Nicholas Biddle (1786-1844) was president of the Second Bank of the United States from 1823 to 1836. He was an early advocate of the debated principle of central banking, and under his direction the Bank performed most of the functions of present-day central banks.

Nicholas Biddle was born into a prominent Philadelphia family on Jan. 8, 1786. He attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated from the College of New Jersey at Princeton in 1801. He began the study of law, but, too young to enter practice, he lived in Europe from 1804 to 1807, first as secretary to John Armstrong, the U.S. minister to Napoleonic France, then as a traveler, and finally as a secretary to James Monroe, the U.S. minister in England.

Biddle then began practicing law but soon became dissatisfied. Between 1810 and 1823 he was the managing trustee of his wife's estate, one of the largest in Philadelphia; prepared the journals...