It therefore involved
the question of the right of jurisdiction as well as of
construction.
The measure passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 87 to
68. The districts along the line of the Potomac and the Ohio, and
the regions tributary to the road in Pennsylvania and western
Virginia, were almost a unit in favor of the bill. Indeed, the whole
vote of the western states, with the exception of two members from
Tennessee, was given in the affirmative. But Pittsburgh, which
feared the diversion of her western trade to Baltimore, opposed the
bill. The area along the Susquehanna which looked to Baltimore also
voted in the negative, as did the majority of the delegation from
New York, who were apprehensive of the effect of the National Road
as a rival to the Erie Canal. The Senate passed the bill by the
decisive vote of 29 to 7.
Monroe vetoed this measure, on the ground that it implied a power to
execute a complete system of internal improvements, with the right
of jurisdiction and sovereignty.
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