Editing Nicholas Biddle (section)

===Pennsylvania General Assembly===
Biddle was elected as a Republican member of the [[Pennsylvania House of Representatives]] in 1810, and then in the [[Pennsylvania State Senate]] for the [[Pennsylvania Senate, District 1|1st district]] from 1813 to 1815.{{sfn|Hammond|1957|p=290}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Nicholas Biddle |url=https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/bioshistory/MemBio.cfm?ID=5067&body=S |website=www.legis.state.pa.us |access-date=January 6, 2019}}</ref><ref>[http://www.anb.org/articles/03/03-00039.html American National Biography-Nicholas Biddle]</ref> He originated a bill favoring a free system of public schools—available to all Pennsylvanians regardless of their economic class—almost a quarter of a century in advance of the times.{{sfn|Govan|1959|pp=25-26}} Though the bill was initially defeated, it resurfaced repeatedly in different forms until, in 1836, the Pennsylvania [[public education|"common-school"]] system was inaugurated as an indirect result of his efforts.{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}}

[[File:General Jackson Slaying the Many Headed Monster crop.jpg|thumb|left|400px|Seventh President [[Andrew Jackson]] slays the many-headed monster that symbolizes the revived [[second Bank of the United States]]. Nicholas Biddle is in the middle, in the top hat.]]