No. 4.] HIGHWAYS. 213 



The following quotation from this message indicates Jef- 

 ferson's anxiety to begin this great work on the continental 

 canals and roads: "The question now comes forward, to 

 what other objects (besides payment of the public debt and 

 national defence against anticipated foreign war) shall these 

 surpluses be appropriated? . . . Shall we suppress the 

 impost (duties) and give that advantage to foreign over 

 domestic manufactures ? " The president goes on to urge 

 the continuance of the impost system, affirming that the 

 patriotism of the people ' ' would certainly prefer its con- 

 tinuance and application to the great purposes of the public 

 education, roads, rivers, canals and such other objects of 

 public improvement as it may be thought proper to add 

 to the constitutional enumeration of federal powers. By 

 these operations new channels of communication will be 

 opened between the States, the lines of separation will dis- 

 appear, their interests will be identified, and the Union 

 cemented by new and indissoluble ties." The president no 

 longer talked about a frugal government. He wanted at 

 least one-third of the revenues to o-q toward the buildino^ of 

 roads, canals and education. Gallatin, his secretary of the 

 treasury, heartily seconded the recommendations of his 

 chief. He was ready to set out in the construction of four 

 great highwaj's to the west. These were deemed necessary 

 not only for the purpose of reaching the remote communi- 

 ties of Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and the country which 

 was then beginning to be filled up in the great valley of the 

 Mississippi, but it was also considered that nothing was so 

 \ital to the defence of a country in times of war as fine 

 roads. They were planned at this tmie to Sacket's Harbor, 

 Erie, Detroit, St. Louis, and thence to New Orleans. 



During this period the great question of the constitu- 

 tional right of Congress to appropriate the public funds for 

 promoting internal improvements was vigorously discussed, 

 — a question now settled by repeated applications of the 

 right, though there will ever remain in the minds of close 

 constructionists a serious question whether the right may be 

 derived from either the express or implied powers of our 

 national Constitution. In March, 1806, by a somewhat close 



