Nicholas Biddle and The Bank of the United States
President Andrew Jackson had always opposed the use of paper money and more importantly, set out to destroy the existence of the national bank. He strongly believed that having a national bank would jeopardize the political rights and influence of the common man. However, after successfully removing the bank, Jackson not only jeopardized the economic stability of the country, but he also divided it into two political parties, the Whigs and Democrats, causing political disunity. He opposed
Nicholas Biddle’s proposal to keep the national bank, which severely affected the United States by killing its economy.
1. How did Jackson or his policies affect the life of Nicholas Biddle?
Jackson and his policies affected the life of Nicholas Biddle dramatically. Jackson wanted to get rid of the Bank of the United
States because he thought the bank had too much power over the economy. Jackson opposed the usage of paper money because he preferred gold and silver currency instead. Jackson disagreed about giving the bank a new charter. He didn’t listen to the supreme court and he was the one who caused inflation. He believed that a new charter was unconstitutional. The House of
Representatives voted on it and they had decided to put in a new charter but Jackson vetoed the bill. In his second term, Jackson stopped depositing federal money in the national banks. He decided to put the money in the state banks instead. Nicholas
Biddle demanded people to repay their loans immediately so he could try to save the national bank.
Jackson’s decision in depositing money in state banks didn’t help the economy because after removing funds from the national bank and placing them in state banks, he ended up causing high inflation due to state banks printing exorbitant amounts of currency. This ended up contributing to the factors that led to the Panic of 1837.
2. In what way did Nicholas Biddle specifically interact with Jackson or his policies?
The interactions between Jackson and Biddle were a series of unspoken arguments and actions regarding the legitimacy of the
Second Bank. Although Jackson and Biddle never interacted in person, Jackson had clearly attempted to destroy Biddle’s plans for the Second Bank with yearly criticized messages towards him and his foundation. According to Jackson, the bank was dangerous to the liberties of the people, and would destroy the political parties by giving out loans to the politicians. Throughout his presidency, Jackson, in his second term, had stopped giving out financial support to the Bank, which perpetuated Biddle to fully go out and save the bank from financial ruins. Biddle had demanded that borrowers return and pay back the loans taken from the bank, and this lead to struggling businesses without the support of the bank and many had lost their jobs. Biddle had put the blame upon President Jackson for the financial crisis and took no responsibility towards it.
Nicholas Biddle tried to get the national bank back up by asking the governor of Pennsylvania to make a speech about supporting the bank. In order for the governor to do so, he asked for $300,000 in return. When Biddle didn’t give the money to the governor, he was furious. So instead of supporting the national bank, he opposed it. Also, the governor of