Chapter 10: Nationalism, Expansion, and the Market Economy, 1816-1845





The following activities accompany the Legacy for a People and a Nation on "A Mixed Economy" in Chapter 10. Refer to page 275 of Norton, A People and a Nation, Sixth Edition for the complete text of this Legacy. There are three parts to this web page: Questions to Consider, Investigation, and Further Exploration.




Questions to Consider
1. The founding fathers actively debated government's role in the economy. What were the different opinions in this debate? What side did Alexander Hamilton represent? What side did Thomas Jefferson represent?

2. What was Thomas Jefferson's argument against a national bank?

3. Is the current Federal Reserve System the equivalent to a national bank? Explain.




Investigation
Explore the political heritages of the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian Political Parties with respect to the debate over the proper size of government. To search the Federalist Papers written by Hamilton and Jefferson in 1787 and 1788, visit the Library of Congress's Federalist Papers page. Next, read the Executive Summary and peruse the charts and text in a 1998 Report to the U.S. House of Representative's Joint Economic Study Committee for a review of the relationship between government and economic growth during the last thirty years.
After exploring these two sites, write an essay analyzing whether Hamiltonians or Jeffersonians have won the debate over the proper size of government.





Further Exploration
1. For early disputes over central banking in the U.S., read how George Washington created a national banking system in 1791 with encouragement from Alexander Hamilton. Thomas Jefferson thought this policy would threaten the fledgling democracy. At A Brief History of Banking in the United States you can follow a history of banking and currency in the U.S.

2. Visit the site of the Federal Reserve System to read about its current structure and its recent activities.

3. For the statute authorizing the Federal Reserve System, see The Federal Reserve Act.