He declared that the constitutional
convention "did not regard the state governments as sentinels upon
the watch-towers of freedom, or in any respect more worthy of
confidence than the general government."
When the bill came to the final vote in the House of
Representatives, New England gave 12 votes in favor and 26 against;
the middle states, 37 to 26 (New York, 7 to 24); the south, 23 to
34; the west, 43 to 0. Thus the bill carried by 115 to 86. As the
map shows, the opposition was chiefly located in New England and New
York and in a fragment of the old south. The entire west, including
the southwestern slave states, with Pennsylvania and the Potomac
Valley, acted together. In the Senate, the vote stood 24 to 18. Here
New England gave an almost solid vote against the bill.
Thus by the close of Monroe's administration the forces of
nationalism seemed to have triumphed in the important field of
internal improvements. It was the line of least resistance then, as
it had been in the days of the Annapolis Convention.
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