Sold – The Newly Inaugurated President Andrew Jackson Fights Corruption in Government

Jackson ran for president on the promise to root out corruption and moved quickly after his inauguration to carry out his program to, as he stated, “…destroy all the rats who have been plundering the Treasury.” Quite a few Treasury agents were caught short in their accounts and other government employees were also found to be dishonest.

Back then, the main revenues of the federal government were derived from the collection of tariffs by U.S. customs offices at ports. Smuggling to avoid customs was a virtual industry, and employees at the numerous ports could make their posts especially lucrative by looking the other way when goods were smuggled into the country. Thus, when corruption was discovered in the customs offices, Jackson saw it as an especially serious problem.

Finding a “want of moral honesty,” and being himself scrupulously honest in financial matters, Jackson began to regularly scrutinize all transactions involving federal funds. Jackson’s biographer, Robert Rimini, writes, “Jackson’s nearly obsessive concern with honesty in government prompted him to badger the Secretary of Treasury with directives and memoranda to initiate reforms in the department’s various financial operations. These memoranda started flying at Ingham almost from the moment he took office…[Jackson] underscored several words in an effort to convey the intensity of his feelings in the matter. He must restore honesty in government, he contended. That above all else.” Here is one of his letters to Treasury Secretary Samuel D. Ingham, as described by Rimini right down to the underlining of words for emphasis.

Autograph Letter Signed, Washington, June 25, 1829, to Ingham, making it clear that employees in the customs service must be men who were reliable and had taken oaths of office. “I have read & now return the enclosed letter to you that you may answer it. It will not do to entrust the revenue to merchants clerks. They must all be sworn officers, and particularly in the sections of our country that afford great facilities for smuggling.”