Editing Nicholas Biddle (section)

===Bank War===
The [[Bank War]] began when President Jackson started criticizing the Bank early in his first term. Beyond the long list of personal and ideological objections that Jackson maintained toward the Bank, there were rumors that Bank officers at some of the branch offices had interfered in the presidential contest of 1828 by providing financial assistance to the National Republican candidate, [[John Quincy Adams]]. Although Biddle traveled to the branch offices to examine the veracity of these claims in person, and denied them unequivocally, Jackson continued to believe that they were true.{{sfn|McGrane|1919|p=67-74}}{{sfn|Remini|1967|p=49-59}} In January 1832, Biddle submitted an application to Congress for a renewal of the Bank's twenty-year charter, four years before the current charter was due to expire. [[Henry Clay]] and other Bank supporters hoped to force Jackson into making an unpopular decision that might cost him during an election year,{{sfn|Wilson|Fiske|1900}} but there were also pressures for an early application emanating from the Bank's stockholders and board of directors.{{sfn|Campbell|2019|p=63-66}} President Jackson vetoed the bill in a stunning move that carried significant consequences for the relationship between Congress and the executive branch.{{sfn|Remini|1967|p=176-178}} The reasons for Jackson's veto were legion and included concerns over the Bank's monopoly power and concentrated wealth, constitutional scruples, states' rights, the Bank's foreign stockholders and ability to foreclose on large parcels of land, sectional animosity toward eastern financiers, and political patronage. An additional factor was Jackson's personality. The president was well known for his stubbornness{{sfn|Remini|1967|p=22}}  and continued to harbor resentment toward Clay from the earlier "[[Corrupt bargain#Election of 1824|Corrupt Bargain]]" accusation following the [[1824 United States presidential election|presidential election of 1824]].

At Biddle's direction, the Bank poured tens of thousands of dollars into a campaign to defeat Jackson in the [[1832 United States presidential election|presidential election of 1832]]. This was a continuation of a strategy that one historian has referred to as one of the earliest examples in the country's history of an interregional corporate lobby and public relations campaign.{{sfn|Campbell|2019|p=48}} Articles, stockholders' reports, editorials, essays, philosophical treatises, petitions, pamphlets, and copies of congressional speeches were among the diverse forms of media that Biddle transmitted to various sections of the country through loans and Bank expenditures. Reports of unusually generous loans to pro-BUS politicians and even small bribes to sympathetic newspaper editors, the details of which came to light in a congressional report published in April 1832, helped convince hard-line Jacksonians that the corrupt "Monster Bank" must be destroyed.{{sfn|Govan|1959|pp=150}}{{sfn|Campbell|2019|pp=71-77}} Biddle was told that such vigorous campaign spending would only give credence to Jackson's theory that the Bank interfered in the American political process, but chose to dismiss the warning.{{sfn|Remini|1981|p=376}} Ultimately, Clay's strategy failed, and in November he lost handily to Jackson, who was reelected to a second term.{{sfn|Remini|1967|p=106}}

In early 1833, Jackson, despite opposition from some members of his cabinet, decided to withdraw the Treasury Department's public (or federal) deposits from the Bank.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/second_bank_of_the_us |title=The Second Bank of the United States (1816–1841) |last=Hill |first=Andrew T. |date=February 5, 2015 |website=Federal Reserve History |access-date=July 8, 2017}}</ref> The incumbent secretary of the treasury, [[Louis McLane]], a member of Jackson's Cabinet, professed moderate support for the Bank. He therefore refused to withdraw the federal deposits directed by the president and would not resign, so Jackson then transferred him to the [[United States State Department|State Department]].{{sfn|Remini|1984|pp=57–58; 171}} McLane's successor, [[William J. Duane]], was also opposed to the Bank, but would not carry out Jackson's orders either. After waiting four months, President Jackson summarily dismissed Duane, replacing him with Attorney General [[Roger B. Taney]] as a [[recess appointment]] when Congress was out of session.{{sfn|Wilentz|2006|p=395}} In September 1833, Taney helped transfer the public deposits from the Bank to seven state-chartered banks. Faced with the loss of the federal deposits, Biddle decided to raise interest rates. A mild [[financial panic]] ensued from late 1833 to mid-1834.{{sfn|Wilentz|2006|pp=396–400}} Intended to force Jackson into a compromise and demonstrate the utility of a national bank for the nation's economy, the move had the opposite effect of increasing anti-Bank sentiment.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/second_bank_of_the_us |title=The Second Bank of the United States (1816–1841) |last=Hill |first=Andrew T. |date=February 5, 2015 |website=Federal Reserve History |access-date=July 8, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711064727/https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/second_bank_of_the_us |archive-date=July 11, 2017  }}</ref>{{sfn|Wilentz|2006|pp=396–400}} Meanwhile, Biddle and other Bank supporters attempted to renew the Bank's charter on numerous occasions. All their attempts failed because they did not have the two-thirds majorities in Congress to overcome a [[presidential veto]].{{sfn|Wilentz|2006|pp=396–400}}