John Steele Gordon and Hamilton's Banking system

Unfortunately Thomas Jefferson was a better politician than Hamilton and a far better hater. The success of the Bank of the United States and its obvious institutional utility for both the economy and the smooth running of the government did not cause him to change his mind at all about banks. He loathed them all. The party forming around Thomas Jefferson would seize the reins of power in the election of 1800…would destroy Hamilton’s financial regulatory system and would replace it with nothing. As a result, the American economy…was subject to an unending cycle of boom and bust whose amplitude far exceeded the normal ups and downs of the business cycle. Thomas Jefferson, one of the most brilliant men who has ever lived, was psychologically unable to incorporate the need for a mechanism to regulate the emerging banking system, or indeed, banks at all into his political philosophy. His legion of admirers…followed his philosophy for generations as the country and the world changed beyond recognition. As a direct result, economic disaster would be visited on the United States roughly every twenty years for more than a century.

• Historian John Steele Gordon

1. What is Gordon’s point of view concerning the developments that he describes?

2. What does Gordon mean when he states that Jefferson or his ‘legion of admirers [who] followed his philosophy for generations’ could not ‘incorporate…banks into his political philosophy’? Provide details of two examples of specific events, incidents or debates from 1800-1840 that would lead Gordon to reach this conclusion.

3. What does Gordon mean when he states ‘world changed beyond recognition.’ Explain both in the context of the passage and in broader sense of what you have learned in class and from the textbook.