JACKSON AND VAN BUREN 
235 
South Carolina he said: “Please give my compliments to my 
friends in your State and say to them that if a single drop of 
blood shall be shed there in opposition to the laws of the United 
States, I will hang the first man I lay my hands on engaged in 
such treasonable conduct upon the first tree I can reach,” But 
no blood, was shed. Before any blows were actually struck, 
Henry Clay, always ready to settle quarrels by a compromise, 
came forward in Congress with a tariff that was more favorable 
1o the South. The new tariff law was ‚passed, South Carolina 
obeyed it, and the nullification movement of 1832 came to an end. 
178, Jackson and the Bank of the United States.— At the 
time Jackson was having so much trouble with South Carolina, 
his first term was drawing to a close. He was growing old and 
feeble and did not really care for a second term. But there was 
one thing he had set his heart upon doing that he had not yet 
done: he desired before he left the Presidency to destroy the 
Bank of the United States. This bank had been chartered in 
1816 for a period of twenty years. Jackson was always its 
enemy. So great was his hatred of it that he could not‘ bear 
even to hear its name mentioned. In 1832 he refused to sign a 
bill to renew the bank’s charter, which was to expire in 1836, 
The bank continued’its efforts to secure a new charter. Jackson, 
in order to defeat the plans of the bank, consented to be a candi- 
date for reelection. Clay, a strong friend of the bank, was nomi- 
hated for the Presidency in opposition to Jackson, 
It will be remembered that it was this bank question that 
caused the people to divide into two political parties in Wash- 
ington’s time (p. 162). In 1832 also the bank question caused a 
sharp division. The enemies of the bank, the Jackson men, be- 
longed to the old Democratic party ; the friends of the bank, the 
Clay men, took the name of National Republicans. 
The presidential election of 1832 was remarkable for several 
reasons. It was the first election in which the candidates were 
Nominated by great national conventions as they are now. It 
was also the first election in which the parties set forth their 
Principles in platforms as they do now. Then, too, the candi- 
dates in 1832 were both remarkable men. Clay was a popular