Tom DiLorenzo; "Clay was a powerful proponent of a nationalized banking system"

[Henry] Clay was also a powerful proponent of a nationalized banking system.  He fought a pitched political battle with Andrew Jackson (which Jackson eventually won) over the rechartering of the Bank of the United States.

As speaker of the House of Representatives, Clay personally demonstrated the usefulness of the Bank of the United States to politicians as ambitious as he was.  He used his position to place his cronies from Kentucky on the bank's board of directors, enabling them to reward their political supporters with cheap credit.  This was precisely the kind of political corruption that opponents of nationalized banking, such as Andrew Jackson, feared.

~ Tom DiLorenzo, The Real Lincoln, p. 64

First Bank of the United States