 Thank you everyone for attending. It's it's Friday of Mises you so you are you're almost at the finish line I do apologize. I haven't been here for the past couple days I was at Freedom Fest in South Dakota defending Murray Rothbard's interpretation of the Constitution found in conceived in Liberty Volume 5 so I have returned and I guess I know everyone's been been listening to the other Professors and in the various lectures. I think now the the more advanced learning can begin now that I'm back So I would like everyone to forget everything that they've heard since about 445 on Monday, and then I think we can all be good. No, so anyway, I'm very honored to be speaking about this topic today The title of my presentation as you can all see is cronyism Liberty versus power in early America 1607 to 1849 What is the talk about? Well, this is on my forthcoming book that's coming out. The Mises Institute is publishing it It will be released this October Tentatively at the supporter summit, which I'm very excited about. This is a project Hunter Lewis asked me to write a book on the history of crony capitalism in America a couple years ago and I'm happy to say that at least one phase of the project is complete so What is cronyism? So traditionally when we hear about why the government passed a law We always are told the public interest view so the government passed a law to promote the public welfare to protect jobs to increase production to Reduce inequality, etc. etc. So why the government supports protective tariffs. Well, that's to protect American jobs, right? the actual reason for laws as as Austrian economists and libertarians as we know is is quite different, right? There's a special interest reason There's a crony reason So cronyism is is when the government passes laws that to promote the interests of Select groups what we call special interests at the public's expense So we know the government doesn't push for protective tariffs to protect jobs But it's really to privilege One industry at the expense of consumers who are forced to pay higher prices, right? And we can see this with other laws Continuing the story. It's really The the the actual stated reason that the stated reason is always the public interest But that's really just a thin veneer kind of a cloak behind the actual reason, right In order to understand in order to figure out the actual reason we have to be historians, right? We have to be detectives looking Beneath the surface to try and see who were the relevant interests Lobbying for the law. Okay, what were their the rewards they were trying to get did they actually get those rewards? Etc. Okay. This is what I try and do in my book. All right. I concentrate on the early America 1607 to 1849 Murray Rothbard's conceived in Liberty Takes place from 1607 which is the founding of Jamestown the colony in Virginia to about 1789 which was the beginning of the George Washington presidency. He technically goes to 1791 Covers the Bill of Rights really just in from those two years. I cover that period sort of summarized the crony ism In those years and then I extensively cover the period after right from the George Washington presidency 1789 to the end of the Mexican War, which was 1848 so going on to 1849 So it's kind of a sequel almost or it's not really it's a sequel It's like a continuing the the story that Rothbard describes Inconceived in Liberty and I was I was very happy. We did the cover. We have a like an old-fashioned You know Robber Baron you could say and he's sort of lording over America because that's what I'm trying to do in this book Looking at who were these people and of course they got money on their mind So to speak so anyway, okay. What is the thesis? All right, what am I what am I actually getting at am I just sort of rambling on so crony ism I argue in my in my narrative that crony is an increase in a jagged fashion It wasn't just a linear increase where special interest policy is just increased Sort of in an automatic fashion each year at a constant rate It went up then it declined a little bit then it went up then it declined a little bit then it went up Okay, so it's sort of a staggered increase, right and why did it do this? Why did special interest policies? You know proceed in this fashion. Well, I explain this Through the Liberty versus power theory, okay The Liberty versus power theory is our best articulated by Murray Rothbard and conceived in Liberty Animated a large part of his historical analysis. I originally came from Lord Acton who's very prominent late 19th century Libertarian historian So what what are the three main components of this theory? Well, the first component is that history is a clash between the forces of liberty and the forces of power So you've got the forces of Liberty those groups promoting small government anti crony ism, right? They want to get rid of special interest privileges. So they are supporting hard money. They're supporting free trade No public subsidies Etc. Then you have the forces of power the forces of big government. They're supporting crony policies, right? They want central banking they want protective tariffs they want Government land grants and monetary aid to favored businesses so on and so forth, right? So when the forces of liberty control the government, they're able to remove special interest privileges