Individualism was characteristic of the Southern States as a whole, but this improvement question broke the ranks of individualism by allying the newer Southern States with the newer Northern States for the benefits of national paternalism. To illustrate: a proposition in 1824 to employ the army engineers in making surveys for roads and canals passed the House without a negative vote from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana, or Alabama. Of the older States, Maryland and Pennsylvania, interested in opening up the western parts of their respective domains in this manner, joined themselves to the Western States and made possible the passage of the bill. Different speakers deplored this tendency to arouse sectional animosities; to array the older States, which had made such improvements from their own resources, against the new States, which would presumably be the sole gainers by government aid.
Clay was the leader of the Western section. He saw in the situation possibilities of building up a great following for this American idea. He declared that the power of Congress to control commerce meant inland as well as ocean commerce; that the construction of harbours upon the Great Lakes was as much a duty as the building of harbours along the seacoast; that dredging a Western river was as constitutional as clearing an ocean channel. He once said that to make a distinction between these two kinds of commerce would require an analysis of the water for each appropriation; if salt, the measure was constitutional; if fresh water, unconstitutional.
"Two years ago," said he, in pleading for a system of canals for the western people, "a sea wall, in other words, a marine canal, was authorized by an act of Congress in New Hampshire, and I doubt not that many voted for it who have now constitutional scruples on this bill. Yes, everything may be done for foreign commerce; anything, everything, on the margin of the ocean. But nothing for domestic trade; nothing for the great interior of the country."
With his growing Western following, Clay was becoming a thorn in the side of strict construction. He refused to be bound by theories which had held at the beginning of the national history. "A new world," said he, "has come into being since the Constitution was adopted. Are the narrow, limited necessities of the old thirteen States, indeed, of parts only of the old thirteen States as they existed at foundation of the Constitution, for ever to remain a rule of its interpretation?" He had little patience with the Republican theory of adding amendments to the Constitution to bestow the implied powers. "Man and his language," said he, "are both defective. We cannot foresee and provide specifically for all contingencies. If you amend the constitution a thousand times, the same imperfection of our nature and our language will attend our new words."
Jefferson complained that Clay had banded the Western and Northern States together under his banner of national benefits. "The Western States," said he, "have especially been bribed by local considerations to abandon their ancient brethren and enlist under banners alien to them in principle and interest." So rapidly did the demand for paternalistic measures take possession of the people, that Monroe felt called upon to re-state the early principles of the party, as Madison had done a few years before. The former dependencies of the National Government bade fair to overthrow parental policies. The Cumberland Road was a bright and shining mark. Appropriations for it could not be stopped without a confession of inconsistency if not a revolt of the people. But in 1822 a bill passed both Houses of Congress to collect tolls on the road for its repair. Monroe vetoed the bill and presented a long exposition of the Republican policy toward public improvements. It was the most exhaustive document written on this persistent Union-making factor. Monroe found a beginning of the reserved power of the States in the Colonial governments which reserved all powers not expressly given to the king. The colonies kept those rights when transforming themselves into States. When creating the Articles of Confederation, the States gave to them certain of these rights, carefully specified, and reserved all the rest. The same plan was followed in framing the Constitution.
"Had the people of the several States," said Monroe, "thought proper to incorporate themselves into one community, under one government, they might have done it. They wisely stopped, however, at a certain point, extending the incorporation to that point, making the national government thus far a consolidated government, and preserving the state governments without that limit perfectly sovereign and independent of the national government."
From an unprejudiced standpoint, this presentation of the historic facts in the case is difficult to answer. "There were two separate and independent governments," continued the President, "established over our union, one for local purposes over each state by the people of the state, the other for national purposes over all the states by the people of the United States."
He next proceeded to examine the six powers given to the National Government, which had been so distorted and incorrectly interpreted in justifying national expenditures for public improvements that, in his opinion, they threatened the very existence of the States. These six enumerated powers and their distortions may be summed up: 1. To establish post-roads; consequently to construct highways for commerce. 2. To declare war; consequently to provide means for moving troops and supplies. 3. To regulate commerce; consequently to improve rivers and build harbours for inland commerce. 4. To pay the debts and provide for the common defence and general welfare; consequently, to make appropriations for anything which would benefit the people and contribute to their defence or welfare. 5. To make all laws necessary and proper for carrying into effective execution the foregoing powers; consequently to extend the expressed powers to an unlimited degree by adding corollaries to them. 6. To dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations concerning the territory of the United States; consequently, to appropriate money for public improvements in them.
At the same time that he was attempting to prove that no general system of improvements was justified by any of these expressed powers, Monroe was demonstrating the absurdity of the policy of hesitation. The justice of a toll system no one questioned. Those who use an improvement should pay for its repair. A toll was sanctioned by generations of practice and was in use on many State and corporate turnpikes and bridges. Monroe had travelled the National Road and had seen numerous evidences of the manner in which the highway was abused by the users and could fully appreciate the necessity for its protection and repair. Yet his conscientious scruples could not allow the agency which built the road to care for it properly by collecting money simply because it must be done inside the sacred precincts of some State. Neither would he admit that the States individually could give permission to collect a toll, although they could and did allow money from the national treasury to be spent within their limits in constructing the highway originally. Into what a constitutional maze had strict construction, driven by the needs of the people, brought the Administration of the United States!
[Illustration: WESTERN END OF THE GREAT ERIE CANAL. Drawn with the Camera Lucida for Hall's "Etchings of the West." Niagara River appears in the distance and a lock in the canal nearer at hand. The lack of natural attractiveness in this scene is an illustration of the interest in internal improvements.]