Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 10).djvu/58

58 to pass such a sweeping measure of internal improvement.

The President based his conclusion upon the following grounds, stated in a special message to Congress, dated May 4, 1822:

"A power to establish turnpikes, with gates and tolls and to enforce the collection of the tolls by penalties, implies a power to adopt and execute a complete system of internal improvements. A right to impose duties to be paid by all persons passing a certain road, and on horses and carriages, as is done by this bill, involves the right to take the land from the proprietor on a valuation, and to pass laws for the protection of the road from injuries; and if it exist, as to one road, it exists as to any other, and to as many roads as Congress may think proper to establish. A right to legislate for the others is a complete right of jurisdiction and sovereignty for all the purposes of internal improvement, and not merely the right of applying money under the power vested in Congress to make appropriations (under which power, with the consent of the states through which the road passes, the work was originally com-