New Nation • SAQs
CGI Economic History
Short Answer Questions
Directions: Read each question carefully and write your responses in the corresponding boxes on the freeresponse answer sheet. Use complete sentences; an outline or bulleted list alone is not acceptable.
1.
Using your knowledge of United States History answer parts a, b, and c.
a.
Briefly explain ONE of the parts of Henry Clay’s proposed American System, a
comprehensive plan to bring about economic improvement. Provide at least ONE piece
of evidence to support your explanation.
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•
•
Protective Tariffs
National Bank
Internal Improvement
b.
Briefly explain how ONE of the parts of Henry Clay’s proposed American System would
bring about economic improvement. Provide at least ONE piece of evidence to support
your explanation.
c.
Identify and briefly explain the role played by ONE individual or group that was critical
of one of the parts of the entire plan for an American System.
Dialogue from left to right:
King George III: "Well Tommy! I brought you at last to
dose quarters therefore mind what you are about_If you
don't behave gently I'll break your limbs and leave you
the rest. Let me tell you my Boy, keep yourself cool!"
Thomas Jefferson: "Cool? Aye! to be sure! I always keep
myself cool when I get into a Passion; But I must say
Lord have mercy upon us! what an Enormity! to pull my
coat on the Highway of all nations! Lord what an
Inconvenient Restriction."
Napoleon: "Tres bien! Mon Oncle Thomas! Dat is very
vell! De more you make one Noise de less that Jean
Boule (John Bull) will see ve are And and Oleves
N'Oubliez pas dat I am de And_I want the money and I
must ave it!"
Intercourse or Impartial Dealings, 1809
2.
Using your knowledge of United States History and the image above, answer parts a, b, and c.
a.
Briefly explain the point of view expressed through the image regarding Jefferson’s
policy.
b.
Briefly explain ONE positive outcome of the government policy you described in part a.
c.
Briefly explain ONE way in which some Americans responded critically to the
government action taken in part a.
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New Nation • SAQs
CGI Economic History
“P.S. Have you considered all the consequences of your proposition respecting post roads? I view it as a
source of boundless patronage to the executive, jobbing to members of Congress & their friends, and a
bottomless abyss of public money. You will begin by only appropriating the surplus of the post office
revenues; but the other revenues will soon be called into their aid, and it will be a scene of eternal scramble
among the members, who can get the most money wasted in their State; and they will always get most who
are meanest. We have thought, hitherto, that the roads of a State could not be so well administered even by
the State legislature as by the magistracy of the county, on the spot.”
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison (excerpt), 1796
“Among the means of advancing the public interest, the occasion is a proper one for recalling the attention
of Congress to the great importance of establishing throughout our country the roads and canals which can
best be executed under the national authority. No objects within the circle of political economy so richly
repay the expense bestowed on them; . . . none that do more honor to the government, whose wise and
enlarged patriotism duly appreciates them. . . . These considerations are strengthened, moreover, by the
political effect of these facilities for intercommunication, in bringing and binding more closely together the
various parts of our extended confederacy.
“Whilst the states, individually, with a laudable enterprise and emulation, avail themselves of their local
advantages, by new roads, by navigable canals, and by improving the streams susceptible of navigation, the
general government is the more urged to similar undertakings, requiring a national jurisdiction, and
national means, by the prospect of thus systematically completing so inestimable a work. And it is a happy
reflection, that any defect of constitutional authority which may be encountered, can be supplied in a mode
which the Constitution itself has providently pointed out.”
- President James Madison, Message to Congress (excerpt), 1815
3.
4.
Using your knowledge of United States History and the passages above, answer parts a, b, and c.
a.
Briefly explain the point of view expressed by Thomas Jefferson.
b.
Briefly explain the point of view expressed by James Madison.
c.
Explain how the perspectives above either support or refute the notion that the post-War
of 1812 years were an Era of Good Feelings. Provide ONE piece of specific historical
evidence from the Era of Good Feelings that supports your explanation.
Using your knowledge of United States History answer parts a, b, and c.
a.
Choose ONE of the choices below, and explain why your choice best demonstrates how
Presidents Jefferson and Madison largely relied on economic policies to carry out their
foreign policy.
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•
•
Louisiana Purchase
Embargo Act
Macon’s Bill No. 2
b.
Contrast your choice against ONE of the other options, demonstrating why that option is
not as good as your choice.
c.
Provide ONE piece of evidence involving one of the choices provided or another
situation during this period of Presidents Jefferson and Madison that either supports or
contradicts their reliance on economic policies to carry out their foreign policies.
2
New Nation • SAQs
CGI Economic History
The following are among the principal advantages of a bank: First. The augmentation of the active or
productive capital of a country, Gold and Silver, when they are employed merely as the instruments of
exchange and alienation, have been not improperly denominated dead Stock; but when deposited in Banks,
to become the basis of a paper circulation, which takes their character and place, as the signs or
representatives of value, they then acquire life, or, in ocher words, an active and productive quality… It is
evident, for instance, that the money which a merchant keeps in his chest, waiting for a favourable
opportunity to employ it, produces nothing, until that opportunity arrives. But if instead of locking it up in
this manner, he either deposits it in a Bank, or invests in the Stock of a Bank, it yields a profit, during the
interval.
- Alexander Hamilton
If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation,
then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all
property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered… I believe that
banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies… The issuing power should
be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.
- Thomas Jefferson
5.
Using your knowledge of United States History and the passages above, answer parts a, b, and c.
a.
Briefly explain the main point of Alexander Hamilton’s argument.
b.
Briefly explain the main point of Thomas Jefferson’s argument.
c.
Explain how one of the perspectives above reflected debates about the Constitution in the
1790s. Provide ONE piece of specific historical evidence to support your explanation.
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts
and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and
Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States…[and] To make all Laws which shall be necessary
and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers,...
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; ...shall be
the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the
Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding....
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
- The Constitution of the United States, including the Tenth Amendment, ratified 1791
6.
Using your knowledge of United States History and the passage above, answer parts a, b, and c.
a.
Explain the controversy at the Constitutional Convention surrounding the writing of the
passages above.
b.
Briefly describe ONE argument used by Americans who supported the ratification of the
Constitution.
c.
Briefly describe ONE argument used by Americans who opposed the ratification of the
Constitution.
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