American System (economic plan)

[1] A plan to strengthen and unify the nation, the American System was advanced by the Whig Party and a number of leading politicians including Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams.

Motivated by a growing American economy bolstered with major exports such as cotton, tobacco, native sod, and tar, the politicians sought to create a structure for expanding trade.

This System included such policies as: Clay protested that the West, which opposed the tariff, should support it since urban factory workers would be consumers of western foods.

However, the national system of internal improvements was never adequately funded; the failure to do so was due in part to sectional jealousies and constitutional squabbles about such expenditures.

This "System" consisted of three mutually reinforcing parts: a tariff to protect and promote American industry; a national bank to foster commerce; and federal subsidies for roads, canals, and other "internal improvements" to develop profitable markets for agriculture.

The Monkey System or Every One For Himself : Henry Clay says "Walk in and see the new improved grand original American System!" The cages are labeled: "Home, Consumption, Internal, Improv". This 1831 cartoon ridiculing Clay's American System depicts monkeys, labeled as being different parts of a nation's economy, stealing each other's resources (food) with commentators describing it as either great or a humbug.