Bank of the United States (1816-1836)

In 1816, the Bank of the United States was rechartered, the first charter having expired in 1811, in an attempt to stabilize the national currency. Within the first three years, the bank was nearly ruined due to mismanagement. Langdon Cheves was elected president of its board of directors in 1819 and restored the bank's credit. In 1822, he resigned the post and was succeeded by Nicholas Biddle. The national charter for the bank expired in 1836, but Biddle kept the bank in operation until 1841, using a state charter.

Nathan Meyer Rothschild was born in Germany and as a young man became a naturalized citizen of England. His financial acumen and information network were instrumental in opposing Napoleon I and keeping England's stock market afloat, and he amassed a huge fortune in the process. Along with his father and five brothers, Rothschild helped establish a financial empire across Europe, lending money to governments to finance railroads, mines, and other endeavors, including the Suez Canal.

A first attempt to create a national bank for the United States failed in 1811, but debt accrued from the War of 1812 compelled Congress to charter a second Bank of the United States. At the time of the election of Andrew Jackson to the presidency in 1828, the bank was operating successfully, but the President and several of his political allies believed that such a large private institution would necessarily be vulnerable to corrupting influences. Jackson and the bank's director, Nicholas Biddle, clashed several times throughout the early 1830s, and Jackson refused to re-charter the institution in 1832. That, coupled with the withdrawal of federal funds from its coffers, effectively destroyed the Bank, and it closed in 1836.

The headquarters of the Second Bank of United States was in Philadelphia. This volume belonged to the New York branch.