Editing Nicholas Biddle (section)

== The Bank War ==

Biddle's conflict with Andrew Jackson, which dominated American politics during the early 1830s, pitted Philadelphia's financial establishment against frontier democracy's suspicion of concentrated power. Jackson's veto of the Bank's recharter in 1832, and his subsequent removal of federal deposits, destroyed the institution that Biddle had managed and that the nation's commerce required. The veto message, which denounced the Bank as a "monster" threatening American liberty, established rhetoric that populist critics of financial power have employed since.<ref name="govan"/>

Biddle's response to Jackson's attacks, including the contraction of credit that he hoped would demonstrate the Bank's necessity, backfired politically while creating economic hardship that his critics attributed to his arrogance. His tactical errors, which played into Jackson's characterization of him as an aristocrat contemptuous of popular will, contributed to a defeat whose causes included both democratic principle and political skill. The Bank's federal charter expired in 1836, though Biddle continued its operation under Pennsylvania charter until the Panic of 1837 destroyed it completely.<ref name="remini"/>

His final years, marked by the Bank's collapse and criminal charges (of which he was eventually acquitted) related to its management, demonstrated how completely his defeat was. His death in 1844, at his beloved Andalusia, concluded a career that had risen to national centrality before crashing to personal disgrace. The financial instability that followed the Bank's destruction, while validating his arguments about its necessity, provided no personal satisfaction to the man whose career it had ended.<ref name="govan"/>