Sectionalism In The 1800s

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Although the Northeast, South, and West regions of the United States in the early 1800s had comparable opinions, they also had contrasting opinions which brought the United States out of Nationalism into Sectionalism. In the beginning of the 1800s, the United States of America had a strong sense of nationalism. It was not until the mid-1820s that sectionalism began to take root. Due to regional differences such as slavery, tariffs, the national bank, and internal improvement, these domestic political issues drove apart the North, South, and West and plunged the nation into sectionalism. In hopes of creating a strong self supporting economy, Henry Clay composed a plan called the "American System", which was presented to Congress in 1815. The plan consisted of three actions; a protective tariff, a national bank, and internal improvements. Even though not all of these actions followed through, they stilled played an huge part in American lifestyles in the early 1800s. The tariff of 1816 caused much controversy for the South. The tariff's purpose was to protect industry within the United States by taxing imported goods and to encourage citizens to buy more…show more content…
Though Clay's American System required federally funded improvements, the majority were funded by state or local governements. The National Road connecting the North to the West, was an important success in transporting goods between the West and North. With the help of the invention of the mechanical reaper and the National Road, the agrarian West became more commercialized. Another important success was the completion of the Erie Canal in New York and the invention of the steamboat, which greatly increased trading in the Northeast. Whereas the North and West greatly benefited from the improvements, the South did not want to spend money on something they saw as useless, already having use of river
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