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James Madison: Internal Improvements Balancing Act: Federal/State, Executive/LegislativeLesson Four of the Curriculum Unit: James Madison: From Father of the Constitution to PresidentGuiding Questions
Learning ObjectivesAfter completing this lesson, students will be able to:
1. What Was the Problem?There was general agreement at the beginning of the 19th century that the U.S. would greatly benefit from some internal improvements of a national nature, such as a nationwide network of roads and canals. But how should the funds for such projects be raised? Who should be in control of the projects—that is, who should administer them?Share the following analysis with students. It describes the country's need for a national road and the compromise devised by Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin to overcome the constitutional objections of the Democratic-Republicans: Since river improvements alone could not link the Ohio Valley with the East, plans began for a National Road to complete the link. Albert Gallatin, who became Jefferson's Secretary of the Treasury, was an advocate of a road "from the navigable waters emptying into the Atlantic to the Ohio, and afterwards continued through the new states." … the Democratic-Republican philosophy of Jefferson and Madison opposed expenditure of federal funds on internal improvements; so Gallatin came up with a scheme for state funding, but with a federal mandate. Enabling legislation for the new states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois would provide for the sale of federal land in these states to fund the road. However, work on the road was not to begin until the Madison presidency.What was Gallatin's compromise for financing the project? How did his plan make the project more likely to be considered constitutional? 2. What the Constitution SaysReview with the class the relevant sections of the U.S. Constitution, available on the EDSITEment resource The Avalon Project. These would include:
What does the Constitution say about internal improvements? (Nothing specific!) Which body of which branch of the federal government would have to raise the funds were any internal improvements approved? (The House of Representatives.) How could a problem arise over Article 1, Section 9, #6, or Article 6, Section 2 with federal financing of a canal located only in New York, for example? (New York might benefit disproportionately from taxes paid by people throughout the nation. The federal government, having paid for an improvement, would have a strong interest in administering the improvement, but so would the state, since the improvement is completely within the state's geographical boundaries.) Does Article 1, Section 8, #7, give the federal government authority to finance and build roads to be used as postal routes? Is the power "to establish post-offices and post-roads" the same as the power to finance and build the roads? Is the power to finance and make improvements assigned to the federal government? (If not, doesn't that power belong to the states?) 3. A Brief Look at the Documentary RecordAn article on the website of The James Madison Center, a link from the EDSITEment resource The American President, describes the Cumberland Road (the first national road) project in this way:Efforts to provide transportation links between the Valley of the Ohio and the East Coast continued. In 1805, the U.S. Senate had recommended the National Road lead from Cumberland, Maryland, to the Ohio River, and construction began in 1811 during Madison's first term. Plans called for a genuine road, not simply a track through the forest. The right of way was to be 66 feet wide and the roadway twenty feet wide. It was to be paved with "stone, earth, or gravel or a combination. . ." Progress was slow and the first section, 113 miles to Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia), was not completed for another seven years, in James Monroe's first term.Share with students page 433 of the Annals of Congress, on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory, the earliest mention of the Cumberland Road (1805) in the records of Congress. Ask students to scan the page to find the answers to the following:
What arguments in favor of the project could have been used to prove it was constitutional? What arguments would someone who believed the project was not constitutional have been likely to use? (NOTE: Students interested in following the progress of the road can read the report Cumberland Road 1812 or locate other documents by searching for "Cumberland Road" on the Search Page for "A Century of Lawmaking" on American Memory.) 4. What Madison Believed, Part 1In a letter from Jefferson to Madison of March 6, 1796, Thomas Jefferson made the following comment about James Madison's proposition for improvements to roads used in a system of national mail delivery:P.S. Have you considered all the consequences of your proposition respecting post roads? I view it as a source of boundless patronage to the executive, jobbing to members of Congress & their friends, and a bottomless abyss of public money. You will begin by only appropriating the surplus of the post office revenues; but the other revenues will soon be called into their aid, and it will be a scene of eternal scramble among the members, who can get the most money wasted in their State; and they will always get most who are meanest. We have thought, hitherto, that the roads of a State could not be so well administered even by the State legislature as by the magistracy of the county, on the spot.Where did Jefferson believe the responsibility for administering such roads belonged ? (With the state or even the local county.) Judging from Jefferson's remarks, were Madison and Jefferson in agreement about federal funding for internal improvements? Of the two, who was apparently interpreting the Constitution more strictly—that is, giving less implied power to the federal government and returning all unspecified powers back to the states? Elliot's Debates, Volume 4, on the EDSITEment resource American Memory, contains remarks on Internal Improvement.--Extracted from President Madison's Message to Congress. December 5, 1815. Read them with the class: Among the means of advancing the public interest, the occasion is a proper one for recalling the attention of Congress to the great importance of establishing throughout our country the roads and canals which can best be executed under the national authority. No objects within the circle of political economy so richly repay the expense bestowed on them; there are none the utility of which is more universally ascertained and acknowledged; none that do more honor to the government, whose wise and enlarged patriotism duly appreciates them. Nor is there any country which presents a field where Nature invites more the art of man to complete her own work for their accommodation and benefit. These considerations are strengthened, moreover, by the political effect of these facilities for intercommunication, in bringing and binding more closely together the various parts of our extended confederacy.What did President Madison believe about the improvements themselves? (Many internal improvements were necessary "for intercommunication, in bringing and binding more closely together the various parts of our extended confederacy" and were therefore in the public interest. Some projects would best be accomplished under the "jurisdiction" of the federal government and financed by "national means." Since "constitutional authority" may be unclear in some situations, it would be best for the country to avail itself of the process for amending the Constitution the Founders built into the document.) What changes in the country made such projects more necessary? (Its rapidly expanding size, largely due to the Louisiana Purchase and the admission of new states.) 