Andrew Jackson rejected a strong national government as well as national investments such as in roadways as he sought to bring power to the people. This message was popular among the relatively prosperous farmers, small merchants, and others, who did recognize the role of government in creating this relative equality. Despite his anti-government sentiments, Jackson and his successors continued existing and started new government programs to expand the economy. Abraham Lincoln, elected by anti-slavery voters, is best known for fighting the Civil War and eliminating slavery, but he also returned the federal government to more visible efforts to promote economic development and in the process committed the country to building a middle class. It was Lincoln’s idea that all Americans should have a fair chance in life. A key part of this program was the expansion of public education.

The United States was one of the world’s first modern nations and one of the first to break free from colonial rule. It therefore stands at the beginning of the history of economic nationalism. This chapter analyses how nationalist thinking on the economy evolved in the USA from the Revolution to the Civil War. During this era, nationalists shifted from an outward-focused system aiming for economic development to an inward-focussed system based on protection. Developmental ideas were first championed by Alexander Hamilton, but his elitist conception of economic policy did not sit easily with the democratising ethos of the new nation. Economic nationalism became a mass movement as intellectuals like Daniel Raymond, politicians such as Henry Clay and activists in the mould of Mathew Carey jostled over questions of trade, manufacturing and banking. Instead of Hamilton’s close relationship between government and capitalists, the new movement put the everyday American producer at the centre. As it did so, isolationist ideas came to dominate. The intellectual capstone of this strand was provided by Henry Carey, whose influence would entrench a distinctly protectionist ‘American System’.