Nicholas Biddle Research Paper

The birth of one America’s most powerful financial giants took place on January 8, 1786, in Philadelphia. Born to Charles and Hannah Biddle, Nicholas was known as an exceptionally brilliant child. He progressed so far in his education that he was enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania as a 10-year-old. Because of how young he was, the college denied him a degree and Biddle transferred to Princeton where he graduated as the valedictorian at the age of 15. After travelling to Paris at the time of Napoleon’s reign, Biddle returned to Philadelphia in 1807 where he practiced law and was the associate editor for Port-Folio, a magazine. During this time, he married Jane Margaret Craig in 1811, with whom he would have six children with. Biddle …show more content…
While in the Senate, he prominently lobbied on behalf of renewing the charter of the Bank of the United States. James Madison approved of the second charter in 1816 and appointed Biddle as a representative to the Bank on behalf of the federal government. In 1822, Langdon Cheves, the president of the Bank, resigned. Nicholas Biddle then became the president of the Second Bank of the United States at the age of 37. Quickly, Biddle became a dominant figure in the American economy as he attempted to ensure that the nation’s currency was kept stable by using the power of the Bank to control credit. The federal government was deposited its earnings into the Second Bank of the United States. Much of this money was in the form of bank notes from banks chartered by the states. Whenever Biddle perceived that state banks had inflated their notes by putting more of them in circulation than was safe, he demanded that the notes be exchanged for gold or silver. This created problems for many banks because they issued more notes than they could back up with gold or silver. The caused the banks to take notes out of circulation and demand repayment of