Overall The Second Bank functioned as the First Bank did. The bank was granted power over the credit and monetary systems and dealt with every fiscal transaction. The bank was in interest of northern businessmen rather than southern and western farmers because the bank made northern businessmen richer. The two parties at the time were the Whigs and Democrats. Democrats opposed the bank while the Whigs saw the bank to expand economic progress. “Democrats regarded banks as government-protected institutions that enabled a privileged few to make themselves rich at the public expense” (Murrin, 288). Senator Henry Clay thought the American people would agree with his view of how the bank was helpful, but majority of them disapproved of how the bank
