Andrew Jackson & Nicholas Biddle's Monster Bank

Essay by X-InfinityA-, February 2009

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Nicholas Biddle’s bank was a great issue during Andrew Jackson’s Election. At the time of around 1832, the bank was the only nationwide bank and exerted tremendous influences over the nation’s financial system. Andrew Jackson was very much against the renewal of the “Second Bank of the United States”, because he saw it as a huge monopoly since it was a private bank managed by a small group of people. With the Bank President being Nicholas Biddle, Andrew Jackson went after him.

The very first national bank was founded in 1791 with support of Alexander Hamilton. The bank was authorized for a twenty year period during James Madison’s tenure in 1816. Unfortunately, the First Bank’s charter expired in 1811 under President James Madison. Fortunately, the Bank was revived in 1816, as what we now know as the Second Bank of the United States. James Madison and Congress saw the bank as a good way to control the current inflation after the government found that it was in a considerable amount of debt from the “War of 1812”.

The now infamous Nicholas Biddle was given the position of the Bank’s director.

Who is Nicholas Biddle Anyways? Biddle was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, ancestors of the Biddle family that had previously immigrated to Pennsylvania with William Penn, and fought in the famous Pre-Revolutionary Struggles. Biddle was a very well educated man, he began his education at a very prestigious academy in Pennsylvania. Because of his rapid success with education, he enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania at the very young age of 10. Surprisingly, the University refused to award him with a degree because of his young age, so he transferred to Princeton and graduated in 1801; He was awarded as the Valedictorian at age 15. Later in life,