American Capitalism is not exceptional but Different

Much has been written of the source of capitalism, but that was the capitalism of the Great Enlightenment and Scottish philosophers such as Adam Smith, not American capitalism. American capitalism was that of the Scottish bastards known as the Scotch-Irish. American capitalism was never an ideology or philosophy; it was a quest for opportunity and economic rewards. It embodied furs, ginseng, tobacco, and whiskey for cash and required rivers and trails to bring these resources and cash together. It brought the Indians, frontiersmen, bankers, plantation owners, and Europe into a global market. For them the exploitation of nature created money, not the other way around. They wanted this exchange to be unfettered by government. It was similar to the capitalism of Smith in that it was self-serving on an individual level, but it differed in that it was also self-serving on a national level. American capitalism was not anti-government, but viewed government as a facilitator not as a regulator or generator. A simple democratic thought that government should serve the people, in this case frontier capitalists and plantation owners.
These Scotch-Irish and other colonists saw capitalism not as part of democracy but a result of it. Few knew of Adam Smith and likewise Adam Smith knew little of these frontiersmen, colonists, and settlers. Smith saw capitalism through the profitable British merchants and wholesalers of Glasgow, which had the world’s best resources of finance, technology, and education. The American capitalists were hands on forced to create their own finances, technology, and education. They wanted the freedom to prosper and were self reliant for their needs and government was to aid in obtaining these goals. It is not surprising that the capitalism of aristocratic Europe evolved differently that of democratic America. American cared little for theory, philosophy, or economic policy and would change all for prosperity. The early New England colonists had shown this flexibility in government to support prosperity. To that extend it was even more greedy than that of European capitalism.
American capitalism not only absorbed the politics of the country but its religion as well. They were greedy but not heartless. The pursuit of prosperity was elevated to a right. It challenged the rights of kings to inherit prosperity. If you had the right to prosper, it appeared that all other rights had to be in place. The right to prosperity runs so deep that some used religion as a justification for their unabashed pursuit of money. This view of economic freedom was the real idea of America. It would put individual motivation above the mechanics of economics. Allow Americans to prosper and they would build their government on that foundation. They not only broke from England but also within the first years of the new American government challenged it with resistance on a tax on whiskey, known as the Whiskey Rebellion. Americans with all their virtues to this day vote more often their pocketbooks.