The First And Second Bank Of The United States And Their Impact On Modern Banking Infrastructure

The First and Second Bank of the United States

Part 1

Identification and Significance 

Which of the following Jackson-Era conflicts do you think was the most significant?

1 - Bank War
2 - Nullification Crisis
3 - Indian Removal
In your answer provide a brief overview of the conflict and an explanation about why you think it was the most significant of the three major Jackson-Era conflicts. You ONLY need to write about ONE conflict.

Part 2

Choose ONLY 1 essay question from the list below. Grades will be based on the content of the answer and must be more than 400 words in length. Direct quotes do not count toward the required word count.

1 - What were the major problems facing American leaders during the 1780s? What were the main weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation? How did those weaknesses prevent the new government from dealing with the new nation’s major problems?

2 - What were the primary differences between the governments created by the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution of 1787? How and why was the new government more effective in dealing with the major problems facing the nation?

3 -  Explain the how and why the French Revolution affected the United States during the 1790s? How did Americans feel about the French Revolution? How did the administrations of both George Washington and John Adams respond to events related to the French Revolution? 

4 - What were Tecumseh and the Pan-Indian Resistance Movement’s primary grievances against American settlers and the United States government, and how did they attempt to deal with those grievances? 

5 - What were the causes and consequences of the War of 1812? How did the war affect American Indians, the Federalist Party, and the relationship between the United States and Great Britain? 

Part 3

Choose ONLY 1 essay question from the list below. Grades will be based on the content of the answer and must be more than 400 words in length. Direct quotes do not count toward the required word count.

1 - Describe the significant economic changes that took place in the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century? How did new technologies improve agricultural production and transportation? (reference at least 4 new technologies in your answer). What effects did those economic changes, including new technologies, have on American society and politics? 

2 - During John Marshall's term as chief justice, how did the Supreme Court advance the idea of federal supremacy? (use at least three cases in your answer) 

3 - What was the conflict over Missouri and what was the resulting compromise (Missouri Compromise)? How did the crisis affect the growing debates over slavery, the economy, and states’ rights? 

4 -  How and why did democratic reforms change the characters of both the American electorate and American politics? How did the presidential elections of 1820, 1824, and 1828 demonstrate these changes?

5 - How and why were tensions between Americans and the 5 “Civilized” Tribes escalating during the 1820s and 1830s? How did Andrew Jackson justify Indian Removal? What were the end results of Jackson’s policies for Native Americans?
 

The “first bank of the United States”  was chartered in the year of 1791 and the Second Bank was chartered for the next 20 years in 1816. At that time there was only one single bank, which was officially responsible for all the monetary transactions of the country (Jaremski). President Andrew Jackson was totally against the idea of this, according to him it was not justified that the economic power of the country was concentrated in the hands of a particular monetary institution. The President of “Bank of the United States”  whose name was Nicholas Biddle, went to  take help from the Republicans , and according to the advice provided by Henry clay and Daniel Webster. Jackson issued a message saying “The bank is trying to kill me, but I will kill it” and the topic of the bank charter became the main issue in the Presidential election. Jackson also knew that the Bank of United States. Jackson forbade to keep government funds in the bank and instead the new revenues were kept in the state pet banks. Finally, the United States Bank went out of business in the year 1837 (Murphy). This incident is the most important one, which happened during the Jackson-Era because it ended the rule of a single bank and stopped it from becoming the biggest economic power and it also introduced the concept of other financial institutions as well and paved way to the modern banking infrastructure.

Q5 - What were the causes and consequences of the War of 1812? How did the war affect American Indians, the Federalist Party, and the relationship between the United States and Great Britain? 

The “War of 1812” occurred between the Great Britain and the United States. The War was declared on Great Britain by the United States and the causes are explained in the following lines. The Britain had promised America that they will surrender the western forts as per the treaty of Paris after the “Revolutionary War”, but they violated the treaty and did not surrender the forts as promised (Lambert). The British practiced “impressments” on the American people, They captured the American vessels and forcefully recruited the American citizens in the British navy. The Great Britain imposed a lot of restrictions on the trade routes of the United States and thus hampering their trade. The British also provided the Native American with arms, which they used while attacking the Americans from the western frontier. The British had hold over a lot of northern America and the Americans wanted them to go away.

