Nicholas Biddle: The Second Bank, Andrew Jackson's Veto and a Fraud Charge

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Nicholas Biddle was born in Philadelphia in 1786 to a family tied to the Revolution, finished the University of Pennsylvania curriculum at 13, and graduated from Princeton in 1801 at 15 as co-valedictorian. As a student he wrote an essay defending slavery. Working in Paris as secretary to diplomat John Armstrong Jr., he attended Napoleon's 1804 coronation, then served James Monroe in London and helped audit the Louisiana Purchase. Back in Philadelphia he edited the Lewis and Clark journals into a narrative, with an introduction by Thomas Jefferson, and in the state legislature drafted a failed bill for free public schools. Monroe made him a director of the Second Bank of the United States, and by 1822 he was its president.

Biddle kept state banks in line by presenting their notes for gold and silver, smoothing credit across the country, much of it fueling cotton and slavery's expansion. In 1832 he and Henry Clay forced an early recharter vote, Andrew Jackson vetoed it, and Biddle's spending against Jackson backfired in a landslide. After Jackson pulled federal deposits in 1833, Biddle deliberately tightened credit into 1834, turning the public against him. The federal charter expired in 1836. Under a Pennsylvania charter he speculated secretly in cotton, and when the Southern economy collapsed his bank ended up holding plantations and enslaved people in Mississippi. Indicted for fraud in 1841, he saw the charges dismissed but faced lawsuits and died at Andalusia in 1844 at 58.

• He impressed Monroe by debating Greek dialects with Cambridge professors.
• He handed final editorial credit for the Lewis and Clark history to Paul Allen.
• Jackson fired two treasury secretaries before Roger Taney withdrew the deposits.
• His brother Thomas and Congressman Spencer Pettis dueled at five feet on Bloody Island in 1831, and both died.
• He relied on his wife's inherited wealth to pay for his legal defense.