ll-informed
statesman could shut his eyes to the national aspects of the problem.
Even President Madison invited the attention of Congress to the need of
establishing "a comprehensive system of roads and canals." Soon after
Congress met, it took under consideration a bill drafted by Calhoun
which proposed an appropriation of $1,500,000 for internal improvements.
Because this appropriation was to be met by the moneys paid by the
National Bank to the Government, the bill was commonly referred to as
the "Bonus Bill." "Let it not be forgotten," said Calhoun in advocacy of
his bill, "that it [the size of the Union] exposes us to the greatest of
all calamities,--next to the loss of liberty,--and even to that in its
consequences--disunion. We are great, and rapidly--I was about to say
fearfully--growing. This is our pride and our danger; our weakness and
our strength.... We are under the most imperious obligation to
counteract every tendency to disunion.... Whatever impedes the
intercourse of the extremes with this, the center of the Republic,
weakens the Union."

The one section which was impervious to these national considerations at
this moment was New England; but it was President Madison, and not New
England, who defeated the Bonus Bill. On the day before he left office,
Madison sent to Congress a notable veto message. Reverting to his
earlier faith, he pronounced the measure unconstitutional. Neither the
express words of the Constitution nor any fair inference could, in his
judgment, warrant the exercise of such powers by Congress. To pass the
bill over his veto was impossible. Monroe, too, in his first message to
Congress intimated that he also held strict views of the powers of
Congress. The policy of internal improvements by Federal aid was thus
wrecked on the constitutional scruples of the last of the Virginia
dynasty.

Having less regard for consistency, the House of Representatives
recorded its conviction, by close votes, that Congress could appropriate
money to construct roads and canals, but had not the power to construct
them. As yet the only direct aid of the National Government to internal
improvements consisted of various appropriations, amounting to about
$1,500,000 for the Cumberland Road.

Circumstances were also pressing the claims of the Far West upon the
Government. Beyond the scattered settlements of Illinois and Indiana
extended vast forests, known only to the Indians and the fur traders.
With the