Henry Clay to Francis Brooke - Ari Sclar

I am aware that on two subjects I have the misfortune to differ with many of my Virginia friends – Internal Improvements and Home Manufacturing. My opinion has been formed after much deliberation and my best judgment yet tells me that I am right…We find ourselves annually in the possession of an immense surplus. There is not market for it abroad; there is none at home. If there were a foreign market before we in the interior, could reach it, the intervening population would have supplied it. There can be no Foreign market adequate to the consumption of the vast and growing surplus of the produce of our Agriculture. We must then have a Home market. Some of us must cultivate; some fabricate…on the Sea board you want a navy, fortifications, protection, foreign commerce. In the Interior we want Internal Improvement, Home Manufactures. You have what you want and object to our getting what we want. Should not the interests of both parties be provided for?

• Henry Clay to Francis T. Brooke, Chief Justice of the Virginia Supreme Court, (1823)

1. What is the purpose of Clay’s letter to Brooke?

1. What does the letter indicate how Americans’ viewed the federal government’s role in domestic affairs changed between 1812 and 1832?