[Alberta's Child]

Between the 1820s and 1850s Americans hotly debated the merits of public investment in roads, bridges, canals, riverways and, eventually, railroads. At issue was more than whether to tax and spend or the limits of federal authority.

Well, no. On principle, the issue had already been resolved by that time.

The first National Road was authorized by Congress in 1806, and was completed roughly along what is now US-40 from Cumberland, Maryland out to Vandalia, Illinois by the 1830s.

The role of the Federal government WAS hotly debated in the early years of the 19th century before the National Road was established. The project was ultimately approved by Congress because the Ohio territory had established the construction of this road as a condition of entering the Union in 1803. Congress saw the wisdom of building infrastructure to connect the new interior states to the coastal states (up to that point Vermont and Tennessee were the only U.S. states without access to the Atlantic Ocean) to give them access to ports and urban centers of commerce. Without these roads, a Great Lakes state like Ohio would ultimately have stronger physical and economic links to British Canada than to the rest of the U.S.

[cowboyusa]

Jackson vetoed the Maysiville road bill because it only favored 1 state. He did support funding for Interstate road bulding.