when the forces of power control the government They're able to increase their special interest privileges, okay? But the complexity is sort of the the interesting aspect of the theory comes in the second two components and the second component is that power corrupts Right. I define corruption as an increased tendency to cronyism. So this comes from a very famous phrase by Lord Acton probably his most famous statement is that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely Okay, so what happens is when the forces of liberty take control of the government? They say well, we want to get rid of all this cronyism. We're gonna enact all these policies You know, we're gonna get rid of all this stuff. It's gonna be great But when they're in control of the government, they get corrupted by it Okay, so then they say well we we need to look out for the next election Okay, so we need to appeal to these constituents So we don't want to get rid of of this policy at least so fast maybe gradually or you know We we reduce something else or then they say well, we need to appeal to this group So we need to actually give them favors Etc. So they they're able to reduce cronyism a little bit But as time goes on they start to increase their own cronyism and this is a something as Libertarians we can kind of see Happens even in our own The you know the the modern world That's why we cynically look at politics or reform group says they're gonna change something and then they don't change anything, right? And then the last component is that well reform is difficult precisely because power corrupts So this is why it's so difficult to actually reform the government because in order to reform the government to reduce cronyism You have to take control of the agency that is going to incentivize people to do it to Pursue their own cronyism. Okay, so really the the the best policies that can achieve reform are ones that you're actually sort of trying to break Away from the government some sort of nullification or secession because if you're trying to work through the government Given enough time you're going to get corrupted by by the control that comes with Running the government. Okay So in American history in the time period I analyze the proximate driver of cronyism was the desire to build an American Empire Okay, this is a word that was used repeatedly by the founding fathers as well as Later American politicians the Empire this territorial vast and influential country So the forces of power they wanted to Pursue an Empire of power sort of like the old orders of Europe, right? So it would be able to this large and powerful Government with a strong military it would pursue all sorts of mercantilist policies It would have colonies around the world. It would be able to fight Britain in France, etc Where the forces of Liberty wanted to pursue what Thomas Jefferson called an Empire of Liberty? so this was a Country that was really decentralized or it actually be multiple countries or confederations and it was just linked together through the common cultural norms and Constitutions, okay, so Thomas Jefferson for example, he thought the West Coast would be its own country something that I hope You know because it's still possible, right? Many others they thought that there would be separate Confederacies throughout the United States. It wasn't just sort of pre-ordained that we have the Continental United States stretching from the East Coast to the West Coast, okay Whereas the forces of power wanted not only the continental United States But also much more particularly Canada and Mexico and Cuba and so on so anyway for the rest of the talk I would like to Go through my the book provides sort of a brief summary So this is sort of a an interesting tension where I if I if I do too good of a job Then no one's gonna want to buy the book when it comes out But if I do too mediocre of a job then no one's gonna want to buy the book So I basically have to do I have to have to straddle the line between the good and bad And I think I'm I'm expertly suited for this task So I hope I hope you'll be able to last for the next 40 40 minutes or so Anyway, we go to the first part. This is the road to Empire 1607 to 1790. Okay, so this is kind of covering the material of Rothbard's conceived in liberty or at least the the time period with some extra stuff at the end So which I'll talk about so we start off with the first chapter chapter one the path to American independence, okay The United States or the American colonies were not Conceived in liberty so to speak as Rothbard explains They're they're actually the desire of or the the product of the old orders of Europe So the forces in favor of mercantilism special interest privileges feudalism Land land grants tying subjects to the land and absolutism That the king the government is divine. They wanted to extend their control from Europe to North America so the colonies particularly the English colonies were really just originally dumping grounds for England's surplus poor all these people thrown out of work from all the mercantilist policies They said all right. We'll just you know, send you over there You can provide us raw materials to benefit our manufacturing industries and etc Fortunately England never actually enforced their various mercantilist laws In the United States particularly