<Tr> <Td> Andrew Jackson Amos Kendall Roger B. Taney Francis Blair Thomas Hart Benton James K. Polk </Td> <Td> Henry Clay Daniel Webster Nicholas Biddle </Td> </Tr> <P> The Bank War refers to the political struggle that developed over the issue of rechartering the Second Bank of the United States (BUS) during the presidency of Andrew Jackson (1829--1837). The affair resulted in the destruction of the bank and its replacement by various state banks . </P> <P> Anti-Bank Jacksonian Democrats were mobilized in opposition to the national bank's re-authorization on the grounds that the institution conferred economic privileges on a small group of financial elites, violating Constitutional principles of social equality . The Jacksonians considered the Second Bank of the United States to be an illegitimate corporation whose charter violated state sovereignty, posing an implicit threat to the agriculture - based economy dependent upon the Southern states' widely practiced institution of slavery . With the Bank charter due to expire in 1836, the President of the Bank of the United States, Nicholas Biddle, in alliance with the National Republicans under Senator Henry Clay (KY) and Senator Daniel Webster (MA), decided to make rechartering a referendum on the legitimacy of the institution in the elections of 1832 . </P> <P> When Congress voted to reauthorize the Bank, Jackson, as incumbent and candidate in the race, promptly vetoed the bill . His veto message justifying his action was a polemical declaration of the social philosophy of the Jacksonian movement pitting "farmers, mechanics and laborers" against the "monied interest" and arguing against the Bank's constitutionality . Pro-Bank National Republicans warned the public that Jackson would abolish the Bank altogether if granted a second term . In the presidential election of 1832, the BUS served as the central issue in mobilizing the opposing Jacksonian Democrats and National Republicans . Jackson and Biddle personified the positions on each side . Jacksonians successfully concealed the incompatibility of their "hard money" and "paper money" factions in the anti-Bank campaign, allowing Jackson to score an overwhelming victory against Henry Clay . </P>

The killing of the bank of the united states