Jefferson and Madison opposed the national bank because they felt it was unconstitutional and because they felt that the centralization of financial power would weaken the monetary system of the United States. They argued that a national bank would aid Northern businesses but hinder agrarian interests in the South.
In 1789, Jefferson suggested to Madison his theory that no generation ought to be bound by the actions of its predecessors. Calculating that a generation lasted about nineteen years, Jefferson proposed that all personal and national debts, all laws, even all constitutions, ought to expire every nineteen years.