Although President Van Buren believed that the government should have little role in the economy because he was a Jeffersonian democrat and believed that the role of the federal government should be small, he was facing an economic crisis that was partly due to the practice of using private banks or state banks to deposit government money that began under Jackson's presidency. In June 1840, Congress passed a law that allowed the Treasury Department to hold government money itself. This was the “Independent Treasury” bill.
