<P> The magnitude of the transportation problem was such, however, that neither individual states nor private corporations seemed able to meet the demands of an expanding internal trade . As early as 1807, Albert Gallatin had advocated the construction of a great system of internal waterways to connect East and West, at an estimated cost of $20,000,000 ($334,272,727 in 2017 consumer dollars). But the only contribution of the national government to internal improvements during the Jeffersonian era was an appropriation in 1806 of two percent of the net proceeds of the sales of public lands in Ohio for the construction of a national road, with the consent of the states through which it should pass . By 1818 the road was open to traffic from Cumberland, Maryland, to Wheeling, West Virginia . </P> <P> In 1816, with the experiences of the war before him, no well - 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 ($21,629,412 in 2017 consumer dollars) 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". But on the day before he left office, President Madison vetoed the bill because it was unconstitutional . 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 . </P> <P> As the country recovered from financial depression following the Panic of 1819, the question of internal improvements again forged to the front . In 1822, a bill to authorize the collection of tolls on the Cumberland Road had been vetoed by the President . In an elaborate essay, Monroe set forth his views on the constitutional aspects of a policy of internal improvements . Congress might appropriate money, he admitted, but it might not undertake the actual construction of national works nor assume jurisdiction over them . For the moment, the drift toward a larger participation of the national government in internal improvements was stayed . Two years later, Congress authorized the President to institute surveys for such roads and canals as he believed to be needed for commerce and military defense . No one pleaded more eloquently for a larger conception of the functions of the national government than Henry Clay . He called the attention of his hearers to provisions made for coast surveys and lighthouses on the Atlantic seaboard and deplored the neglect of the interior of the country . Of the other presidential candidates, Jackson voted in the Senate for the general survey bill; and Adams left no doubt in the public mind that he did not reflect the narrow views of his section on this issue . Crawford felt the constitutional scruples which were everywhere being voiced in the South, and followed the old expedient of advocating a constitutional amendment to sanction national internal improvements . </P> <P> In President Adams' first message to Congress, he advocated not only the construction of roads and canals but also the establishment of observatories and a national university . President Jefferson had recommended many of these in 1806 for Congress to consider for creation of necessary amendments to the Constitution . Adams seemed oblivious to the limitations of the Constitution . In much alarm, Jefferson suggested to Madison the desirability of having Virginia adopt a new set of resolutions, bottomed on those of 1798, and directed against the acts for internal improvements . In March 1826, the general assembly declared that all the principles of the earlier resolutions applied "with full force against the powers assumed by Congress" in passing acts to protect manufacturers and to further internal improvements . That the administration would meet with opposition in Congress was a foregone conclusion . </P>

Most of the industrial growth experienced in the united states