USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Bank’s most powerful enemy was President Andrew Jackson. In 1832 Senator Henry Clay, Jackson’s opponent in the Presidential election of that year, proposed rechartering the Bank early.

Detailed explanation-2: -Jackson’s distrust of the Bank was also political, based on a belief that a federal institution such as the Bank trampled on states’ rights. In addition, he felt that the Bank put too much power in the hands of too few private citizens–power that could be used to the detriment of the government.

Detailed explanation-3: -Jackson thus challenged the rulings of the Supreme Court of the United States, which had held consistently that the Bank was constitutional. Jackson’s Bank veto was significant, since it firmly inserted the President into the legislative process.

Detailed explanation-4: -At the time Jackson became President in 1828, the Bank of the United States was ably run by Nicholas Biddle, a Philadelphian. But Biddle was more an astute businessman than politician.

Detailed explanation-5: -To hasten the end of the bank, Jackson ordered the U.S. government deposits (20 percent of its funds) be withdrawn and deposited in state banks so the state banks could make the loans the Bank had stopped making. This pro-Jackson political cartoon from 1833 applauds the removal of the deposits.