When George Washington’s

Administration proposed to create a national bank, it exploded divisions among

Americans—and, more specifically, among Alexander Hamilton and James

Madison—about what our Constitution means. The Bank, and the arguments

surrounding it, continue to echo today.

To discuss the Bank of the United States, Adam was joined on the podcast by AEI’s own Jay Cost, who has written about Madison’s concerns that the Bank and other federal initiatives would foster corruption and oligarchy. (See especially his recent two-part AEI essay series.) Jay and Adam discuss problems inherent in factionalism, private-public partnerships, established churches—and whether Madison would have ever admitted that Hamilton was right about the Bank.

This discussion follows previous Unprecedential episodes on McCulloch v. Maryland (with Gary Schmitt and Nelson Lund) and on Madison’s notion of constitutional “liquidation” (with Will Baude).