Posted on 03/11/2009 2:09:57 PM PDT by arthurus
So what’s your position on the Hamilton-Washington Bank of the United States (1791-1811)?
I don’t know. I never put any money in that bank or borrowed money from it.
I’m just trying to figure out why a private central bank was a conservative idea under Hamilton and Washington and a liberal idea under Wilson.
At the time the National Bank was proposed it sure as h**l was not a “conservative” idea. It was RADICAL. Innovations are by their innovative nature NOT conservative. The Federalists may be conceived of as the analog of today’s conservatives but the analog is highly oblique. The country was brand new. There was not Tradition yet to conserve except the Constitution itself, the Declaration, and various State Constitutions and the newish US Constitution plainly disallows at least the money creation function of a National Bank.
My own opinion is that had Jefferson's strict constructionism prevailed at that time the USA would never have gotten off the ground.
Ironically, Pat Buchanan seems to be a Hamiltonian Federalist in every aspect except for the bank.
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