and limiting its operation in regard to buildings, to such only as were occnpied for military purposes by order of the commanding officer of the station, and directing the commissioner to report the facts in each case, with the testimony, to congress, for their ultimate decision.

Navigation act. A law was passed this session, bottomed upon the principle of the British navigation act, prohibiting the importation of any goods, except in ships of the United States, or of the country producing them, applicable to those nations only whose navigation laws were founded on similar principles. England and Sweden were the only nations that came within the provisions of the

act.

Bill relating to internal improvements. In the course of the session a bill passed both houses, after much discussion, which set apart all the interest of the government in the bank of the United States, including the premium given for the charter, and all dividends accruing on the shares subscribed by the secretary of the treasury, "to constitute a fund for constructing roads and canals, and improving the navigation of water-courses, in order to facilitate, promote, and give security to internal commerce among the several states, and to render more easy and less expensive, the means and provisions for the common defense; such improvements to be effected with the assent of the several states within whose limits they should be made." The president refused his assent to the bill, on the ground that it was a subject of legislation not embraced within the provisions of the constitution. This brought on an interesting discussion between the legislature and the executive, in relation to the powers of the general government regarding internal improvements. Both concurred in the opinion that it was a power highly beneficial and importaut to be exercised. The executive supposed it must be obtained only by an amendment of the constitution to that effect; the legislature claimed that it was already provided for in that instrument.

Reasons in favor of the system. The geographical situation of the United States strongly urged internal improvements of a national character to unite their different sections. A high ridge of mountains and a wilderness, in a great measure uninhabited, separated the Atlantic states from the valley of the Mississippi. These impediments are too great to be overcome by individual or state exertion; objects of high national importance, require that the intercourse between these two great

sections of the country should be facilitated as much as possible. The most obvious are, the increasing the value and promoting the settlement of the government lands, by rendering them accessible; the increase of the impost duties, by enabling the inhabitants of the west to obtain foreign goods on more easy terms; facilitating the operations of the government, by opening a more convenient communication with the city of Washington; the more safe and expeditious transportation of the mails; and strengthening the bonds of the union, by rendering its remote parts accessible and known to each other, and increasing their mutual dependence. As a means of defense in case of any future war, the subject was all important. The experience of the last had shown that military operations cannot be successfully carried on in the west, without an easy and expeditious communication with the east. In time of peace, much the greatest portion of the military force must be stationed on the western border to control the Indian population. Most of the reverses of the American arms on the Canadian border, during the last war, are to be traced to the difficulties of transportation from the Atlantic to the northwestern frontier. Considerations like these, added to the immense private benefits to be derived from internal improvements, pressed the subject upon all branches of the government with great force. Early in the presidency of Mr. Jefferson, he recommended to congress to take measures to appropriate the surplus revenue to the purposes of internal improvement; in consequence of which Mr. Gallatin, then secretary of the treasury, was directed to report upon the objects upon which the public moneys might be profitably expended, to facilitate the intercourse between the different parts of the union. In the year 1808, he presented an able and minute report upon the subject, embracing three leading objects; the union of the waters of the great lakes with the Hudson; the waters of the Ohio with the Chesapeake; and the establishment of an inland navigation by canals, uniting the waters of the great bays along the Atlantic coast. The expenses of these, and other objects embraced in his report, were estimated at twenty millions, which it was then thought the treasury, in the course of a few years, might sustain. The restrictive system, and consequent war, suspended for a considerable time any further measures. The subject engaged the early attention of Congress, after the close of

the war, and produced the bill in question, intended as the commencement of a system of internal improvements on a large scale.

President's objections to the bill. The president's objections to the bill, resulting from a limited construction of the constitution, were, that the legislative powers enumerated in the 8th section of the first article, do not embrace the object in question; and that it does not fall by any just interpretation, within the general provision, to make such laws as are necessary and proper to carry into execution the specified objects of legislation; that the power to regulate commerce among the several states, cannot include a power to construct roads and canals, and improve the navigation of water courses, without a latitude of construction departing from the ordinary import of the terms; that to refer the power in question to the clause, " to provide for the common defense and general welfare," would be contrary to the established and consistent rules of interpretation, as rendering the special and careful enumeration of powers which follows, nugatory and improper; that such a construction would have the effect of giving congress a general power of legislation instead of a defined and limited. one, the terms common defense and general welfare, embracing every object within the purview of legislation: that it would have the effect of subjecting the constitutions and laws of the several states, in all cases not specifically exempted, to be superseded by the laws of congress, and of excluding the national judiciary, from its important and appropriate office of guarding the boundaries between the legislative powers of the general and state governments; questions relating to the general welfare, being questions of policy and expediency, unsusceptible of judicial cognizance and decision. A restriction of the power to such cases as are to be provided for by the expenditure of money, the president observes, is still less definite, money being the necessary means, by which all the great and important objects of government are to be accomplished. If the power claimed, with the train of powers incident thereto, be not given to congress by the constitution, the assent of the states, within whose limits the improvements are to be made, cannot confer the power; the only instance where such assent can enlarge the powers of congress, having relation to the admission of new states into the union, taken from one or more of the then existing states. Having

