Andrew Jackson on equality under the law and his veto of the recharter of the Bank of the United States

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth cannot be produced by human institutions [but]... every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society... who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, confine itself to equal protection... it would be an unqualified blessing. In the act before me [to recharter the Bank of the United States] there seems to be a wide and unnecessary departure from these just principles.

~ Andrew Jackson, statement on his veto of the Bank of the United States

(Quoted by Robert Remini, Andrew Jackson and the Bank War, p. 83.)