"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes"
About this Quote
A sitting president accusing the rich and powerful of hijacking government is always a high-wire act: it flatters “the people” while concentrating authority in the speaker. Jackson’s line is crafted as moral lament rather than policy blueprint. “It is to be regretted” sounds measured, almost genteel, but it’s a rhetorical trapdoor that drops the listener into indignation without requiring immediate proof. The real heat is in “bend”: government isn’t merely influenced, it’s warped out of shape, implying corruption is structural, not episodic.
The subtext is classic Jacksonian populism: elites don’t just have interests, they have “selfish purposes,” a phrase that paints wealth as a kind of civic defect. It frames politics as a zero-sum contest between ordinary citizens and a moneyed class capable of capturing institutions. That framing mattered in an era when banking, credit, and speculation were rapidly expanding and voters were newly empowered by broader white male suffrage. Jackson’s presidency rode that wave, and his most famous battle, the “Bank War,” turned the Second Bank of the United States into a symbol of aristocratic control. The quote isn’t a neutral diagnosis; it’s a brief for legitimacy: if the system is bent, strong executive action becomes not just permissible but righteous.
Context complicates the righteousness. Jackson’s anti-elite language coexisted with policies that enforced slavery’s expansion and Indian removal, stark reminders that “the people” was a selective category. The line works because it channels a durable American suspicion: wealth doesn’t just buy comfort, it buys the rulebook. Jackson packages that suspicion as virtue, and in doing so, makes his own power feel like a corrective rather than a threat.
The subtext is classic Jacksonian populism: elites don’t just have interests, they have “selfish purposes,” a phrase that paints wealth as a kind of civic defect. It frames politics as a zero-sum contest between ordinary citizens and a moneyed class capable of capturing institutions. That framing mattered in an era when banking, credit, and speculation were rapidly expanding and voters were newly empowered by broader white male suffrage. Jackson’s presidency rode that wave, and his most famous battle, the “Bank War,” turned the Second Bank of the United States into a symbol of aristocratic control. The quote isn’t a neutral diagnosis; it’s a brief for legitimacy: if the system is bent, strong executive action becomes not just permissible but righteous.
Context complicates the righteousness. Jackson’s anti-elite language coexisted with policies that enforced slavery’s expansion and Indian removal, stark reminders that “the people” was a selective category. The line works because it channels a durable American suspicion: wealth doesn’t just buy comfort, it buys the rulebook. Jackson packages that suspicion as virtue, and in doing so, makes his own power feel like a corrective rather than a threat.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
|---|---|
| Source | Andrew Jackson, Veto Message to the Senate on the recharter of the Bank of the United States, July 10, 1832 (contains the line criticizing "the rich and powerful" bending government to selfish purposes). |
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