Alabama $92,725.73, Mississippi $53,291.38, Missouri $24,575.09. The expenditures in the territories of Michigan, Arkansas, and Florida, where, of course, no constitutional question could arise, aggregated $234.955.92.

It was reserved for Jackson to give the system its death-blow. As senator from Tennessee he had voted for various works of internal improvement. In the interval from 1824 to 1829, however, perhaps because of his attitude towards Adams and Clay, he had veered towards a strict-constructionist position; and while not yet willing to oppose works of national importance, he seems to have become convinced that a large part of the appropriations were for purely local undertakings. In his inaugural address, indeed, he uttered only the meaningless: platitude that "internal improvement and the diffusion of knowledge, so far as they can be promoted by the constitutional acts of the Federal Government, are of high importance,"1 October 18, 1829, however, he wrote to Van Buren, apparently in reference to an act of the previous session appropriating money for light-houses, beacons, and buoys, and for improving harbors and directing surveys: "The most objectionable objects of surveys, in the bill, are those for ascertaining the expediency and expense of improving the navigation of rivers running from navigable streams into a county or neighborhood or even State, -These cannot be considered national; nothing can be so considered, but those great leading and navigable streams from the ocean, and passing through two or more States, and an obstruction that prevents commerce from passing through other States, which when removed will give an uninterrupted passage to those other States, can be viewed as coming within the constitutional power of Congress." 1 Van Buren, in 1824, had proposed in Congress an amendment to the Constitution giving Congress the right to construct roads and canals."

Jackson's first annual message, in December, 1829, showed that his ideas on the subject were becoming clearer. While admitting that "every member of the Union, in peace and in war, will be benefited by the improvement of inland navigation and the construction of highways in the several States," he pointed out that the method heretofore adopted had been questioned on grounds of constitutionality and expediency. He accordingly recommended the apportionment of the surplus revenue among the states according to their representation in Congress, an amendment to the Constitution to be proposed in case such distribution should otherwise be regarded as unwarranted. Nothing must be done that would encroach upon "the legitimate sphere of State sovereignty." The success of the Union thus far he held to be chiefly due "to the watchful and auxiliary operation of the State authorities.... It is

Van Buren MSS.

Senate Fournal, 18 Cong., 1 Sess., 124.

our duty to preserve" for the Constitution "the character intended by its framers."1

May 27, 1830, Jackson communicated to the House of Representatives his veto of a bill authorizing a subscription of stock by the United States in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company. The company had been incorporated by the legislature of Kentucky to build a section of a road planned to run from the Cumberland Road at Zanesville, Ohio, to Florence, Alabama, on the Tennessee River, which had been surveyed by United States engineers in 1827. Maysville, a town on the south side of the Ohio River, about sixty miles above Cincinnati, was an important point for trade between Kentucky and the East. The existing road, admittedly in very bad condition, was much travelled, an average of 351 persons, 33 carriages, and 51 wagons being reported to have passed over it daily in a particular month of which a record was kept. The one hundred and fifty thousand dollars proposed to be subscribed by the United States was not to be paid until an equal amount, subscribed in equal parts by the state of Kentucky and by private individuals, had been paid in. The bill encountered opposition, particularly in the House, where a bill for a road from Buffalo to New Orleans was laid on the table, April 15, after long consideration, by the close vote of 99 to 91. Polk was especially aggressive in opposition, insisting that if the Maysville road was a national road, then any road anywhere might with equal propriety be so regarded; and John Tyler, of Virginia, spoke against the bill in the Senate.1

Jackson based his veto partly on constitutional grounds, but mainly on the contention that the Maysville road was a work of local, and not national, character. "It has no connection with any established system of improvements; is exclusively within the limits of a State, starting at a point on the Ohio river and running out sixty miles to an interior town, and even as far as the State is interested conferring partial instead of general advantages." Further, lavish appropriations for internal improvements, even if admittedly of national character, can only be sustained by the prospect of a continual surplus; and he thought it would be better to reduce federal taxation and pay the debt before engaging further in such undertakings. If federal aid to roads and canals is deemed necessary to the prosperity of the country, the people should be asked to authorize it by adopting a constitutional amendment.

The veto led to acrimonious debate in the House.2 Daniel, of Kentucky, though regretting the disappointment to his state, thought the president should be supported, at least until the people could express their opinion. Stanbery, of Ohio, on the other hand, bitterly denounced the message, declaring that it could never have been the work of Jackson, but had "every appearance of a low electioneering document." The voice was that of Jackson, but the hands were those of the "little magician," Van Buren. Polk, Barbour, and Bell as vigorously defended the president. The vote of the House showed a small majority in favor of the bill, but the required two-thirds could not be obtained. Five thousand copies of the message were ordered printed, obviously for political use.

The Maysville veto showed Jackson to be still favorable, in general, to internal improvements, but doubting the constitutional power of the federal government to aid them, questioning the effect of such appropriations on taxation and revenue, and in any case opposing federal grants for merely local enterprises. May 31 he vetoed a bill authorizing a subscription to the stock of the Washington Turnpike Road Company, referring the Senate to the Maysville message for his reasons. On the other hand, he approved on the same day a bill appropriating thirty thousand dollars for examinations and surveys, one hundred thousand dollars for the extension of the Cumberland Road, and various sums for other roads, informing Congress, however, that he did so with the understanding that a road from Detroit to Chicago, for which an appropriation was made, Richardson, Messages and Papers, II., 493, 494.