Nicholas Biddle was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
financierFinancier is a term for a person who handles typically large sums of money, usually involving money lending, financing projects, large-scale investing, or large-scale money management. The term is French, and derives from finance or payment...
who served as the president of the
Second Bank of the United StatesThe Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816, five years after the First Bank of the United States lost its own charter. The Second Bank of the United States was initially headquartered in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, the same as the First Bank, and had branches throughout the...
.
Ancestry and early life
Nicholas Biddle was born in
Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
. Ancestors of the
Biddle familyThe American Biddle family of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania yielded numerous and diverse people of interest down to the present era.William Biddle and Sarah Kempe were Quakers who emigrated from England to America in 1681 in part to avoid religious persecution...
immigrated to
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
when
William PennWilliam Penn was an English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, the English North American colony and the future Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He was an early champion of democracy and religious freedom, notable for his good relations and successful...
visited, and fought in the pre-Revolutionary colonial struggles. Nicholas's father, Charles Biddle, was prominent in his devotion to the cause of
American IndependenceThe American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
and served as Vice-President of Pennsylvania, alongside President
Benjamin FranklinDr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
. Also, an uncle with the same name, Nicholas Biddle, whose residence was in Philadelphia, was an early naval hero. Another uncle,
Edward BiddleEdward Biddle was an American soldier, lawyer, and statesman from Pennsylvania. He was a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1774 and 1775.-Biography:...
, was a member of the
Congress of 1774The First Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from twelve of the thirteen North American colonies that met on September 5, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, early in the American Revolution. It was called in response to the passage of the Coercive Acts by the...
. Young Nicholas Biddle was very bright and he would become well educated; as he was enrolled at a prestigious academy in Pennsylvania at a very early age. Due to his rapid educational progress, he entered the
University of PennsylvaniaThe University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
at the age of 10. When the university refused to award the teenager a degree, he transferred to
PrincetonPrinceton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
and graduated in 1801, at 15, the class
valedictorianValedictorian is an academic title conferred upon the student who delivers the closing or farewell statement at a graduation ceremony. Usually, the valedictorian is the highest ranked student among those graduating from an educational institution...
. His older brother
Thomas BiddleThomas Biddle was a War of 1812 hero who died in a duel with Missouri Congressman Spencer Pettis.Biddle was born into the powerful Biddle family in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
was a
War of 1812The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
hero, who would die in a duel defending the honor of Nicholas.
Biddle was offered an official position before he had even finished his law studies. As secretary to
John ArmstrongJohn Armstrong, Jr. was an American soldier and statesman who was a delegate to the Continental Congress, U.S. Senator from New York, and Secretary of War.-Early life and Revolutionary War:...
, a United States minister to
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, he went abroad in 1804, and was in
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
at the time of Napoleon's coronation. Afterward, he participated in an
auditThe general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person, organization, system, process, enterprise, project or product. The term most commonly refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist in project management, quality management, and energy conservation.- Accounting...
related to the
Louisiana PurchaseThe Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of America of of France's claim to the territory of Louisiana in 1803. The U.S...
, acquiring his first experience in financial affairs. Biddle traveled extensively through Europe, returning to England to serve as secretary for
James MonroeJames Monroe was the fifth President of the United States . Monroe was the last president who was a Founding Father of the United States, and the last president from the Virginia dynasty and the Republican Generation...
, then United States minister to the
Court of St. James'sThe Court of St James's is the royal court of the United Kingdom. It previously had the same function in the Kingdom of England and in the Kingdom of Great Britain .-Overview:...
. At
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, Biddle took part in a conversation with
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
professors involving comparison between modern Greek dialect and that of
HomerIn the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
; the incident captured Monroe's attention.
In 1807, Biddle returned home to Philadelphia. He practiced law and wrote, contributing papers to different publications on various subjects, but chiefly in the fine arts. He became associate editor of a magazine called
Port-FolioPort Folio was a Philadelphia literary and political magazine, published 1801-1812 by Joseph Dennie and Asbury Dickens. Dennie wrote under the pen name of Oliver Oldschool. Many other contributors to the magazine wrote under pseudonyms, including members of the Federalist Party...
