Babcock, Am. Nationality (Am.
Nation, XIII.), chap. xvii.] was followed nine months later by
Monroe's first annual message, [Footnote: Richardson, Messages and
Papers, II., 18.] in which he stated his belief that the
Constitution did not empower Congress to establish a system of
internal improvements, and recommended an amendment to convey the
power. To Clay and the friends of internal improvements, these
constitutional scruples of the Virginia dynasty, although
accompanied by approval of the plan of a system of internal
improvements at federal expense, came as a challenge. In an
important debate on the constitutionality of national internal
improvements, in 1818, the House of Representatives, voting on four
resolutions submitted by Lowndes, of South Carolina, [Footnote:
Annals of Cong., 15 Cong., 1 Sess., I., 1249] declared that Congress
had power to appropriate money for the construction of military
roads, and of other roads, and of canals, and for the improvement of
watercourses (89 ayes to 75 nays).
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