Should the United States Be a Nation of Farmers or Manufacturers?
Economic Policy
The new nation faced many economic issues. One question focused on whether the U.S. government should encourage an economy based upon small-scale agriculture or cultivate a manufacturing sector to produce the goods currently imported from Europe.
Thomas Jefferson
—Notes on the State of Virginia, 1785
Alexander Hamilton
1. The division of labor.
2. An extension of the use of machinery.
3. Additional employment to classes of the community not ordinarily engaged in business.
4. The promoting of immigration from foreign countries.
5. The furnishing of greater scope for the diversity of talents and dispositions, which discriminate men from each other.
—Alexander Hamilton, excerpted from Report on Manufactures, made to Congress December 5, 1791
"The Residence of David Twining, 1785," by Edward Hicks.
Think About
Who do you think would have preferred this image of America’s economy, Jefferson or Hamilton, and why?
Jefferson favored a nation of independent, yeoman farmers. He believed that the future of the republic depended on nurturing farm life and low-density living. Farmers, he contended, embodied American virtue. Jefferson deemed “those who labour in the earth” the “chosen people of God . . . whose breasts he has made his peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine virtue.” He advised his countrymen to “let our work-shops remain in Europe.” Jefferson also feared that the growth of crowded cities would divide society into a capitalist elite on one side and a deprived laboring class on the other.
Hamilton favored a diversified capitalist economy, with agriculture balanced by commerce and industry. His 1791 Report on Manufactures proposed government support of manufacturing through economic policies such as subsidies to the nation’s “infant industries,” encouragement of inventions and discoveries, and high tariffs (taxes on imported goods). For Hamilton, agricultural societies were doomed to backwardness. Manufacturing, he argued, offered many opportunities for entrepreneurs, farmers, women, and even children.
Take Notes
Use the third row of the chart below to summarize Jefferson’s and Hamilton’s position on whether the U.S. economy should favor agriculture or manufacturing. Provide at least one reason to explain why each man held the position that he did.
