First Bank of the United States
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war debt from the United States Revolutionary War, develop a national currency, and dispose
of the western territories. Housed in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania (in Carpenter's Hall for several years) when that city was the capital,
and was designed by Samuel Blodgett and James Windrim. It was chartered in 1791 for 20
years, and thus expired in 1811. It followed the Bank of North America and it was
succeeded by the Second Bank of the United States.
The establishment of the bank raised early questions of constitutionality in the new
government. Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, argued that the Bank was an effective
means to achieve the authorized powers of the government implied under the ''necessary and
proper'' clause of the constitution. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson argued that the
Bank violated traditional property laws and that its relevance to constitutionally authorized
powers was weak.
Tenets the bank was based on include:
- Sound finance, with a balanced government budget, except during wartime emergency
- Sound banking, with reserves in gold and silver
- Being a lender of last resort
- The currency notes issued could serve as instruments of national policy
- Regulating the national economy
The first bank of the United States (BUS) was very controversial. Many protested this bank,
saying that it was never specified in the Constitution. People who favored the bank, however,
stated that the Constitution never forbade a national bank (implied powers), and therefore
the federal government was able to make one. This, along with many other controversies, helped
spawn the first two political parties. The Federalist party, supported by Hamilton, favored
a national bank, whereas the Jeffersonian Republicans, led by Jefferson and Madison,
strongly opposed it.
See also
External links
References
- The Americans by Gerald A. Danzer, J. Jorge Klor de Alva, Larry S. Krieger, Louis E Wilson, and Nancy Woloch ISBN 0618377166
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