NatCons, the American System, and the Founders

American Institute for Economic Research ^ | 2/22/2023 | Phillip W. Magness

[Wuli]

id America’s Founding Fathers really embrace a nationalist economic program of tariffs and industrial subsidies? According to the “National Conservative” movement, such Founding Era luminaries as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison eventually abandoned their free-trade instincts and embraced a program of economic policies not unlike the NatCon agenda today. The American Compass website celebrates “Thomas Jefferson’s conversion to Hamiltonian supporter of domestic industry,” echoing Patrick Buchanan’s 2018 claim that “Tariffs Made America Great.” Most arguments in this genre point to Jefferson’s qualified commentaries on the Tariff of 1816 as evidence of this claim, while also noting the law was signed by James Madison, his distinguished successor as president. These actions, the NatCons insist, demonstrate that the Founding generation converted to the interventionist economic program of the American System, first outlined by Sen. Henry Clay in a famous speech in 1824.

The NatCon’s historical narrative seeks to wrap their own present-day, pro-tariff arguments in the imprimatur of the American Founding. If protectionism worked for Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison, then it will also work for us today, they claim. While Hamilton, who died in a duel in 1804, did indulge protectionist arguments during his stint as Secretary of the Treasury, the rebranding of Jefferson and Madison as American System enthusiasts runs directly contrary to historical evidence.

Madison and Jefferson were both still alive when Henry Clay outlined his American System platform in 1824. Contrary to the NatCon claims, neither founding father approved of Clay’s proposals. In fact, both condemned it as a constitutional overreach by the federal government.

[Wuli]

The discussion shows how the use of the tariff, put to wrong intentions, bleeds into an invasive federal government invasive expansion into running a "national economic policy" AGAINST the free enterprise system, and how corrupt it becomes in the political trade offs getting the votes for legislative measures promiting it.

[momincombatboots]

Long train of abuses ping. We are just rats on a wheel putting tax dollars on everyone else’s table courtesy of the government and corporation marriage.