In February of 2015, President Obama unveiled his plans for a six-year, $478 billion plan to rebuild the nation's airports, bridges, highways and railroads. What a long way, we've gone since 1815, when James Madison asserted that the constitution did not give the federal government this authority. In 1815, America had just come out of war with Great Britain and were in desperate need of rebuilding roads and canals in order to promote transportation and commerce among the states. Madison wrote in his State of the Union of 1815, that there was no work that the best return on the government's money would be in that of building the country's roads and digging it's canals. And no other job brought more honor to the government than that of great roads like that of Rome. If America was destined to be a great country, then it needed great infrastructure.
"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 governments 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 his accommodation and benefit."Clearly James Madison understood the value and need for roads and cans, but he also believed that the constitution did not grant the federal government the authority, so he urged congress to propose a constitutional amendment. Congress did not move in this direction, but instead created a bill that diverted profits from the recently established Second Bank of the united States to funding of needed road and canal improvements. The "Bonus Bill of 1817" was passed by the house and senate narrowly, but President James Madison vetoed the bill on his last day in office. He felt the bill's supporters were playing fast and loose with the constitution. In his veto message, Madison wrote that he was "constrained by the insuperable difficulty" that he felt in "reconciling the bill with the Constitution of the United States". Madison concluded that "The power to regulate commerce among the several States' can not include a power to construct roads and canals." Following the veto of this bill, responsibility for internal improvements fell on the states. One of the most successful examples of this was the Erie Canal completed in 1825 by the state of New York.
Perhaps with a little sarcasm, James Madison in 1815, spoke of a "defect" in our constitution which could be fixed.
"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. Whilst the States individually, with a laudable enterprise and emulation, avail themselves of their local advantages by new roads, by navigable canals, and by improving the streams susceptible of navigation, the General Government is the more urged to similar undertakings, requiring a national jurisdiction and national means, by the prospect of thus systematically completing so inestimable a work; and it is a happy reflection that any defect of constitutional authority which may be encountered can be supplied in a mode which the Constitution itself has providently pointed out."And again in 1816, James Madison urged Congress to look for ways to expand the powers of the federal government "in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals". Madison explained that promoting intercourse and internal improvements was the way to unite the country and bring "national prosperity".
"The importance which I have attached to the establishment of a university within this District on a scale and for objects worthy of the American nation induces me to renew my recommendation of it to the favorable consideration of Congress. And I particularly invite again their attention to the expediency of exercising their existing powers, and, where necessary, of resorting to the prescribed mode of enlarging them, in order to effectuate a comprehensive system of roads and canals, such as will have the effect of drawing more closely together every part of our country by promoting intercourse and improvements and by increasing the share of every part in the common stock of national prosperity."http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29457
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2015/02/01/obama-budget-tax-on-overseas-profits-to-pay-for-u-s-roads-and-bridges/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Bill_of_1817
http://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/educator-resources/lessons-plans/presidents/federal-power-james-madison/
\https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Erie_Canal%2C_Lockport_New_York%2C_c.1855.jpg
http://www.constitution.org/jm/18170303_veto.htm
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