Title: The American System for APUSH | Easy, Simple, Direct
Headings: The American System for APUSH
The American System for APUSH
The American System
Tariffs – Part I
Bank of the United States – Part II
Internal Improvements/Transportation – Part III
Impact of the American System
Keep Learning!
The Missouri Compromise
Bacon’s Rebellion
The XYZ Affair
Articles of Confederation

Content: Pass high tariffs (taxes) on imports to protect American businesses and to increase revenues. Re-establish a Bank of the United States (original charter had expired in 1811) in order to stabilize US currency and state banks. Develop and support internal capital improvements, primarily consisting of designing and constructing roads and canals. Following the War of 1812, the United States was in dire financial status due to poor planning and the fiscal decisions of Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Their efforts to enforce a strict-constructionist view of the Constitution (outside of a pretty good land deal in the Western US) shrunk the US Army and Navy, reduced tariff revenues coming into the government (remember, no national income tax till the Civil War) and shifted internal improvement responsibilities to the states. The United States was deep in debt and with no real plan to get out of it. As the country began to move past the War of 1812, the financial reality began to set in. The United States was deep in debt and with no real plan to get out of it. Luckily for Henry Clay, a strong sense of nationalism emerged after the war and it made the possibility of re-shaping the country’s economic system more likely. Tariffs – Part I
As government tax revenues continued to decline leading up to and following the War of 1812, the United States needed to raise funds to pay off debts and cover the costs of running a federal government.