Andrew Jackson\'s War Second Bank United States.

¶ … Andrew Jackson's war Second Bank United States. Be include key people, events,

Andrew Jackson's conflict with the Second Bank of the United States represented a crucial time period in American history. In order to best elucidate the cause of the conflict, its repercussions, and the key players involved in it, it is necessary to return to the root of the reason that Jackson opposed such a financial institution. The bank essentially represented a misnomer, as it was in fact privately owned by wealthy businessmen -- many of whose lineages and ties led back to Europe. In fact, the U.S. government only owned approximately a fifth of the shares in this bank. (Faragher et al., 2009, p. 282). Therefore, Jackson was extremely hesitant about the degree of power and relative autonomy that he would deliver to private investors were the charter for the bank sanctioned by him.

Another important reason that influenced Jackson's decision not to renew the charter was the nature of the banking industry itself, particularly the practices that the Second Bank of the United States would utilize. The bank would largely be based upon paper currency, which is highly inflationary and a means to create panics, increase prices, and devalue whatever form of currency in circulation. This is because paper currency is not backed by something with intrinsic value, such as gold, silver, or other forms of coinage. Jackson was not alone in his suspicion of the manipulability of paper currency, which is why he was against the Second Bank of the U.S.

Nevertheless, the stage was set for a conflict between Jackson and the Bank due to the efforts of Nicholas Biddle, who was reinforced by political contemporaries (and opponents) of Jackson. The then-current 20-year charter of the Bank of the United States was set to expire in 1836, and Biddle decided to reapply for a new charter early in 1832. Congress condoned his efforts by approving the Bank's charter.

Biddle's efforts were highly political in nature. 1932 was an election year, and one of his supporters for the charter of the bank, Clay, would be running against Jackson. However, Jackson is unique among U.S. presidents for the sheer amount of times he used the presidential power to veto measures. Somewhat predictably, he vetoed the charter for the Bank of the United States, and rode the momentum from this political maneuver during the election of that year. Billing himself as a state's rights advocate and hero of the common man, Jackson presented himself of the polar opposite of Clay who championed private investors, big business, and the privileged few. It is highly revealing that Jackson gave Clay a drubbing via the electoral votes in which he won by a landslide, 219 to 49.

After winning the election and stymying the efforts to renew the Bank of the United States, Jackson went a step further by presenting a high amount of federal government funding into states banks. The message was clear: Jackson would remain a proponent of states' rights and continue to support the common man, regardless of education, privilege, or wealth.