American System Henry Clay Gave His Famous Essay

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 711 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 2

Page 1 of 2

American System

Henry Clay gave his famous speech in support of the American System to the House of Representatives in 1824, although Alexander Hamilton had used the same term decades before. It rested "on the idea of harmonizing all the segments of the economy for their mutual benefit and of doing so by active support from an intervening national government" (Baxter 27). Clay's conversion to this policy was surprising since Hamilton had been a member of the Federalist Party while Henry Clay was supposedly a Democratic Republican and a Jeffersonian, opposed to Federal plans for government aid to industry, a national bank, protective tariffs and federal funding for highways, canals, railroads and other internal improvements. After the War of 1812, however, the first political party system had come to an end and the Federalists were discredited by their opposition to the war and threats of secession in New England. During the war, the Jeffersonian party had also come to appreciate the virtues of the Bank of the United States and the system of tariffs that allowed American industry to expand.

Stuck Writing Your "American System Henry Clay Gave His Famous" Essay?

View All Our Example American System Henry Clay Gave His Famous Essay

Have A Custom Example Essay Written



By the time of the Era of Good Feeling in 1820s, the party system was in flux, but all political leaders like Clay, John Caldwell Calhoun, John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster all claimed to be Democratic Republicans. Two new parties would soon emerge by the end of the decade, the Democrats and Whigs (National Republicans) and the old issues of an activist federal government favoring industrialization and a states' rights party representing agrarian and Southern slave holding interests would revive. Slave owners like John Randolph and John Tyler claimed to be the true Jeffersonian Republicans in blocking a system that they regarded as dangerous to their section (Baxter 21). They maintained that the South's exports would be damaged by protectionism and that it was "far better to supply raw materials to Europe and purchase imported manufactures, a natural process" (Baxter 29). This was especially true because of the great cotton boom in the South and the tremendous expansion of slavery that no one had expected in the 1790s, and it drove the two regions….....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"American System Henry Clay Gave His Famous" (2011, July 09) Retrieved June 4, 2026, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/american-system-henry-clay-gave-famous-85047

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"American System Henry Clay Gave His Famous" 09 July 2011. Web.4 June. 2026. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/american-system-henry-clay-gave-famous-85047>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"American System Henry Clay Gave His Famous", 09 July 2011, Accessed.4 June. 2026,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/american-system-henry-clay-gave-famous-85047
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example