Thaddeus Stevens

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ? THE BUCKSHOT WAR ? ELECTED TO CONGRESS The decisive victory upon the free-school question was acquiesced in by all parties, and the political campaign of 1835 was waged upon other issues. All the elements of opposition to Jackson were at last combined in the anti-...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION ? THE BUCKSHOT WAR ? ELECTED TO CONGRESS The decisive victory upon the free-school question was acquiesced in by all parties, and the political campaign of 1835 was waged upon other issues. All the elements of opposition to Jackson were at last combined in the anti- Masonic party, which again nominated Ritner as its candidate for governor. The attitude of Jackson towards the national bank had alienated many of his friends in Pennsylvania, where that institution was popular. Eitner was elected, and his party also secured a majority of the members of the House of Representatives. Stevens was again chosen to membership in that body. He at once renewed the Masonic contest, and upon his motion a committee was appointed to investigate that and other secret societies. Wolf, the former governor, and many other prominent Masons, were summoned, but they declined to testify. The House refused to commit the witnesses for contempt, and the investigation resulted in nothing. During this session of the legislature Stevens introduced a bill to confer a state charter upon the United States Bank, of which the national charter was about to expire by limitation. This action occasioned one of the most animated political contests of the session, and the charter finally passed both houses, and was approved by the governor. This step by Pennsylvania was met by hostile legislation in the States controlled by the Democrats, some of which enacted laws prohibiting within their limits any branch of the Pennsylvania United States Bank. The new institution purchased the assets of the defunct United States Bank, and after a brief and not glorious career, it suspended payment in the panic of 1837, in common with nearly all the banks in the country. In the fall of...