was popular with the people, Biddle and Clay thought Jackson would not dare reject the charter in the midst of his reelection bid.
Instead, Biddle and Clay had a Bank War on their hands. Jackson vetoed the Recharter bill on July 10, 1832, issuing a veto message that became a rallying point for Jacksonians during the campaign. Not only did Jackson challenge the constitutionality of the B.U.S. in the message, he warned that the institution threatened the sovereignty of the people, making "the rich richer and the potent more powerful..."
Distribution Bill
After trouncing Clay in the 1832 election, Jackson successfully confronted the Nullifiers of South Carolina who rejected the tariff bills of 1828 and 1832. Helping Jackson, Clay brokered the compromise Tariff of 1833, as well as the Distribution bill. This latter bill called for the distribution of revenues from federal land sales to the states for the purpose of funding internal improvements. Distribution satisfied states' rights southerners and protective tariff northerners.
Earlier in his presidency, Jackson supported the idea of distribution. However, Jackson pocket-vetoed the bill (the president did nothing with the bill until Congress adjourned). Historian Daniel Walker Howe has claimed that Jackson soured on distribution knowing that Clay was behind the bill. Jackson feared that if he signed the bill, Clay would get credit for resolving the Nullification crisis.
Day of Prayer and Fasting
Although he never got the chance to veto it, Jackson prepared a veto message in response to Clay's proposal for a day of prayer and fasting in the wake of a severe cholera outbreak in 1832. If the resolution hadn't been tabled in the House, Jackson would have vetoed it on constitutional grounds, "In the spirit and structure of our Constitution, we have carefully separated sacred from civilian concerns...I deem it my duty to preserve this separation..."
Preserving the Constitution, preserving democracy, and thwarting a political rival were the motivations behind Jackson's unprecedented use of the veto. No doubt using the veto as a weapon to battle Congress helped Jackson increase the power of the presidency, which has benefited succeeding presidents.
Sources
Howe, Daniel Walker, What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, Oxford U., 2007.
Meacham, Jon, American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House, New York: Random House, 2008.
William L. Wunder - BA in History, University of Iowa, 1994, with Dean's List honors. History Buff- constant reader of books in American ...
