Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest

The words of Andrew Jackson—“Mischief springs from the power which the moneyed interest derives from a paper currency which they are able to control, from the multitude of corporations with exclusive privileges... which are employed altogether for their benefit.”—are a fiery warning against the corruption born of unchecked financial power. He saw with piercing eyes that when money itself becomes a tool manipulated by a privileged few, it ceases to serve the people and becomes an engine of mischief, breeding inequality and exploitation.

This utterance arose from Jackson’s battle against the Bank of the United States, which he believed concentrated wealth and influence in the hands of a small elite. To him, such institutions were not guardians of prosperity but tyrants cloaked in respectability, using paper currency and corporate privilege to enrich themselves while binding the common man in chains of debt and dependency. His words resound as both accusation and prophecy, for the danger he named has echoed through centuries wherever wealth pools into narrow hands.

History reflects his struggle in the tale of the Roman Republic, where vast estates and wealth gathered into the possession of a few patrician families. With their riches, they bent laws and governance to their will, leaving the common people dispossessed. Out of this imbalance rose unrest, rebellion, and ultimately the fall of republican liberty. Jackson’s voice, like that of the Gracchi brothers who warned Rome, was raised to defend the people against the suffocating grasp of privilege disguised as progress.

The quote also speaks to the fragility of justice when corporations and financial elites control the levers of power. Exclusive privileges, once granted, do not serve the many, but become shields and weapons for the few. What Jackson condemned is not commerce itself, but the corruption of commerce when it becomes an idol worshiped above the wellbeing of the nation. The mischief he names is the slow erosion of democracy under the weight of greed.

Let this wisdom endure: wealth is a servant but a cruel master. If entrusted to a few, it breeds arrogance, corruption, and injustice. But if guarded by the whole, it may serve as a blessing to all. As Andrew Jackson declared, beware of paper currency and corporations that serve only themselves. For when money rules without restraint, liberty itself is imperiled, and the people must rise to remember that true power lies not in gold nor paper, but in justice and the common good.