Page:America's Highways 1776–1976.djvu/25



In 1816 the question of chartering a second National Bank was before Congress. Calhoun introduced a bill providing that the bonus of $1.5 million to be paid by the Bank for the new charter, plus the dividends on the Government’s stock in the Bank for the next 20 years, be set apart as a permanent fund for internal improvements. This fund was to be apportioned among the States in proportion to their representation in the lower House of Congress, and the improvements were to be built by the Federal Government with the assent of the States in which they might be located. Since the annual dividends on the Government’s $7 million of stock were $560,000, the bill would provide a 20-year program of nearly $13 million.

Urging adoption of this bill, Calhoun pointed to the need for roads for defense, but primarily to encourage commerce and cement political union: "If we look into the nature of wealth, we find that nothing can be more favorable to its growth than good roads and canals . . . Many of the improvements contemplated are on too great a scale for the resources of the States or individuals ; and many of such nature that the rival jealousy of the States, if left alone, might prevent. Let us then bind the Republic together with a perfect system of roads and canals. Let us conquer space. It is thus the most distant parts of the Republic will be brought within a few days travel of the centre; it is thus a citizen of the West will read the news of Boston still most from the press. The mail and the press are the nerves of the body politic." Calhoun’s bill was bitterly opposed in both the House and Senate, not only by the strict constitutionalists, but also by those who thought the money should be applied to tax relief and retirement of the war debt. Others said the States might refuse assent to the improvements or try to dictate their location for political expediency and, thus, defeat the purpose of the plan. Still others branded the bill as a scheme to mulct the wealthy States in which adequate roads and canals had already been built at great expense, for the benefit of the poor and improvident States.

In the end, however, the bill passed both the House and Senate by narrow margins, to be vetoed on March 3, 1817, by President Madison, who declared it to be an improper interpretation of the constitutional power of the General Government to regulate commerce and provide for the national defense. The motion to override the veto failed in the House, ending the first attempt to set up a continuing national plan for internal improvements.

On March 29, 1806, President Jefferson approved an act which directed that the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate, appoint three commissioners to lay out and build a road from the head of navigation on the Potomac River at Cumberland, Maryland, to a point on the Ohio River. The act set certain minimum standards for the proposed road and appropriated $30,000 from the proceeds of Ohio land sales to finance the location of the road and to start construction. The debates attending the passage of this act exposed the bitter rivalries and jealousies 19