, which was published from 1806 to 1823. He married Jane Margaret Craig (b. 1792) in 1811, and together they had six children. When editor
Joseph DennieJoseph Dennie was an American author and journalist who was one of the foremost men of letters of the Federalist Era. A Federalist, Dennie is best remembered for his series of essays entitled The Lay Preacher and as the founding editor of Port Folio, a journal espousing classical republican values...
died in 1812, Biddle took over the magazine and lived on 7th St near Spruce Street.
Lewis and Clark
Biddle also prepared Lewis and Clark's report of their exploratory expedition to the mouth of the
Columbia RiverThe Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, flows northwest and then south into the U.S. state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state...
for publication, and he encouraged President
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
to write an introductory memoir of Captain
Meriwether LewisMeriwether Lewis was an American explorer, soldier, and public administrator, best known for his role as the leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition also known as the Corps of Discovery, with William Clark...
. However, Biddle's name does not appear in the work, as he was elected to the state legislature (1810–1811) and was compelled to turn over the project to
Paul Allen (editor)Paul Allen was an American author and editor, and a graduate of Brown University.Born in Providence, Rhode Island, he edited a two-volume history of the Lewis and Clark expedition that was published in 1814, in Philadelphia, but without mention of the actual author, banker Nicholas Biddle.This...
, who supervised its publication. With the consent of all parties, Allen was then recognized as the editor. Nevertheless, Robert T. Conrad has said that Biddle actually wrote the two volumes from Lewis and Clark's notes.
Pennsylvania legislature
Biddle quickly became prominent in the Pennsylvania legislature. He originated a bill favoring popular education almost a quarter of a century in advance of the times. Though the bill was initially defeated, it resurfaced repeatedly in different forms until, in 1836, the Pennsylvania common-school system was inaugurated as an indirect result of his efforts.
The Bank of the United States
After Biddle moved to the Pennsylvania State Senate, he lobbied for the rechartering of the
Second Bank of the United StatesThe Second Bank of the United States was chartered in 1816, five years after the First Bank of the United States lost its own charter. The Second Bank of the United States was initially headquartered in Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, the same as the First Bank, and had branches throughout the...
. The Bank was rechartered in 1816, and President Monroe appointed Biddle as a federal government director. Upon the resignation of Bank president
Langdon ChevesLangdon Cheves was an American politician and a president of the Second Bank of the United States.Cheves was born at Rocky River, South Carolina and died in Columbia, South Carolina. His father, Alexander, was a native of Scotland; his mother, Mary Langdon, was from Virginia...
in 1822, Biddle became president. During his association with the Bank, he was directed by Monroe, under authority from Congress, to prepare a "Commercial Digest" of the laws and trade regulations of the world. For many years after, it was regarded as an authority on the subject.
During the
Panic of 1819The Panic of 1819 was the first major financial crisis in the United States, and had occurred during the political calm of the Era of Good Feelings. The new nation previously had faced a depression following the war of independence in the late 1780s and led directly to the establishment of the...
, a banking crisis and economic recession, critics charged that the Bank was to blame because of its tight credit policy. In late 1818, $4 million of interest payments on the bonds sold in 1803 to pay for the Louisiana Purchase was due, in either gold or silver, to European investors. The government had to get its hands on silver or gold. The Bank, as the government's fiscal agent, was required to make this payment on behalf of the government. The Bank was forced to demand the commercial banks that had been lent money in the form of fiat paper now repay in gold or silver—specie. This specie was sent to Europe. This rather sudden contraction of the monetary base after three years of inflated currency and rampant speculation based on debt led to the panic of 1819.
In Tennessee,
Andrew JacksonAndrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . Based in frontier Tennessee, Jackson was a politician and army general who defeated the Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend , and the British at the Battle of New Orleans...
was hard-pressed to pay his debts in this period. He developed a lifelong hostility to all banks that were not completely backed by gold or silver. This meant, above all hostility to the Second Bank of the United States.
On August 26, 1831, Biddle's brother, Thomas, a
War of 1812The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
veteran, was killed in a
duelA duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
on Bloody Island (Mississippi River) at
St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
with Congressman Spencer Pettis. Thomas had taken offense to Pettis' criticizing Nicholas at the bank. After an exchange of letters to the editor Biddle accosted an ill Pettis in his hotel room. After Pettis recovered he challenged Thomas to a duel and both were killed when they exchanged shots from five feet apart.
