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Revision as of 21:40, 19 October 2006 by 68.217.202.169 (talk) (→Beginning of the War)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Bank War is the name given to Andrew Jackson's attack on the Second Bank of the United States during the early years of his presidency. Andrew Jackson viewed the Bank of the United States as a monopoly. The Bank of the United States was a private institution, and was invested in by the elite of the society. Its president, Nicholas Biddle, held a huge amount of influence in the nation's financial affair.
Beginning of the War
The Bank war started in 1832, when Henry Clay presented Congress with a bill to renew the Bank of the United States in order to make it an election issue. Knowing that Jackson would veto the bill, Clay believed that it would anger many influential and wealthy people in the East. But the veto appealed to the masses, and Jackson easily won in the election of 1832.
End and the Consequences
With the election of 1832 secured, Jackson proceeded to destroy the Bank of the United States. He promptly withdrew all the national deposit from the Bank of the United States and stored them in "pet banks", small state owned banks. Jackson's Secretary of Treasury opposed the removal of the national deposits. Two of them were forced to resign before Jackson appointed a "yes-man", Roger Taney. The death of the Bank of the United States left a financial vacuum in the nation. The country lapsed into periods of booms and busts. The pet banks also printed huge amounts of paper money, causing inflation. To try and control the economy, Jackson issued the Specie Circular in 1836, which required all land deals to be paid in metal money. This turned out to be a disastrous decree, and created the Panic of 1837. But by then, Jackson had served his term and left all the financial problems he created to his successor, Van Buren.
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