Senate Censures Jackson for Pet Banks Scheme and Constitutional Overreach

The Senate voted 26-to-20 on March 28, 1834, to censure President Andrew Jackson for unconstitutionally removing federal deposits from the Second Bank of the United States and placing them in state-chartered “pet banks.” The resolution, introduced by Henry Clay, declared that Jackson “had assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both.” The censure marked an extraordinary congressional rebuke, suggesting Jackson had committed impeachable offenses while stopping short of formal impeachment proceedings. The Senate simultaneously refused to confirm Roger Taney’s appointment as Treasury Secretary, who had executed Jackson’s orders after Jackson fired William Duane for refusing.

Jackson’s pet bank scheme represented a systematic corruption of federal financial oversight. After vetoing the recharter of the Second Bank in 1832, Jackson began transferring government deposits to state banks run by partisan supporters that “lacked any statutory authority and were often of dubious quality.” Opponents called them “pet banks” because many financed pet projects of Jackson administration officials. A Senate report from July 1834 revealed that at least two deposit banks were caught in a scandal involving Democratic Party newspaper editors, private firms, and elite Post Office Department officers. One bank drew prematurely on Second Bank reserves for speculative ventures, demonstrating the dangers of politicized banking oversight.

Jackson responded to the censure with a solemn protest on April 15, 1834, arguing that if he had truly committed a high crime, he should have been impeached through constitutional processes rather than censured. His removal of deposits prompted opponents to coalesce under the Whig party name—a term denoting opposition to royal prerogative and “King Andrew’s” executive overreach. The censure remained on Senate records until 1837, when Jacksonians gained a Senate majority and expunged it. The pet bank system contributed directly to the reckless speculation and bank failures that produced the Panic of 1837, validating critics’ warnings about abandoning centralized banking oversight for a corrupt patronage system.