Partisan or Not?

Jackson's opposition to the Bank was resolute. Having been granted special privileges, the Bank possessed a very powerful influence upon national affairs however it had no higher entity to answer to, neither the people nor the government. Such power would have enabled the Bank to also wield a great deal of political power. Jackson was immediately suspicious. In a letter from Colonel James A. Hamilton, son of former Treasury Secretary under George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, which was dated December 9, 1833, Hamilton informed Jackson that Biddle had submitted a bank report explaining that the Bank held a position of being required to carry out "other duties than those to the country[23]."

Furthermore, Hamilton stated that the Bank's directors had held a meeting in Washington where they announced that the Bank belonged to no political party nor would it be involved in politics[24]. Hamilton told Jackson that he believed this to be entirely false and that no such meeting ever took place[25]. Biddle, however, held firm his belief that the Bank should hold no political agenda. In a letter to William B. Lewis dated October 21, 1829, Biddle expressed such a notion when he said that it is the feeling among the directors that they not yield to partisan politics[26].