Henry Clay and the legacy of the American System

Undergirding American economic policy in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the so-called American System contributed to the development of a sturdy American economy.

Tracing its ideas to the American School developed by Alexander Hamilton, the American System sought to establish a tariff to enhance American industry, a national bank to aid in the development of the economy and federal subsidies to establish interstate infrastructure and other improvements to aid in the development of domestic markets.

Chiefly supported by the influential American statesmen, Henry Clay, the American System was designed so as to clarify the role of the U.S. government in the participation in the economy.

Henry Clay argued that a well maintained inter-state system of commerce would help to protect the U.S. from British efforts to undermine the U.S. economy through the flooding of the U.S. market with cheap goods.

The magnetic Henry Clay and the new Whig party were able to coalesce behind this system, which was brought to fruition roughly between 1816 to 1828 in the years leading up to the creation of the Whig Party in 1833 in the immediate wake of Andrew Jackson’s first term as president.

The American System came to be the focus of the anti-Jackson opposition amidst the Jackson administration’s best attempts to limit the role of the federal government and protect sectional autonomy.

Magnetism aside, Clay’s unscrupulous ambition for the presidency undermined his supporters’ best efforts to position him as the leader of their cause.

One historian described Clay as being “overrated as a politician and underrated as a statesmen”.