Both houses
sustained the president's veto.
Acting upon Monroe's intimation of the power to appropriate money,
and following the line of least resistance, the next year an act was
passed making appropriations for repairs of the Cumberland Road. On
March 3, 1823, also, was signed the first of the national acts for
the improvement of harbors. [Footnote: U. S. Statutes at Large,
III., 780.] The irresistible demand for better internal
communications and the development of a multitude of local projects,
chief among them a new plan for uniting Chesapeake Bay with the Ohio
by a canal along the Potomac, resulted, in 1824, in the introduction
of the general survey bill, authorizing the president to cause
surveys to be made for such roads and canals as he deemed of
national importance for commercial, military, or postal purposes.
The evident intention of the bill was to prepare a programme for
appropriations for internal improvements on a national scale, and
for subscription to the stock of companies engaged in these
enterprises.
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