Editing Specie Circular

{{short description|U.S. presidential executive order}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Lead too short|date=June 2020}}
{{Andrew Jackson series}}
The '''Specie Circular''' is a [[United States president]]ial [[Executive order (United States)|executive order]] issued by [[President of the United States|President]] [[Andrew Jackson]] on 11 July 1836 pursuant to the [[Coinage Act of 1834]].  It required payment for government land to be in [[Gold#Monetary_use|gold]] and [[Silver#Monetary_use|silver]] (specie).<ref>{{cite book |title=The American Pageant, 13th edition |last=Kennedy |first=David M |author2=Cohen, Bailey |year=2006 |publisher=Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company |pages=256–265}}</ref> It was repealed by a joint act of [[United States Congress|Congress]] on 21 May 1838.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/Specie-Circular "Species Circular"], ''Britannica.com'', 25 January 2025.</ref>

==History==
The Specie Circular was a reaction to the growing concerns about excessive speculations of land after the [[Indian removal]], which was mostly done with [[soft currency]]. The sale of public lands increased five times between 1834 and 1836. Speculators paid for these purchases with depreciating paper money.<ref name="Wilson">{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Woodrow|title=Division and Reunion|publisher=Longmans, Green|year=1905|pages=91}}</ref> While government law already demanded that land purchases be completed with [[Coin|specie]] or paper notes from specie-backed banks, a large portion of buyers used paper money from state banks not backed by hard money as a consequence of Jackson's [[Bank War|veto of the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States]].<ref>{{cite book|last=MacDonald|first=William|title=Documentary Source Book of American History, 1606-1913|url=https://archive.org/details/documentarysour04macdgoog|publisher=The Macmillan Company|year=1916|pages=[https://archive.org/details/documentarysour04macdgoog/page/n377 359]}}</ref>

==Executive order==
On July 11, 1836, Jackson ordered [[Secretary of the Treasury]] [[Levi Woodbury]] to issue the Specie Circular under federal law whereby the government refused to take anything but gold and silver specie for sales of public lands of over 320 acres after August 15, 1836. It did make a special exception to accept certain types of Virginia [[scrip]]. The executive order allowed legitimate settlers (non-speculators, or those purchasing plots of 320 acres or less) to use paper until December 15, 1836.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sobel|first=Robert|title=Panic on Wall Street|publisher=Beard Books|year=1999|pages=47|isbn=978-1-893122-46-8}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Financial Register of the United States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5bo6AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA14|year=1838|publisher=Wirtz & Tatem|pages=14–15}}</ref>

==Consequences==
Because the order was one of Jackson's last acts in office, most of its consequences occurred during and were attributed to the presidency of [[Martin Van Buren]]. The devaluation of paper currency only increased with Jackson's proclamation. This sent inflation and prices upwards. Many at the time (and historians subsequently) blamed the Specie Circular for the rise in prices and the following [[Panic of 1837]]. Cries of "Rescind the circular!" went up and former President Jackson sent word to Van Buren asking him not to rescind the order. Jackson believed that it had to be given enough time to work. Lobbying efforts, especially by bankers, increased in Washington in an attempt to revoke the Specie Circular. Others, like [[Nicholas Biddle (banker)|Nicholas Biddle]], believed that Jackson's defeat of the [[Second Bank of the United States]] was directly responsible for the irresponsible creation of paper money by the state banks which had precipitated this crisis.<ref name="Seigenthaler">{{cite book|author1=John Seigenthaler |author2=Arthur Meier Schlesinger, Jr. |title=James K Polk|publisher=Macmillen|year=2004|pages=58–60|isbn=978-1-59558-747-3}}</ref>

The restrictions on credit caused by the order resulted in numerous bankruptcies and the failure of smaller banks. In the South the resulting recession drove down cotton prices well into the 1840s. Small farmers who had bought land on credit were unable to meet their loan repayments with their income from staple crops cut by a half. When they defaulted, "[t]heir land and slaves were repossessed and sold at auction, usually to already well-established slaveholders. ... Some farmers were able to keep a few acres and eke out a living as lesser yeomen. But many lost everything and fell into tenancy and sharecropping. When the cotton market finally recovered, affluent slaveholders held nearly all the South’s best land."<ref>{{cite book|author=David Williams |title=A People's History of the Civil War|publisher=New Press|year=2005|chapter=1|isbn=978-0-8047-0625-4}}</ref>

===Democratic split===
The Democratic party split in two ways regarding the order. Some, like [[Thomas Hart Benton (senator)|Thomas Hart Benton]], supported the use of [[sound money]]. The [[Locofocos|Locofoco]] wing of the party also agreed with Benton. Senators [[Nathaniel P. Tallmadge]] and [[William C. Rives]] supported the other side of the party, in favor of paper money.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Martin Duberman |author2=Charles Adams |title=Charles Francis Adams|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1961|pages=56|isbn=978-0-8047-0625-4}}</ref> Senator [[John Pendleton King]] of [[Georgia (US State)|Georgia]] blamed Jackson for the effects of the circular (among other policies), stating in an 1837 speech that he "had not the slightest doubt that our [[Panic of 1837|present difficulties]] were owing entirely to the unfortunate policy and violent measures of the Executive for several years past. This was the only cause, and this was abundantly sufficient."<ref>{{cite web |last1=King |first1=John Pendleton |title=Speech of Mr. King, of Georgia, on the bill imposing additional duties, as depositaries...delivered in the Senate of the U.S., Sept. 23, 1837. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015077844291&view=1up&seq=8 |publisher=Gales & Seaton |access-date=31 October 2022 |date=1837}}</ref> In the [[United States House of Representatives]], [[John Bell (Tennessee politician)|John Bell]] even challenged his own party member, [[James K. Polk]], for his position as [[Speaker of the United States House of Representatives|Speaker of the House of Representatives]] over the issue.<ref name="Seigenthaler" />

==See also==
* [[Specie Payment Resumption Act]] (1875)
* [[Executive order]]s

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Andrew Jackson}}

[[Category:1836 in American law]]
[[Category:Economic history of the United States]]
[[Category:United States executive orders]]
[[Category:1836 in the United States]]
[[Category:Andrew Jackson administration controversies]]