assigned his reasons for withholding his assent to the bill, the president remarks, that such a power might be exercised by the national legislature, with signal advantage to the general prosperity, and recommends an amendment of the constitution to that effect.

In the house of representatives, on the final question, shall the bill pass, the president's objections notwithstanding? the yeas were 60, noes 56; two-thirds being necessary to decide the question affirmatively, the bill was lost.

Report of a committee of the house of representatives on internal improvements. At the commencement of the first session of the succeeding congress, Mr. Monroe stated, that his opinion on this subject coincided with that of his predecessor, and recommended an amendment of the constitution, vesting congress with the necessary powers. In the house of representatives, the subject was referred to a select committee, who, after stating that the house ought to form their opinion, independently, and uninfluenced by the executive; and strongly intimating that the president's remarks were an improper interference with their appropriate duties, reported, that in their opinion, congress already had the power to lay out, construct, and improve military and post roads, and make canals through the several states, with their assent, for the conveyance of the mails; for the more safe and easy transportation of military stores, in time of war; and for promoting and giving security to internal commerce, leaving, in all cases, the jurisdictional rights of the soil in the respective states.

This opinion, they claim, is supported both by principle and precedent. The power of laying out and constructing post-roads, they contend, is contained in that clause of the constitution, which empowers congress to establish postoffices and post-roads. This necessarily embraces the power of providing for the transportation of the mails. Had congress no power to provide roads for this purpose, it would be in the power of the state authorities, by discontinuing, or refusing to open the necessary highways, to obstruct the transportation of the mails, and defeat one important object of the government. The power of opening and improving military roads in time of war, has never been questioned; but has always been admitted to be necessary for the transportation of armies, and their appendages, from one point of operation to another. If such a power is incident to a state of war, the committee claim it exists in time of peace, as a necessary preparation for war.

If necessary to resort to a liberal construction of the constitution, this is a case, the committee claim, which peculiarly requires it. It was impossible for the framers of that instrument to comprehend all the cases, to which the powers of congress ought to be extended, in order to attain the ultimate object, stated to be "the general welfare." In the course of the widely diversified and extended interests of the union, it would be necessary to legislate upon a variety of subjects, which could not be distinctly foreseen; therefore, in the preamble, and in the clause designating the objects for which money was to be appropriated, the most general and comprehensive expressions were used, on purpose to include unforeseen and undefined objects, and exclude such a narrow construction of the constitution, as would render frequent amendments necessary.

Power is given to levy and collect taxes to provide for the common defense, and general welfare of the United States. Terms more general and unlimited could not well be used, in relation to the expenditure of money; and under this head, moneys have been freely expended in purchasing a library, and expensive paintings to decorate the hall of Congress, and for a great variety of objects, not specifically pointed out in the constitution.

The precedents adduced in support of the opinion of the committee, were, the act of congress of March, 1806, providing for the laying out and constructing a road from Cumberland, in the state of Maryland, to the Ohio river; and, although this was done in consequence of a compact between the United States and the state of Ohio, at the time it was admitted into the Union, yet such a compact would have no validity, unless congress possessed the power in question.

The acts of the 21st of April, 1806, and 3d of March, 1817, authorizing roads to be opened from Nashville and Reynoldsburgh, in the state of Tennessee, to different points in the Missisippi territory. A military road from Pittsburgh to Sacket's harbor, in the state of New York. One of the first acts of Mr. Monroe's presidency, was the ordering of this road to be opened and improved. These precedents, showing the sense both of the legislative and the executive branches of the government on the subject in question, though they could not sanction a construction of the constitution manifestly erroneous, go far to establish the positions laid down by the committee.