AP® United States History review sheet from Aim for Five (aimforfive.com/us-history/units/4/4-3)
Unit 4 · Topic 4.3
4.3 Politics and Regional Interests
In the early 1800s the North, South and West wanted different things from the federal government, especially on tariffs, a national bank, roads and canals, and slavery. Henry Clay's American System tried to tie the regions together economically, and the Missouri Compromise of 1820 tried to settle the question of slavery in the West.
Key terms
- sectionalism
- American System
- Henry Clay
- protective tariff
- Second Bank of the United States
- Missouri Compromise
See it on a map: 1820: The Missouri Compromise · Today: Fifty states
Regional interests
| Issue | North (Northeast) | South | West |
|---|---|---|---|
| Protective tariffs | Favored: protected new factories from British competition | Opposed: raised prices of manufactured goods and risked foreign retaliation against cotton exports | Mixed; often favored if paired with internal improvements |
| National bank | Generally favored: stable credit for business | Often opposed: distrusted Northern banking power | Mixed: wanted easy credit, distrusted Eastern bankers |
| Internal improvements (roads, canals) | Favored | Often opposed federal funding | Strongly favored: needed to get crops to market |
| Slavery | Ended or ending | Central to the economy | Divided; the main battleground over expansion |
The American System
Sectionalism means loyalty to one's own region over the nation as a whole. After the War of 1812, Kentucky's Henry Clay proposed a plan to strengthen the national economy and link the regions together. He called it the American System. It had three parts:
First, a protective tariff to help Northern manufacturing; the Tariff of 1816 was the first designed mainly for protection rather than revenue. Second, a national bank to provide stable currency and credit; Congress chartered the Second Bank of the United States in 1816. Third, federally funded internal improvements such as roads and canals, paid for in part by tariff revenue, so Western farmers could ship food to Eastern cities and Northern goods could reach Western buyers.
The tariff and the bank passed, but federal funding for internal improvements was blocked. President Madison vetoed the Bonus Bill (1817) because he believed the Constitution did not allow it. The federally built National Road, begun in 1811, was an exception; most canals and roads were built by states and private companies.
The 'Era of Good Feelings' and the Panic of 1819
Under President James Monroe (1817–1825), the Federalists faded away and the Democratic-Republicans were the only national party, so the period is often called the Era of Good Feelings. The name hides real tension. The Panic of 1819, the first major depression in US history, followed a burst of land speculation and the Second Bank's sudden tightening of credit. Many Westerners and Southerners blamed the bank, building resentment that fed Jackson's later Bank War (4.8).
The Missouri Compromise (1820)
When Missouri asked to join the Union as a slave state in 1819, it threatened to upset the even balance of eleven free and eleven slave states in the Senate. New York congressman James Tallmadge proposed banning the further importation of enslaved people into Missouri and gradually freeing children born there; the House passed it, but the Senate rejected it.
Henry Clay helped broker the Missouri Compromise. Missouri entered as a slave state, Maine (split off from Massachusetts) entered as a free state, keeping the balance, and slavery was banned in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase north of the 36°30′ line, Missouri's southern border.
The compromise worked for about thirty years, but it revealed how dangerous the issue of slavery in the West was. The aging Thomas Jefferson called it a 'fire bell in the night' that filled him with dread.
Worked examples
Try each one yourself first, then open the solution.
- Example 1
Explaining a regional position
Short-answer practice: Briefly explain ONE reason Southern leaders opposed protective tariffs in the early 1800s.
Show the solutionHide the solution
- Step 1: State the Southern position.
- Step 2: Explain the economic reason, tied to the Southern economy.
- Step 3: Add a consequence if possible.
Answer: Model answer: The Southern economy depended on exporting cotton and other staple crops and buying manufactured goods, many from Britain. Protective tariffs raised the prices Southerners paid for those goods and risked British retaliation against cotton, while mainly benefiting Northern manufacturers. This opposition grew into the Nullification Crisis when South Carolina rejected the tariffs of 1828 and 1832.
Common mistakes
- Confusing the American System (Clay's economic plan) with the Monroe Doctrine (foreign policy).
- Getting the Missouri Compromise terms wrong. Missouri was slave, Maine was free, and slavery was banned north of 36°30′ in the rest of the Louisiana Territory.
- Taking 'Era of Good Feelings' at face value. One-party rule masked sectional conflict and an economic crisis.
On the exam
- The Missouri Compromise is a key link between Periods 4 and 5; its repeal in the Kansas–Nebraska Act (1854) helped cause the Civil War.
- Expect questions asking how regional economies shaped positions on federal policy. Build your answer on what each region produced and sold.
Connected topics
Videos
Check yourself
4 questions on 4.3 Politics and Regional Interests. Pick an answer to see if you got it, and why.
The Missouri Compromise of 1820 temporarily eased sectional tension by
Many Southerners opposed high protective tariffs in the 1820s mainly because
In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Supreme Court ruled that
"It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their selfish purposes. Distinctions in society will always exist under every just government. Equality of talents, of education, or of wealth can not be produced by human institutions. In the full enjoyment of the gifts of Heaven and the fruits of superior industry, economy, and virtue, every man is equally entitled to protection by law; but when the laws undertake to add to these natural and just advantages artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges, to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful, the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers—who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their Government."
Source: President Andrew Jackson, message to the Senate vetoing the bill to recharter the Second Bank of the United States, July 10, 1832.
The bank Jackson vetoed had been an important part of which earlier program?
0 of 4 answered