the so-called navigation acts which restricted and regulated American shipping and American production for the benefit of England, okay This was because there was just so much land in America that people could just ignore the the local rulers and just move west England was preoccupied with foreign wars and internal strife and whenever they did actually enforce the the the laws the public revolted Okay, so there are various rebellions it was tax rebellions and all this great stuff over over what we would consider relatively small levels of taxation But that just makes it in my opinion all the more heroic when people are getting out the pitchforks for, you know, minor minor increases in taxes So a policy was known as salutary neglect By the British government was practiced by the early to mid 1700s, which is basically okay We're just gonna let them do their thing and we let them do their thing We practice laissez-faire or we don't actually enforce the laws on the books Then they're gonna grow prosperous and that's gonna benefit us. Okay, this is the policy of various British officials At the at the central government in Great Britain. Okay, but what happened is in the mid 1700s the 1750s There is there was a war the French and Indian war where Great Britain basically drove out the French from North America So Great Britain became the undisputed superpower It had all the land it had all the all the industry etc In North America and then they said all right finally we're going to be able to regulate the colonists This is their grand design so to speak. So they said we're now going to raise taxes So they'll be able to finance the standing army here We're going to give out land grants to our favorite supporters in Great Britain We're going to enforce the navigation acts etc. Okay. Well, the colonists were very upset about this They weren't going to stand for these crony Laws they they they were very they were very upset. Uh, and so they increasingly Resisted they they nullified the laws they refused to Enforce them etc. And you had various prominent American revolutionaries one of my favorite Patrick Henry. Okay, and it's not just because we have the same great You know first name, uh, we you know, we we have we share many thoughts Patrick Henry, uh, Virginia was one of the leading Radicals and he he was pushing for the the drastic Option of basically secession. So, you know, he has this great quote He sees he's a he's a great orator. He was one of the best And you know, he says he says let it come. He says I repeat let it come He says his life so precious or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery He says forbid it almighty god. I care. No, of course others may take but as for me He's right there. He said give me liberty or give me death, right? And this was it, you know rataclys all the colonists This was in March of 1775 and they said yeah, we're gonna you know, we're gonna support you Revolution was imminent and we we we did revolt particularly starting in massachusetts in the american revolution was really a secession It should be called the american secessionary war or something. It wasn't we're not trying to control the government great britain We were really just trying to break away This brings us to chapter two Where I talk about the american revolutionary war. I say it's a great triumph of liberty Uh, we we secede this was seen in uh, jefferson's declaration of independence Okay, we we break away. This is the desire of the american revolutionaries who want to actually break away from uh, the old orders of europe in order to Create an empire of liberty uh in north america Unfortunately, there's also a group of american patriots who want to break away To form their own government, but they want to create an empire of power. Okay, this is particularly, uh, many merchants And landed oligarchs, uh, such as robert morris the famous merchant prince of philadelphia Okay, and they just want to create an american old order empire All right So what they do is after the declaration of independence they try and push for a strong central government that will centralize The 13 independent states right that were sort of informally organizing in the uh continental congress Okay, and this is the articles confederation It originally was supposed to be much stronger All right, but fortunately the american radicals, uh, they the the the forces of liberty they they weaken it So it's still a central government. It's still an increase in cronyism Uh, but uh, it's it's weak particularly. It doesn't have the power to tax I can you imagine that a government it has to ask the state governments for money Right, it can't actually in order to get this power to tax It has to uh pass an amendment where the state legislatures unanimously ratify it Okay, wouldn't that be great? We live in a government where if they want to tax us all the state legislators have to you know ratify it You know, we can only dream of such a of such a world But this is enough for robert morris and his uh, and his cadre. All right, particularly, uh, alexander hamilton Uh and james madison. So robert morris one of the first things he does in this new government where he is made Uh, basically the the treasurer is he pushes for a central bank the bank of north america Okay, so he's got we we have a central bank. We have a crony central