The facade of a national bank franchise in New York City
The Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized national bank in the United States, headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Modeled on Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States, the bank was chartered by President James Madison in 1816 and came to manage 25 branch offices nationwide by 1832. 20% of the bank's capital was owned by the federal government, while 4,000 private investors (including 3,000 Europeans) held 80% of the bank's capital. The bank offered fiscal order, a regulated currency, and security for business interests' government bonds, but Old Republicans like John Taylor of Caroline and John Randolph of Roanoke saw it as constitutionally illegitimate, a threat to Jeffersonian agrarianism, and a precursor to the abolition of slavery. The bank's constitutionality was reaffirmed by the US Supreme Court in 1819's McCulloch v. Maryland, but Andrew Jackson accused it of failing to produce a stable national currency. Favoring local banks, Jackson fought the "Bank War" against bank president Nicholas Biddle and his National Republican allies, and Jackson vetoed the bank's recharter and prevented attempts to recharter it by 1834. In 1836, the bank became a private corporation, and a shortage of hard currency led to the Panic of 1837. In 1841, the bank permanently suspended payment and was gradually liquidated until 1852.