DECEMBER 5, 1782 – BIRTH OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 8TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

1782 – BIRTH OF MARTIN VAN BUREN, 8TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
“The MONEY POWER…when firmly established, was destined to become the only kind of an Aristocracy that could exist in our political system.” (Note, Van Buren always capitalized “MONEY POWER” when using the term.)
Van Buren was Vice President when President Jackson refused to support the re-chartering of the private, mis-named “Second Bank of the United States” – the nation’s central bank at the time (equivalent in some ways to the Federal Reserve Bank of today). The Bank had originally been chartered for 20 years in 1816. A corporate charter was considered then a democratic tool, a means for the public to define the actions of a corporation to ensure it remained subordinate to meeting public needs (something We the People have forgotten today). After the Bank charter was dissolved (which meant the Bank could no longer create money as debt), Jackson and Van Buren sought to replace the money system with coinage or bank notes convertible to gold/silver. But this was an insufficient amount of currency needed to supply the growing the US economy. Currency contracted. The nation experienced the worst depression up to that time beginning in 1837.