bank It was supposed to lend money to select businesses and the uh and in the united states government All right, and he also pushes for a five percent tariff All right to raise money to pay off the enormous war debt morris was pushing for That bear in mind was no longer in the hands of the soldiers It was in the hands of speculators who bought it very cheaply So they were looking for a government to raise money so they could uh, basically pay out the speculators At par. Okay, so all these crony privileges were going to be enacted in the early 1780s All right, but the issue was road island held out road island refused to ratify the tariff And then virginia were negged on its agreement. So the whole thing collapsed Okay, so robert morris left the government in disgust The articles confederation got no taxing power the bank of north america eventually lost its privileges from the Uh central uh central government. So it seemed like the forces of liberty won All right, and it did we did all right, uh, the american revolution led to many Uh positive benefits Okay Unfortunately, it also led to the constitution, which was the topic What's the subject of my talk at uh freedom fest which I described taking from harry rothbard should really be considered a triumph of power Okay, because various special interest groups started to coalesce under robert morris and his group the so-called Nationalists who wanted a strong national government debt holders bankers manufacturers and shippers Transportation companies land speculators and merchants military officials They all wanted a stronger central government that could tax the public Protect their industries grant their industry special favors Dole out government contracts uh Raise a powerful army to uh to to uh to conquer new territory, etc Okay, so they all start start to support the drive for a new stronger central government So you've got uh nationalists All right, uh who cleverly called themselves federalists Right, so federalism really means a balance of power between the states and the central government. They said well No, no, no, that's not what it means now. Uh, we're going to change the the word Uh, it means a balance of power among in the central government the the executive the legislature the judiciary Remember, we all we all learned this in in fourth grade, etc Uh, so they called themselves federalists. They called their opponents the true federalists They called them anti federalists and no one likes to be called anti something I mean, then you're just like a negative nancy, right? So you got to you got to be positive Okay, uh, so they're already at disadvantage. So you've got federalists robert morris Alexander hamilton james madison versus anti federalists the governor of new york george clinton no relation Uh, and the governor of virginia, uh patrick henry Okay, so henry they they he tried to fight the adoption of the constitution the federalists They are employing all sorts of dirty tricks and and bribes at the ratification Debates etc and henry drillie tries to fight it because he realizes what he's fighting is the creation of a powerful and mighty empire and that's what the constitution did the elastic clauses the Necessarium proper and the general welfare clauses they were intended to be elastic Okay, this is what the constitution was intended to do This is why the libertarians in the 1780s were fighting the constitution Okay, because they recognized that it would lead to or they didn't recognize it would lead to face masks and lockdowns and stuff because You know, they didn't have that type of foresight, but they recognized it would lead to all the policies. They were trying to fight Uh, great great great britain for imposing and uh, what the Um, nationalists were trying to do during the american revolutionary war Unfortunately, they lose all the states ratified the the constitution. They forcibly they forced rhode island Uh to to join so you've got all 13 states in this new central government And then so what happens All right, so robert morris he becomes a senator of pennsylvania uh, george washington our nation's first president asked him to be Uh, secretary of the treasury and he said no no no he said i got a man in mind though All right, he got it. He had his young, uh, brilliant, uh, sort of uh Associate alexander hamilton. He said he should be the secretary of the treasury, right? Uh, and so hamilton after james madison lays down the nationalist infrastructure as a congressman in 1789 raising, uh, taxes creating executive, uh, branches Filling the supreme court up with uh, six justices what had at the time Hamilton takes over in 1719. What does he do? Well, he pushes for a funding act That will cause the government to raise money to benefit speculators Right, which enriches robert morris and his group who bought the government debt at very low rates and basically got a bailout He pushes for a stronger central bank. This is the bank of the united states Okay, uh, that can provide various loans to business, uh, uh, favored federalist businesses In the united states government He pushes for protective tariffs. Remember they were just trying to trying to get a five percent tariff and the articles Well by the end of the 1790s, uh, you have a 30 tariff Okay, so much higher than what the states were able to, uh, enact among themselves