Attempts to reform currency and banking had been made in the United States prior to the introduction of H.R. 7837. The first major form of this type of legislation came through with the First Bank of the United States in 1791. Championed by Alexander Hamilton, this established a central bank that included in a three-part expansion of federal fiscal and monetary power (including federal mint and excise taxes). Attempts were made to extend this bank's charter, but they would fail before the charters expiration in 1811. This led to the creation of the Second Bank of the United States. In 1816, the U.S. Congress chartered this Second bank for a twenty-year period to create irredeemable currency with which to pay for the costs of the War of 1812. The creation of congressionally authorized irredeemable currency by the Second Bank of the United States opened the door to the possibility of taxation by inflation. Congress did not want state-chartered banks as competition in the inflation of currency. The charter for the Second Bank would expire in 1836, leaving the U.S. without a central bank for nearly eighty years.