Andrew Jackson's opposition

There were several consequences of the “War of 1812” as well. The United States was able to defeat one of the greatest military powers of the world at that time; this improved the image of America to a great extent in and filled the heart of the American citizens with a certain feeling of patriotism (Tyrrell). The power and influence of the Federalist Party declined, it was one of the most influential parties in Britain before the war but after the end of the war, the power of the party declined rapidly. According to many historians, the war paved way to the formation of the Canadian Confederation. 

The “War of 1812” had several impacts on the fate of the Native Americans, the Federalist Party and the relationship between United States and the Great Britain. The Native Americans were armed by Britain in the fight against the Americans. The death of the great leader of the Native Americans Tecumseh made the America expansion of the Northern territories easier. At the end of the war, the Americans were able to drive away most of the Native Americans into Spain and some others further into the borders of the territory and the power of the natives was also reduced as Britain said that they will not provide them with arms (Jenkins). The popularity of the Federalist Party also suffered a huge blow with the end of the War of 1812 with the Hartford Convention, the federalists organized this and at this convention they put forward several proposals which sounded unreasonable and unpatriotic when the Americans won the war and thus the party came to an end. Both the nations were tired from the War and they signed the treaty of Ghent, which the British did not honour later but with the end of the War the United States finally got rid of the influence of Britain.

Q3- What was the conflict over Missouri and what was the resulting compromise (Missouri Compromise) ? How did the crisis affect the growing debates over slavery, the economy, and states’rights? 
Missouri Compromise was a legislation passed in the 16^th Congress meet of the United States. The United Nations was divided into 22 states and those 22states were equally divided into free and slave states. According to the proposals of the congress, the state of Maine was included as a free state and Missouri was included as a slave state (Van Atta). The passing of the bill led to a controversy, as people were worried that the country was being divided and many thought it was unconstitutional. In the year 1819 at the time when Missouri was being made constructed into a territory James Tallmadge who was a representative from New York proposed to end slavery, his idea was defeated, similarly John Taylor another Representative from New York   . The Missouri Compromise increased the tension about slavery as well and this later led to the beginning of Civil War.

Impact on modern banking infrastructure

The controversies grew around the Missouri Compromise and the southerners criticized the act as the Congress made laws regarding slavery and the northerners were also equally disturbed by the compromise as they believed it to be unconstitutional as congress was promoting the practice of slavery as it legalized it through the act and also helped to expand it (Volkman). As the congress declared the state of Missouri to be a slave state, it endangered the rights of the individual states as the Congress passed the Missouri Compromise without consulting anything with the states. The logic was that if there was a same number of states supporting “slavery” in the South and “non-slavery” states in the northern part, the representation of both the north and the south would be equal and no one would be able to dictate the other. However, each of the new territories, which applied for statehood, made a threat to upset the power and balance of the government. People of the south continuously argued for the rights of the states and weakness of the federal government but until the 1850s the issue of secession was not raised (Van Atta).  The Supreme court declared that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional in the case related to Dred Scott the reason given by the Supreme court was that the Congress is not allowed by constitution to deprive any individuals from their privately owned property. Thus, all these reasons added to the crisis of the Missouri Compromise and that later paved way for the Civil War. 

Reference List:

Jaremski, Matthew. "The Bank War: Andrew Jackson, Nicholas Biddle, and the Fight for American Finance. By Paul Kahan Yardley, PA: Westholme Publishing, 2015. Pp. xii, 187. $28.00, cloth." The Journal of Economic History 77.2 (2017): 613-614.

Jenkins, Philip. A history of the United States. Macmillan International Higher Education, 2017.

Lambert, Andrew. "Creating Cultural Difference: The Military, Political and Cultural Legacy of the Anglo-American War of 1812–1815." War, Demobilization and Memory. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2016. 303-319.

Murphy, Sharon Ann. "The Second Bank of the United States:" Central" Banker in an Era of Nation-Building, 1816–1836 by Jane Ellen Knodell." Enterprise & Society 19.1 (2018): 237-239.

Tyrrell, Ian. Transnational nation: United States history in global perspective since 1789. Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.

Van Atta, John R. Wolf by the Ears: The Missouri Crisis, 1819–1821. JHU Press, 2015.

Volkman, Lucas P. Houses Divided: Evangelical Schisms and the Crisis of the Union in Missouri. Oxford University Press, 2018.