# American System The **American System** was the program of national economic development championed by Henry Clay and the **[[Whig Party]]** during the [[Second Party System]] (and earlier by the [[National Republican Party]]). It had three interlocking pillars: a **protective tariff** to shelter and grow domestic manufacturing; a **national bank** (the Second Bank of the United States) to provide a stable currency and credit; and federally funded **internal improvements** — roads, canals, and later railroads — to bind the national market together. Intellectually descended from [[Alexander Hamilton]]'s Federalist economics, the American System framed an activist federal government as the engine of prosperity and national unity. It was the defining policy cleavage against [[Jacksonian Democracy]], whose adherents distrusted concentrated financial power, championed states' rights, and waged the "Bank War" against Clay's vision. Though the Whigs collapsed over slavery, the American System's developmental, protectionist, pro-industry logic carried forward into the early **[[Republican Party]]** and remains a touchstone in debates over economic nationalism and industrial policy. ## See Also - [[Whig Party]] · [[National Republican Party]] · [[Republican Party]] - [[Jacksonian Democracy]] - [[Second Party System]]