“The question then became: Is a national bank constitutional?”
This week, we discuss the argument between Alexander Hamilton and Jefferson over the creation of a national bank of the United States. Hamilton believed a central banking system was essential to America's standing in the world. Jefferson disagreed, arguing that to take a single step beyond the powers of the constitution is to enter a field of boundless abuse. We speak with Jefferson about President Washington's support of Hamilton’s plan, a decision with ramifications that affect Americans to this day.
Further Reading
Project Gutenberg: The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner
Yale Law School: Jefferson's Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank (1791)
Yale Law School: Hamilton's Opinion as to the Constitutionality of the Bank of the United States (1791)
University of Groningen: A Brief History of Central Banking in the United States by Edward Flaherty
John Jacob Astor (Financier), signed check. From the National Numismatic Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, via Wikimedia Commons.
Checks and Balances, Jefferson, Checks and Balances
The Jefferson Watch
President Trump has denounced the U.S. courts that have thwarted his political agenda, including his attempts to ban some Muslims from entering the United States. He has threatened to break up the Ninth Circuit—widely perceived to be too liberal—and he has complained about the decisions of what he calls “so-called judges.”
Trump’s rhetoric is extreme, and perhaps irresponsible, but it is hardly unique. The Judicial Branch of the American government has annoyed or outraged American presidents from the beginning.
Read this week's Jefferson Watch essay, "Checks and Balances, Jefferson, Checks and Balances."
“It’s not in our interest to pay much attention to the struggles and the squabbles and the chaos and the madness and the insanity and the superstitions and the corruptions of Europe.”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
This week, Clay Jenkinson discusses Jefferson’s first inaugural address with regular guest Lindsay Chervinsky. The speech, inaudibly delivered on March 4, 1801, is regarded as one of the top five in American history.
This week, Clay Jenkinson interviews frequent guest Beau Breslin of Skidmore College about the most famous decision in Supreme Court history.
Professor Beau Breslin of Skidmore College returns to the Thomas Jefferson Hour to talk about important passages that were edited out of key American documents of the Founding Era, including the famous anti-slavery passage of the Declaration of Independence.
This week's episode of the Thomas Jefferson Hour was recorded live at Radford University in Radford, Virginia in February 2023.