It’s hard to believe the United States government was ever debt-free.
But it happened once—in 1835—thanks to President Andrew Jackson. He was the first and only president to pay off the national debt completely.
One biographer says the former president viewed debt as a “moral failing,” a sort of “black magic.”
When he became president, Jackson was determined to rid the US of its national debt. After all, debt enslaves you to your creditors.
Jackson knew that being debt-free was essential to independence. This outlook resonated with many Americans back then.
With that in mind, Jackson attacked the institutions and powerful people who promoted and enabled the federal debt. This included the banking elites and the Second Bank of the United States, the country’s central bank at the time and precursor to today’s insidious Federal Reserve system.
While campaigning against the evils of national debt and central banking, Jackson miraculously survived an assassination attempt when an assassin’s two pistols both misfired. Shadowy interests tied to the central bank were almost certainly behind the effort.
However, Jackson survived and went on to “End the Fed” of his days. He successfully bested the central bank—and the powerful interests behind it—and shut down the Second Bank of the United States.
He also repaid the federal debt in full, which was no easy task.
Jackson couldn’t squeeze the American people with a federal income tax to repay the debt. It didn’t exist at the time and would have been unconstitutional.
He also couldn’t simply print currency to pay off the debt. Perpetuating such an insane fraud—which the Fed does on a massive scale today—likely never entered his mind.
Instead, Jackson had to rely on tax revenue from other sources, mainly import tariffs and excise taxes, to pay down the debt. He also drastically cut federal spending and frequently vetoed spending bills.
Jackson’s determination worked. By January 1835, the US was debt-free for the first time.
Unfortunately, it didn’t last much more than a year. After that, the US would never again be debt-free—not even close.