“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes… There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.”
Andrew Jackson, Veto Message of the Second Central Bank of the United States
As soon as wealth came to be a mark of distinction and an easy way to renown, military commands, and political power, virtue began to decline. Poverty was now looked on as a disgrace and blameless life as a sign of ill nature. Riches made the younger generation a prey to luxury, avarice, and pride. Squandering with one hand what they grabbed with the other, they set small value on their own property while the coveted that of others. Honor and modesty, all laws human and divine, were alike disregarded in a spirit of recklessness and intemperance.
