Maysville Road Bill (1830)
MAYSVILLE ROAD BILL (1830)
president andrew jackson's veto of the Maysville Road Bill challenged the internal improvements component of henry clay ' samericansystem on constitutional and policy grounds and enhanced the role of the President in the legislative process.
In 1816, President james madison vetoed the "Bonus Bill," which would have provided federal support for internal improvements such as the Cumberland Road, on the ground that the Constitution did not authorize expenditure of federal funds for anything except the powers explicitly enumerated in it. The Maysville Road Bill would have funded completion of a twenty-mile spur of the National Road entirely within the state of Kentucky. Jackson defended his veto on the ground that the Maysville Road was wholly intrastate and therefore outside the power of the federal government. Jackson also vetoed the bill in order to promote economy in the national government. He thus asserted a presidential prerogative in legislative policy, as well as a quasi-constitutional position, associated with the Democratic Party for the next thirty years, of hostility to expenditure of federal funds for internal improvements.
William M. Wiecek
(1986)
(see also: Veto Power.)