Bank of the United States

General | Nicholas Biddle | Sources

General

There are an awful lot of Political Cartoons of Jackson's fight against the Bank of the United States.

Amazon. Andrew Jackson and the Bank War by Robert V. Remini.

Bank War, a reliable short precis from The Reader's Companion to American History (Houghton Mifflin). The article Bank of the United States also covers the first bank (which expired in 1811).

The Celebrated Bank War from Prof. Steven Mintz's online textbook Hypertext History, .

"Removal failed in large part because of the nation's commitment to limited government and its lack of experience with social welfare programs. Contracts for food, clothing, and transportation were awarded to the lowest bidders, many of whom failed to fulfill their contractual responsibilities. Indians were resettled on semi-arid lands, unsuited for intensive farming. The tragic outcome was readily foreseeable."

The US Senate summarizes the 1834 Censure of Jackson.

Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia: BUS.

Review of Edward S. Kaplan's The Bank of the United States and the American Economy by Clair E. Morris, Economic History Services (Sep 20, 2000).

"This book, by a professor in the Department of Social Science at New York Technical College of the City University of New York, will not excite much interest among economic historians. … Sadly, this is term paper work, not serious research."

Ouch! And that's not even the harshest thing said…

Review of Marion Brown's monograph The Second Bank of the United States and Ohio (1803-1860): A Collision of Interests. Reviewed by Larry Schweikart, Economic History Services (Jan 13, 1999).

"The book would have benefited greatly from a solid discussion of monetary and banking principles of the day. There is nothing to explain what specie reserves meant to local customers. Was a high reserve good? How did people know that the bank was issuing too much money? What did people expect out of banks? What was the difference between note issue and loans? Why were branches opposed? Why was free banking not considered a more enticing alternative to the BUS? Brown's discussions of the Second BUS would have benefited from a thorough reading of Timberlake and David Martin, not to mention writers of the day, such as William Gouge and William Leggett. In other words, too often it is unclear what fundamental principles--what "mindset," in modern slang--the various actors worked from."

Information on the Second Bank of the United States building in Philadelphia. From the Virtual Tour of the United States.

Image of a Second Bank note from the Money Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. See their page on Early Banking Systems, 1811-1860.

Student Essay: "The Destruction of the Second Bank of the United States: Rationale and Effects" by Gareth Davis. Seeks to "analyse from the perspective of a historian of economic thought and policy the rationale and implications of the destruction of the Second bank of the United States." Wrong-headed. Is hatred of the east coast aristocracy really the "one" element that united Jacksonian democrats?

Sources

Clay, Senate speech on Jackson's veto of the bank bill (July 10, 1832)

Andrew Jackson's Bank Veto (July 10, 1832) from Henry J. Sage's Jefferson and Jackson's America. Also available here (Avalon). The publisher Houghton Mifflin has a page with the veto and questions for students.

Nicholas Biddle

Wikipedia: Nicholas Biddle, adapted from Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography. As of 8/14/2004 it included some rather odd misunderstanding about Jackson's intent in the Bank struggle.

FindAGrave: Nicholas Biddle (Saint Peter's Churchyard, Philadelphia). You can leave "flowers" and a note.

"Andrew Jackson and the Bankwar" by Tony D'Urso (possibly a student paper), from From Revolution to Reconstruction.