in the 1780s Uh, and what much higher than what was couldn't even be accomplished under the articles In various other policies. So all these crony policies which privileged the north At the expense of the south and the the west they start to alienate a lot of people. Okay, the constitution Uh led into all of these big government laws all of these crony big government laws, okay But hamilton doesn't stop there, right because if you've ever watched the play Uh, you know, he does all these policies and these are all great and you know all sorts of other stuff They don't really talk about the other things kind of, uh, which is a little odd Uh, but again, that's that's probably intentional where hamilton more or less tried to become a military dictator, right? And you're like, okay, so he gets his own play. He gets his gets his own musical You know, uh, anyway Whiskey rebels after the federalists levy levy a tax on the production of whiskey people in pennsylvania They they they resist while we send a giant army there, uh, to basically, uh, intimidate them and hamilton Basically makes himself after he's secretary of the treasurer. He basically makes himself the second in command of the army washington retired from the presidency John adams became the federalist president Washington was sort of nominally in command, right? But hamilton is really second in command Okay, and during a so-called quasi war with france, which the federalists were trying to turn into an actual war Hamilton more or less kind of has, uh control of the military And he wanted to use this military to invade, uh, uh, spanish louisiana in south america All right, uh, so there's a When hamilton said when it comes to the quote riches of mexico and peru This is what he's referring to he said the command in this case was very naturally fall upon me So he wanted to lead armies all over the place. Uh, this is sort of a very clear old order empire of america But this is this is something just totally kind of forgotten The one tv show that does actually get this is the hbo series on john adams They do they do recognize this came out about 10 years ago. So they actually do they they recognize this is what hamilton is trying to do But that's that's gone down the orwellian memory hole. I mean that was so 2010, right? This is through words 2021, right? anyway, um Fortunately, so what stops this what stops the whole the big government juggernaut the crony juggernaut of the federalists in the late 1790s Well, jefferson and the anti-federalists stop it So the anti-federalists they realize they lost they can't get rid of the constitution All right, so like good politicians like good strategists they go back to the drawing board and they say all right, wait a second Why don't we just interpret the constitution the way we want to do it? All right, why don't we interpret it the way the federalists promised us? It would be a limited government document. We're gonna say well all these clauses. They got to be strictly enumerated Uh, if it doesn't explicitly say it we can't uh, we won't be able to do it And that's really the beginning of the strict constructionist approach to the constitution though you approach libertarians all Know and love about the constitution it came from the opponents of the constitution and the federalists recognized this Uh back then there's one prominent federalist and associate of hamilton He said we hear incessantly from the old foes of the constitution. This is unconstitutional and that is He said if the constitution is what they affect to think it is their former opposition to such an entity was improper Which is exactly correct He's saying wait the guys who fought this are now defending it. Why are they doing that? Well again, they're good strategists This is what you do in politics, right? You lose you just your tactics. Okay So jefferson leads this republican party, which was the uh, basically the descendant Of the anti federalist party. This republican party has no relation Uh to the act no institutional relation to the current republican party that was created in the 1850s All right, and so jefferson defeats john adams heroically in the revolution of 1800 It was the first peaceful rotation of power where a political party was driven from office Okay in the world Okay, so uh, this is a very significant event At the end though the the federalists they lost control of congress They lost control of the executive in the waning days of the adams presidency They do strengthen their control in the judiciary. This is the judiciary act of 1801 In particular, they appoint chief justice or adams appoints chief justice john marshall Maybe some of you know him. He's the famous big government Uh supreme court chief justice. Well, you all well, you probably don't know about him is that He was a prominent land speculator and his younger brother james marshall married the daughter of robert morris so you can probably Sort of think like all right. All right, so two policies is he gonna support, you know supreme court rulings will he will he uh basically deliver Okay, so unfortunately the republicans they get all they get two of the branches They get two out of three ain't bad. All right, at least according to meatloaf. Uh, but uh, hopefully some of you know that Reference, um, but anyway, so they the republicans they drive the federalists