5. Assessment: What Madison Believed, Part IICongress received a Request for Federal Funding for a New York Canal, Dec. 23, 1811, available on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory, from a committee of distinguished New Yorkers, including Governor DeWitt Clinton, Robert Fulton, and Robert Livingston. Share with the class the short paragraph at the bottom of the page and the top of the next. Where would the proposed canal be located? (From the Hudson River to the Great Lakes.) If possible, check the location on a map. In what way would the canal be a valuable transportation link for the nation? (The Hudson River connects to the Atlantic Ocean. Lake Erie connects—through the Great Lakes—to the Midwest.) Would the canal be located in any state but New York? (FYI: What is the popular name by which the canal eventually became known? The Erie Canal, which is still navigable today—used largely for pleasure boating—and which was important for commercial traffic well into the 20th century.)NOTE: Interested students can peruse the complete Report on Canals, Feb. 1817 on the EDSITEment resource American Memory, which includes, on page 932, a description of the financing plan for the project, which the authors believed would make the project constitutional. Students interested in learning more about DeWitt Clinton, Robert Fulton, and Robert Livingston and why they were particularly interested in the Erie Canal, can read the following excerpts: Discuss with the class. What would most likely have been James Madison's position on federal financing for the New York canal? His remarks in Madison on New York Canals (December 23, 1811) on the EDSITEment-reviewed website American Memory were very positive about the benefits of the canal and other comparable internal improvements. In 1817, a bill for federal financing of internal improvements arrived on President Madison's desk. Vetoing the bill was his final act as president. Ask students to write their predictions in answer to the following: What would cause Madison to veto the bill? What would he be likely to say in his veto message? Share the "Excerpt from James Madison's Veto Message: March 3, 1817," (see Preparing to Teach This Curriculum Unit for download instructions), or the complete text of James Madison Veto Message, March 3, 1817 available on American Memory. (Scroll down to the end of page 534. The message ends on page 537. It should be noted that a vote to override the veto failed.) The War of 1812, on the website of The James Madison Center, a link from the EDSITEment resource The American President, offers this summary of the veto: Madison had not changed his position on internal improvements. He called for a constitutional amendment to authorize federal support for roads and canals. When Congress passed an internal improvements bill without a constitutional amendment, Madison's veto was his last official act. Postscript: What Happened?Culminate student learning with a brief look at what happened with the development of roads and canals after Madison's veto. President Monroe, like Madison, vetoed an internal improvements bill, the Cumberland Road Bill, in 1822. (President Andrew Jackson vetoed a similar bill, for similar reasons, in 1830.) In 1824, however, the General Survey Bill did give the president the power to have surveys done for roads as well as estimates of costs for roads and canals. All of the following excerpts are from the EDSITEment resource American Studies at the University of Virginia:Who paid for all these canals? With a new government still testing its financial clout, and often unclear definition between the responsibilities of state and federal spending, many of the early canals were financed by private canal companies. Often these were headed by prominent statesmen of the day, assuring that some government funding would be given to the projects. The early canals did attract limited state aid, and while federal aid was slower in coming there was little opposition to the idea of internal improvements. Indeed, such improvements were widely acknowledged as crucial to maintaining and expanding the republican ideal.Federal financing for internal improvements is more accepted today, though it remains controversial at times. Federal assistance for the construction of railroads came in the form of land grants. The Air Commerce Act of 1926 granted government aid to civil air transport and navigation and helped in the construction of airports. The Highway Act of 1956 led to the construction of our present-day interstate highway system, with 90 percent of the financing from the federal government. AMTRAK, a national passenger rail system established in 1970 as a semi-public corporation, has been the frequent subject of debate. AssessmentStudents who have completed this lesson should be able to respond effectively to the following questions:
Unit AssessmentWhen reviewing the unit in the whole-class setting, or having students work alone or in small groups, fill in the "Chart for Unit Assessment" (see Preparing to Teach This Curriculum Unit for download instructions).In a letter to George Washington, dated December 8, 1788, Madison said: "I am dogmatically attached to the Constitution in every clause, syllable, and letter."On February 2, 1791, in the debate over the constitutionality of the First National Bank-in which his objections were based on his strict construction of the Constitution-Madison said: "…no power could be exercised by Congress, if the letter of the Constitution was strictly adhered to, and no latitude of construction allowed, and all the good that might be reasonably expected from an efficient government entirely frustrated."Did Madison's constitutional philosophy remain consistent over the years? Did his philosophy evolve? Or was he simply inconsistent? Ask each student to write a brief essay taking a stand supporting one of these three positions or some other position. Extending the LessonThe Louisiana Purchase forced then-Secretary of State James Madison to re-evaluate his constitutional principles. The Thomas Jefferson Digital Archive, a link from the EDSITEment resource The American President, features a selection of comments from Jefferson on Louisiana and the Constitution. The EDSITEment-reviewed website The Avalon Project offers The Louisiana Purchase Collection, featuring related archival documents.Return to curriculum unit overviewPrevious lessonSelected EDSITEment Websites
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