[234] Richardson, vol. iii, p. 119; Bassett, Life of Andrew Jackson, vol. ii, pp. 483–495.
[235] 12 Stat. L. 334.
[236] See also Act of July 1, 1862; 12 Stat. L. 489.
[237] 37 Stat. L. 552.
[238] Sloane, Party Government in the United States of America, p. 316.
[239] Public, No. 69, 63d Congress; Act of March 12, 1914. See also 63d Cong., 1 Sess., S. Rept. No. 65; 63d Cong., 2d Sess., H. Rept. No. 341, and Weems, “Government Railroads in Alaska,” North American Review, April, 1914.
[240] Richardson, vol. ii, p. 555.
[241] 4 Wheat. 316 (1819).
[242] In his Commentaries, Story devotes twenty pages to an exposition of both sides of the controversy and concludes: “The reader must decide for himself, upon the preponderance of the argument.” Vol. iii, p. 46. The incident of submitting the message to the Supreme Court is given in detail by Schouler, History of the United States, vol. iii, p. 254 ff. As to advisory opinions, see 1 Willoughby on the Constitution, 13, and Thayer, Cases on Constitutional Law, vol. i, p. 175.
[243] 2 Stat. L. 275, 277. In 1810 the postmaster general was given authority to “provide for the carriage of the mail on all postroads that are or may be established by law,” and to “direct the route or road, when there are more than one between places designated by law for a postroad, which route shall be considered as the postroad”; and the lines designated in contracts for carrying the mail were to be considered postroads within the provisions of the act. 2 Stat. L. 592. But in 1825 while the authority of the postmaster general to designate different routes was continued, there was a further provision that in cases not covered by contracts, “the road, on which such mail shall be transported, shall become a postroad and so continue until the transportation thereon shall cease.” 4 Stat. L. 102.