Editing Specie Circular (section)

==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" />