out of power, right? But unfortunately power corrupts. Okay, the jeffersonian revolution, uh, failed. Okay, because jefferson Moderates and why does he moderate because the republican party was torn between two factions You've got the old republicans who are the direct descendants of the anti federalists guys like john randolph and john taylor So john randolph of roanoke john taylor of caroline. These are both famous virginia politicians john randolph was uh related to jefferson They wanted to bring the government back to the articles confederation So get rid of the bank of the united states get rid of tariffs possibly even repudiate the debt Reduce the army all these drastic cuts. Okay, they had big they had big visions Right on the other hand, there were the moderates particularly james madison who is an ex federalist who sort of Opportunistically allied with thomas jefferson He said well as long as the right people are in power Then you know, we can control the cronyism for for our own ends so to speak And jefferson is sort of torn in the middle, right? He wants to bring in all of the ex federal all the federalists, excuse me into the republican party, right? This was he was a great libertarian Uh, theoretician, but he was kind of a bad politician And they do the first administration of thomas jefferson Actually get some stuff done. They repeal Uh various taxes they start to reduce the military They don't get rid of the bank of the united states, but they they they move to privatizing it, right? Uh, it gets an a in my book But it wasn't as as as as much as as what the the radicals wanted. Okay. It was a disappointment The problem is in the second term Of thomas jefferson, right where then you start to see an outright increase in cronyism Okay, the second term of thomas jefferson gets, you know, just gets an f right You got you got an a in your first semester and then you got an f in your second semester, right? so it's it really kind of a cast a Dark shadow over the jeffersonian presidency And the reason why the jeffersonian president was such a disaster Was because of the louisiana purchase of 1803 So when i'm referring to louisiana, i'm not referring to just the state, all right that we know by new orleans All right back then are referred to this massive swath of land West of the mississippi river kind of bounced around control of various powers in the early 1800s spain had sold it to france France sort of reneged on its agreement for various reasons i talk about and then france sold it to the united states And the issue was in order for the united states to buy all that land It kind of had the the republicans had to bend their strict construction of the constitution Which is what jefferson realized He first wanted to pass an amendment allowing the united states government to purchase the land and then he dropped it And the problem with land is that once you want once you get some you want more Right because the republicans moved to trying to get florida They moved to try to get canada Okay, they pushed for internal improvements roads and canals to bind the east with the west okay jefferson tries to uh Curry up support with manufacturers in the north to sort of strengthen this empire And this is why john randolph called the louisiana purchase He said it was quote the greatest curse that ever befell us right because it really was because it totally sabotaged the republicans uh policy of strict constructionism okay and uh in particular as i mentioned they republicans moved to try to get canada in the north In florida in the south okay, and this is the aggression that leads up to the war of 1812 during the uh james madison administration okay Whereas when you really see the republicans basically become the uh the former federalists This is the total corruption of power So cronyism increased in the 1790s Then it declined a bit in the first part of jefferson's term then it started to increase again this is the jagged nature of uh cronyism that i mentioned uh in my uh in my thesis right So madison maneuvers to try and get canada in the north right uh in florida in the south And though they failed in the war of 1812, which is when we declared war on great britain It led to all sorts of new forms of cronyism We increased the debt which benefited uh various speculators We we created we chartered a new second bank of the united states And new protectionist tariffs, okay This all happened in after the war after the war's uh end in uh 1815 and in 1816 John randolph he tried to fight this post war cronyism and i just i just love this quote He says all of this stuff is out out hamilton's alexander hamilton All right, which means it must have been really bad right if it's if it's worse than hamilton Right at central bank beyond hamilton's dreams protective tariffs beyond hamilton's dreams Internal improvements beyond hamilton's dreams. This is this is clearly a lot of cronyism So randolph is a congressman. He tries to fight this, uh, but he unfortunately Fails, okay So this brings us to the period after the jeffersonian revolution Okay, the so-called era of good feelings, but what one historian robert romini has more accurately described Labeled in my opinion is the era of corruption And this is a one-party system where basically the republican party, which is now pro big government They call themselves