A new Madison presidency episode is now available!
March 9, 2025

4.39 - New Year, New Bank

4.39 - New Year, New Bank

Year(s) Discussed: 1813-1816

In the aftermath of the War of 1812, the Madison administration is faced with multiple lingering issues. Looming large is how to support the recovery of the national economy, and Treasury Secretary Alexander J Dallas's proposed solution of a new national bank meets with determined opposition in Congress. Meanwhile, as the administration works to restore relations with Spain, the plans of American filibusters and the Mexican independence movement threaten those diplomatic efforts. Sources used for this episode can be found at https://www.presidenciespodcast.com.

Special thanks to Vince of the Autocrat podcast & Dustin of The Alexander Standard for providing the intro quotes for this episode! Special thanks also to Christian of Your Podcast Pal for his audio editing work on this episode!

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

  • “ArtI.S8.C5.1 Congress’s Coinage Power.” Constitution Annotated. U.S. Congress. https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S8-C5-1/ALDE_00001066/#:~:text=Article%20I%2C%20Section%208%2C%20Clause,Weights%20and%20Measures%3B%20.%20.%20. [Last Accessed: 14 Nov 2024]
  • Cleaves, Freeman. Old Tippecanoe: William Henry Harrison and His Time. Newtown, CT: American Political Biography Press, 2010 [1939].
  • Davis, William C. The Pirates Laffite: The Treacherous World of the Corsairs of the Gulf. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Inc, 2005.
  • Elder, Robert. Calhoun: American Heretic. New York: Basic Books, 2021.
  • Jones, Landon Y. William Clark and the Shaping of the West. New York: Hill and Wang, 2004.
  • Landry, Jerry. The Presidencies of the United States. 2017-2024. https://www.presidenciespodcast.com.
  • Lomazoff, Eric. Reconstructing the National Bank Controversy: Politics & Law in the Early American Republic. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2018.
  • Madison, James. “Presidential Proclamation, 1 September 1815,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/03-09-02-0569. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Presidential Series, vol. 9, 19 February 1815–12 October 1815, ed. Angela Kreider, J. C. A. Stagg, Mary Parke Johnson, and Anne Mandeville Colony. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2018, pp. 580–581.] [Last Accessed: 2 Nov 2024]
  • Meyer, Michael C.; William L. Sherman; and Susan M. Deeds. The Course of Mexican History: Sixth Edition. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999 [1979].
  • Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Empire, 1767-1821. New York: Harper & Row, 1977.
  • Remini, Robert V. Daniel Webster: The Man and His Time. New York and London: W W Norton & Co, 1997.
  • Schwarz, Ted. Forgotten Battlefield of the First Texas Revolution: The Battle of Medina, August 18, 1813. Robert H Thonoff, Editor and Annotator. Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1985.
  • “Treaty of Ghent (1814).” National Archives. 10 May 2022. https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-ghent. [Last Accessed: 26 Oct 2024]
  • Walters, Raymond, Jr. Alexander James Dallas: Lawyer – Politician – Financier. Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia Press, 1943.

Featured Image: "United States Bank at Philadelphia" by S G Goodrich [c. 1875], courtesy of Wikipedia

Intro and Outro Music: "Hull's Victory," as performed by David and Ginger Hildebrand, courtesy of the Colonial Music Institute at George Washington's Mount Vernon