The "
Bank WarThe Bank War is the name given to the controversy over the Second Bank of the United States and the attempts to destroy it by President Andrew Jackson. At that time, it was the only nationwide bank and, along with its president Nicholas Biddle, exerted tremendous influence over the nation's...
" of 1832–36 was initiated by Biddle when he applied for the Bank's re-charter four years before the charter was scheduled to expire. Until 1832, Jackson, for three years, had ignored the Bank and Biddle. But, once challenged, he decided to veto the bill to re-charter the bank, which was being pushed by Senator
Henry ClayHenry Clay, Sr. , was a lawyer, politician and skilled orator who represented Kentucky separately in both the Senate and in the House of Representatives...
of Kentucky in preparation for another Presidential run later that year. Jackson, well-known as a man whom one did not want to anger, still harbored ill will towards Clay from the 1824 Presidential election. Clay's strategy failed, and Jackson gained great support from the public for his veto. Clay lost to Jackson again in November despite massive funding of over $3 million in bankers' support.
In early 1833, Jackson decided to pull the government's funds out of the Bank. The Secretary of the Treasury,
Louis McLaneLouis McLane was an American lawyer and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware, and Baltimore, Maryland. He was a veteran of the War of 1812 and a member of the Federalist Party and later the Democratic Party. He served as the U.S. Representative from Delaware, U.S. Senator...
, was favorable to the Bank. He refused to withdraw the funds and would not resign, so Jackson removed him as Secretary of the Treasury by appointing him to Secretary of State. His replacement,
William DuaneWilliam Duane is the name of:* William John Duane, Secretary of the Treasury under Jackson* William Duane , American physicist...
, deliberately delayed. After waiting four months, Jackson replaced him as well. The third man, his former Attorney General,
Roger B. TaneyRoger Brooke Taney was the fifth Chief Justice of the United States, holding that office from 1836 until his death in 1864. He was the first Roman Catholic to hold that office or sit on the Supreme Court of the United States. He was also the eleventh United States Attorney General. He is most...
, complied. The funds were transferred to seven state-chartered banks in late September. This put the Second Bank on the offensive. It had lost its biggest depositor, by far.
To force Jackson to accept a re-charter bill, Biddle decided to shrink the money supply and cause a recession in 1834. The Bank demanded that old loans be repaid while it made no new loans.
There was a brief recession in the first half of 1834, but another bill to re-charter failed in the House on April 4. That was the last time the issue ever came before Congress. And so, the Bank was doomed. Its charter expired in April, 1836.
Biddle's friends assert that his non-partisanship provoked Jackson, a claim denied by historians. After the Bank lost its national charter in April, 1836, it continued to operate erratically as a state-chartered bank, partially causing the
Panic of 1837The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis or market correction in the United States built on a speculative fever. The end of the Second Bank of the United States had produced a period of runaway inflation, but on May 10, 1837 in New York City, every bank began to accept payment only in specie ,...
.
In 1839, Biddle resigned from his post of Bank President, and in 1841, the Bank finally failed. Biddle was arrested and charged with fraud; he was later acquitted. He died soon after while still involved in civil suits.
He was important in the establishment of
Girard CollegeGirard College is an independent boarding school on a 43-acre campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Girard is for academically capable students, grades one through 12, and awards a full scholarship with a yearly value of approximately $42,000 to every child admitted to the...
under the provisions of the
founderStephen Girard was a French-born, naturalized American, philanthropist and banker. He personally saved the U.S. government from financial collapse during the War of 1812, and became one of the wealthiest men in America, estimated to have been the fourth richest American of all time, based on the...
's will. Girard had been the original promoter of the Second Bank and its largest investor. Girard died in 1831.
Nicholas Biddle Estate
The Nicholas Biddle Estate in
Bensalem Township, PennsylvaniaBensalem Township is a township in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States which borders the northeast section of Philadelphia. The township is composed of many communities, including Bensalem, Trevose, Oakford, Cornwells Heights, Eddington, and Andalusia...
, also known as
AndalusiaAndalusia, also known as the Nicholas Biddle Estate, is a historic mansion and surrounding estate located on the Delaware River just north of Philadelphia in the village named Andalusia for it in Bensalem Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania....
, is a
National Historic LandmarkA National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
.
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