the national republicans now pursued all sorts of crony policies These were all under the label of uh, henry clay's american system You might have heard this before which is we're gonna have a strong central bank that will promote economic development aka it will grant loans to favored businesses We're gonna have a protective tariff that will in uh promote national defense in an american industry aka it's going to promote Uh, northern manufacturers at the expense of the rest of the country And we're gonna use the revenue from the american tariff From our new protective tariff to create internal improvements to bind the country together Okay aka to reduce decentralization into privileged transportation companies that are building these roads and canals So unfortunately though The panic of 1819 hits right where the second bank of the united states engages in a tremendous amount of credit expansion And as good austrians, we know this leads to an austrian business cycle The bank massively inflated and then in 1818, uh, it started to sharply contract The bank was saved, but the people were ruined as one famous, uh, uh, his uh commentator, uh said In this panic of 1819 more importantly it radical, uh, you know, it increases the the radicalism of various, uh, american politicians Brings them back to their anti crony roots, right? You got guys like andrew jackson Martin van buren thomas hart betten and james k polk They all started to realize that the bank of the united states was this enormous problem Hard money was the solution and the american system was only going to increase the government's uh ills Okay, on the other hand, they fought, uh, henry clay Daniel webster john quincey adams by these prominent politicians You got nicolas biddle who's the head of the second bank of the united states and of course john marshall I don't think it's a coincidence that all these later individuals clay webster adams biddle and marshall They all worked for the second bank of the united states and owned stock in it Yes, john marshall achieved justice right before the famous mcculloch versus mayor mcculloch versus maryland Uh, which defended the constitutionality of the bank. He he sold his stock right before which kind of you know You see the smoking gun Jackson was was very against the second bank. He was very against its attendant evils in corruption right Can we go back to the days when politicians would call central banks the central banking activities evil and corrupt You know, it's just it's just more fiery language. It's it's good Uh, you know now we just hear about monetary policy. You know, this is this is much more interesting, right? Um, so anyway uh, the uh The the proponents of the american system the national republicans. They, uh, try to raise tariffs Okay, raise tariffs beyond the levels of 1816. This is the tariff of 1824 Uh in promoting this tariff of 1824 clay Uh, sort of harking back. He he he advocated we need to go we need to listen to the quote master spirit of the age The man who knew how to build an empire napoleon bonaparte so Napoleon knew how to build an empire and so did clay. Okay, then you have the tariff of 1828 Which led one prominent new england manufacturer To say would keep the south and the west in debt to new england the next hundred years Okay, this raised tariffs about like 50 percent Extremely high rate like five percent articles 50 percent Constitution, you know under the constitution again, uh, this is really upset. Um Many individuals, uh, they also had passed the general survey act of 1824 to at least start to Envision the program for all these internal improvements that would bind the country together. Okay, so slowly the american system Is getting Pushed all right. It's getting enacted okay They're also promoting the american empire All right We get florida under the stewardship of secretary of state john quincy adams All right and in doing so we assume the losses of various new england merchants All right, which historians have considered a uh marked unprecedented american underwriting of private commercial losses We try to get cuba Okay, and this was because the national republicans wanted south america to have the same position as north america did in relationship to great brit Right, we would manufacture everything for the western hemisphere and they would just supply us raw materials So we tried to maneuver to conquer, uh parts of south america or get them, uh to enact favorable trade legislation with us That gave us deals, but hurt, um, uh other countries Okay, so not free trade. So all of these policies were being created What happened? Well, uh, fortunately, we had another revolution. All right, we had the jacksonian revolution okay, so, uh jackson actually really kind of won the presidency in 1824 He had the plurality of the popular vote in the electoral college But uh john quincy adams and henry clay they scheme Uh to provide adams the presidency All right, uh in return for clay getting the presidency in the future So this is the corrupt bargain of 1825 right and jackson fumes at this He says the judice of the west clay has closed the contract and received the 30 pieces of silver His end will be the same. Okay Uh, so he was not he was not happy and if you make jackson if jackson doesn't like you you you there There are going to be some issues, uh for you