removal of the deposits did not mean the immediate breaking down of everything, the crisis gradually subsided, and the opposition lost much of their political capital. It became evident that the defection from Jackson, which his high-handed course had caused in the upper political circles, had not reached the masses. The spokesmen of the Jackson party very adroitly persisted in representing the opposition of the leaders of the Senate to the President's policy as a mere incident of the great struggle going on between the “old hero” and the “monster.” Clay saw this very clearly; “but,” said he, “it was in vain that we protested, solemnly protested, that that [the bank] was not the question; that the true question comprehended the inviolability of the Constitution, the supremacy of the laws.” Such protests were of no avail. It may then have dawned upon Clay's mind how unwise it had been to make the bank a political issue and to fasten it like a clog to his foot.
The very business distress, which at one time seemed to become so dangerous to Jackson, was at last made to tell against the bank. The great mass of mankind can easily be induced to believe evil of a powerful moneyed institution. It was not difficult, therefore, to spread the impression that the whole calamity had really been inflicted upon the country by the bank, the heartless monopoly, which without necessity curtailed its loans, pinched all business interests, and ruined merchants, manufacturers, and laborers, in order to
