During the early years of this century, the subject of internal improvements relative to the building of roads and canals was one of the foremost political questions of the day. No sooner were the debts of the Revolutionary War paid, and a surplus accumulated, than a systematic improvement of the country was undertaken. The Cumberland Road was but one of several roads projected by the general Government. Through the administrations of Adams, Jefferson, and Madison large appropriations had been made for numerous improvements. The bill authorizing the levying of tolls was a step too far, as President Monroe held that it was one thing to make appropriations for public improvements, but an entirely different thing to assume jurisdiction and sovereignty over the land whereon those improvements were made. This was one of the great public questions in the first half of the present century. President Jackson’s course was not very consistent. Before his election he voted for internal improvements, even advocating subscriptions by the Government to the stock of private canal companies, and the formation of roads beginning and ending within the limits of certain states. In his message at the opening of the first congress after his accession, he suggested the division of the surplus revenue among the states, as a substitute for the promotion of internal improvements by the general Government, attempting a limitation and distinction too difficult and important to be settled and acted upon on the judgment of one man, namely, the distinction between general and local objects.
“The pleas of the advocates of internal improvement,” wrote a contemporary authority of high standing on economic questions, “are these: That very extensive public works, designed for the benefit of the whole Union, and carried through vast portions of its area, must be accomplished. That an object so essential ought not to be left at the mercy of such an accident as the cordial agreement of the requisite number of states, to carry such works forward to their completion; that the surplus funds accruing from the whole nation cannot be as well employed as in promoting works in which the whole nation will be benefited; and that as the interests of the majority have hitherto upheld Congress in the use of this power, it may be assumed to be the will of the majority that Congress should continue to exercise it.
“The answer is that it is inexpedient to put a vast and increasing patronage into the hands of the general Government; that only a very superficial knowledge can be looked for in members of Congress as to the necessity or value of works proposed to be instituted in any parts of the states, from the impossibility or undesirableness of equalizing the amount of appropriation made to each; that useless works would be proposed from the spirit of competition or individual interest; and that corruption, coëxtensive with the increase of power, would deprave the functions of the general Government.... To an impartial observer it appears that Congress has no constitutional right to devote the public funds to internal improvements, at its own unrestricted will and pleasure; that the permitted usurpation of the power for so long a time indicates that some degree of such power in the hands of the general Government is desirable and necessary; that such power should be granted through an amendment of the constitution, by the methods therein provided; that, in the meantime, it is perilous that the instrument should be strained for the support of any function, however desirable its exercise may be.
“In case of the proposed addition being made to the constitution, arrangements will, of course, be entered into for determining the principles by which general are to be distinguished from local objects or whether such distinction can, on any principle, be fixed; for testing the utility of proposed objects; for checking extravagant expenditure, jobbing, and corrupt patronage; in short, the powers of Congress will be specified, here as in other matters, by express permission and prohibition.”[6]
In 1824, however, President Monroe found an excuse to sign a bill which was very similar to that vetoed in 1822, and the great road, whose fate had hung for two years in the balance, received needed appropriations. The travel over the road in the first decade after its completion was heavy, and before a decade had passed the roadbed was in wretched condition. It was the plan of the friends of the road, when they realized that no revenue could be raised by means of tolls by the Government, to have the road placed in a state of good repair by the Government and then turned over to the several states through which it passed.[7]
The liberality of the government, at this juncture, in instituting thorough repairs on the road, was an act worthy of the road’s service and destiny.
Chestnut Ridge, Pennsylvania
In order to insure efficiency and permanency these repairs[8] were made on the Macadam system; that is to say, the pavement of the old road was entirely broken up, and the stones removed from the road; the bed was then raked smooth, and made nearly flat, having a rise of not more than three inches from the side to the center in a road thirty feet wide; the ditches on each side of the road, and the drains leading from them, were so constructed that the water could not stand at a higher level than eighteen inches below the lowest part of the surface of the road; and, in all cases, when it was practicable, the drains were adjusted in such manner as to lead the water entirely from the side ditches. The culverts were cleared out, and so adjusted as to allow the free passage of all water that tended to cross the road.