in the future So this led to jackson and his associate senator, uh from new york martin van buren to organize a new party Uh, uh try to recreate the old, uh republican faction So bring the republican party back to its roots They created the democratic party, which is actually the same democratic party of today might shock you But the democrat democratic party was conceived to be a was conceived in liberty I guess uh it was it was it was a libertarian uh party and jack and van buren said if general jackson and his Friends will put his election on old party grounds All right aka crony anti cronyism our success when achieved will be worth something And they successfully create this new democratic party and deprive john quincy adams of his reelection bid So now the jack jacksonians take over andrew jackson's president And surprisingly the jacksonians actually get more stuff done than the jeffersonians Okay, so this is where uh, I then move into the uh jacksonian revolution, which unfortunately it was still failed Failure for reasons i'll talk about the jacksonians, uh got more stuff done. They were more tenacious, right? They revolutionized the presidential veto or they just started vetoing stuff the president Um Instead of sort of rubber stamping congress's legislation And they could work with various british reformers who are also trying to remove crony privileges in their country So the first thing one of the first things jackson does is he starts attacking the central at the second bank of the united states Uh, and he vetoes its early recharter Okay, so he says no we're not going to uh support the second bank of the united states We're going to try and get rid of the american system And jackson considered it a uh a hydra, all right, which led to this political cartoon Uh, you see this this this nasty hydra and jackson fighting it It was actually sort of lampooning jackson's attack But I don't know. I just like this because again, it's a central bank is portrayed as this is evil hydra It's this monster. It's this menace, which you'd say. Yeah, I mean that makes sense I I agree with it. Yeah, that works. Well, all right, so they get rid of the second bank of the united states and they start to uh, you know Uh, pursue monetary reform at the state level They also dismantle tariffs, right? Uh, they lower tariffs progressively over the, uh, over 10 15 years culminating in the free trade walker tariff of 1846, right, which, uh, lowered tariffs, uh, significantly and, uh Coincided with the british repeal of the corn laws, okay in 1846 which led the Cincinnati inquirer to say the simultaneous triumph of free trade in the united states in great britain Is the greatest event of our age Just think about that. All right, the greatest event. We got we got relative free trade Uh possible only through these these countries sort of informally working together to remove the respective crony privileges Uh and jackson also, uh reduces internal improvements in government spending. He vetoes the maceville, uh, road bill He pays off the national debt One of his, uh, jacksonian presidential successors james k polk vetoes the river and harbors bill You see on the state level various general incorporation laws, uh deregulating business formation, uh at the uh in the local arena So all of this great stuff, right? She said, well, this is great got rid of the bank got rid of tariffs got rid of the debt Got rid of internal improvements. What's the problem? The problem is unfortunately the jacksonians, uh They did not get rid of the imperialist plank, okay And this split the jacksonian party because some of them wanted to get rid of it The the the the big issue was texas annexation Okay, texas was a separate country at the time and there was a big movement to annex texas, uh in the 1840s This would benefit various speculators who held, uh texas debt such as nicolas biddle Uh the former head of the second bank of the united states Various land speculators as well as slave interests, right who recognized, uh slaves were escaping, uh to uh to texas Uh or to mexico Okay, van buren and benton, uh, they split with jackson and polk on this issue, uh over texas Jackson and polk said, uh, we want to annex texas van buren and benton said no We don't want to and this led to a rothbard as described as a tragic split in the democratic party All right, sort of cost the organization its libertarian conscience and drive And this led to the war, uh with mexico Which is really just a war of conquest to try and take over the southwest particularly, uh, california Uh, so we could get ports on the west coast. So then we could then start to, uh You extend our imperialism to china, okay So this totally ruined the democratic party Okay, it turned it into a big government party and this all happened rapidly in the 1840s So similar to the jeffersonians Their empire of liberty became an empire of power cronyism declined then it started to increase again, okay So by the end by 1850, uh, we had no more significant libertarian, uh political party, uh in the country So in conclusion, uh cronyism will be great. Although I can't promise anything You should buy the book when it comes out in october. Uh, it's a perfect for thanksgiving christmas and valentine's day Gifts so anyway, I encourage you, uh to buy it. Uh, thank you so much for listening to my talk