The American System: Henry Clay And John C. Calhoun

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According to our book, the American System is an economic plan based on the idea that the federal government should encourage economic enterprise. The American System was stemmed from young Democratic-Republican who falsely supported Jefferson 's idea of a small federal government but actually preferred a large government. The goal of the new American System was to assist the united States in becoming self-sufficient economically, while spurring massive market growth throughout the nation. The leaders of this group were Henry Clay and John C. Calhoun. They believed that the federal government should encourage economic enterprise in three ways: first, the federal government needed to create roads and canals which would be considered internal