Washington's Treasury Secretary Hamilton used war debt to capitalize the First Bank of the U.S. and lent money for the first expansion of U.S. infrastructure.

Credit from the Bank became the engine of economic growth of the country. Growth was steady...Production of useful materials expanded at a rapid rate. Merchandise exports had quintupled by 1805...

Following a serious economic downturn due to lack of credit and investment, and the near disaster of the War of 1812, Congress chartered the Second Bank of the United States in 1816.Under the guidance of Nicholas Biddle, in collaboration with President John Quincy Adams, and Henry Clay as Speaker of the House, the economy rapidly expanded.

Lincoln campaigned on a platform including internal improvements and a National Bank...As president, Lincoln had no time to enact a new national bank; he was immediately confronted by the outbreak of the Civil War. By 1862 under the burden of war and rapidly diminishing finances, Lincoln and his collaborators took the principle of National Banking and applied it to the crisis. He moved to centralize control over the nation’s finances and direct credit to infrastructure and industry, to win the Civil War and build the nation.