The  National  Government  and  Internal  Improvements.  If
President  John  Quincy  Adams  could  have  had  his  way  in  1824,
the  United  States  would  to-day  own  the  canals  and  railways,  as
well  as  many  of  the  wagon  roads  of  the  country.  Presidents
Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe  had  opposed  the  construction
of  these  internal  improvements  by  the  national  government,
on  the  ground  that  they  were  not  expressly  authorized  by  the
constitution.  But  John  Quincy  Adams  was  a  President  of  broad
national  views,  who  wanted  Congress  to  spend  millions  in
constructing  roads,   canals,   and  railways.      Like  his  father.
NEW   SYSTEMS   OF   TRANSPORTATION  323

President  Adams  was  a  man  of  sterling  worth,  but  lacking  in  all
the  qualities  of  popular  leadership.  He  failed  to  convince
Congress  or  the  country  at  large  that  the  national  government
should  undertake  these  improvements.  One  reason  for  this  was
the  strong  constitutional  objection,  that  the  national  govern-
ment had  no  such  authority.  Another  was  the  opposition  of
the  South.  Itself  an  agricultural  section,  the  South  was  unwilling
to  bear  a  heavy  burden  of  taxes  in  order  to  build  up  a  rival
agricultural  section  in  the  West.  Then,  too,  the  states  and  cities
of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  were  already  constructing  canals  and
railways,  each  community  striving  to  secure  the  trade  of  the
West  for  its  own  benefit.  So  the  rivalry  of  the  different  sections
prevented  the  adoption  of  the  President's  plan  for  a  national
system  of  public  improvements.
