I'm very excited to share my article on Nicholas Biddle, published in American Nineteenth Century History Volume 17, no. 3.
Here is the abstract:
President Andrew Jackson’s protracted conflict with Nicholas Biddle, known colloquially as the “Bank War,” endures as a seminal chapter in the nation’s political and economic history. This article analyzes Biddle’s interactions with lawmakers, financiers, newspaper editors, and intellectuals during the Second Bank’s campaign for recharter from early 1830 to mid-1832. It brings together research from numerous manuscript collections, bank balance sheets, newspapers, and legislative debates to show how Biddle orchestrated one of the earliest business lobbies and public relations campaigns conducted on a nationwide scale. Biddle developed a nationwide lobby primarily because of the Bank’s branch structure and vast financial holdings, because he mobilized a large army of campaign surrogates, because he targeted voters with a standardized campaign message, and because recent advancements in transportation and communication enabled him to correspond with scores of subordinates separated by hundreds of miles of distance. Pursuing this analysis sheds light on one of the nation’s most powerful businesses and contains valuable insights for scholars interested in the burgeoning history of capitalism.
Here is the abstract:
President Andrew Jackson’s protracted conflict with Nicholas Biddle, known colloquially as the “Bank War,” endures as a seminal chapter in the nation’s political and economic history. This article analyzes Biddle’s interactions with lawmakers, financiers, newspaper editors, and intellectuals during the Second Bank’s campaign for recharter from early 1830 to mid-1832. It brings together research from numerous manuscript collections, bank balance sheets, newspapers, and legislative debates to show how Biddle orchestrated one of the earliest business lobbies and public relations campaigns conducted on a nationwide scale. Biddle developed a nationwide lobby primarily because of the Bank’s branch structure and vast financial holdings, because he mobilized a large army of campaign surrogates, because he targeted voters with a standardized campaign message, and because recent advancements in transportation and communication enabled him to correspond with scores of subordinates separated by hundreds of miles of distance. Pursuing this analysis sheds light on one of the nation’s most powerful businesses and contains valuable insights for scholars interested in the burgeoning history of capitalism.
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