Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Internal improvements is the term used historically in the United States for public works from the end of the American Revolution through much of the 19th century, mainly for the creation of a transportation infrastructure: roads, turnpikes, canals, harbors and navigation improvements. [1]
Monroe expressed optimism about domestic progress, noting that public revenue was exceeding expectations, allowing for the repayment of the national debt and investment in national defense. He also emphasized the importance of internal improvements, such as roads and canals, to connect the country and promote economic growth.
Internal improvements were supported by the Federalist Party, but improvements in the 1790s and 1800s were limited primarily to the construction of lighthouses. The first major federal infrastructure project, and the largest prior to the Civil War, was the Cumberland Road that connected Cumberland, Maryland and Vandalia, Illinois .
The United States government had funded and constructed improvements along its coastline beginning with the founding of the United States Army Corps of Engineers during the revolution, and many politicians wanted them to contribute to construction of works "of a civil nature" as well. Before 1800, the Corps supervised the construction of ...
The Bonus Bill of 1817 was legislation proposed by John C. Calhoun to earmark the revenue "bonus," as well as future dividends, from the recently established Second Bank of the United States for an internal improvements fund. [1]
Among the most important internal improvements created under the American System was the Cumberland Road: Henry Clay's "American System," devised in the burst of nationalism that followed the War of 1812 , remains one of the most historically significant examples of a government-sponsored program to harmonize and balance the nation's ...
Proponents of internal improvements, such as the development of roads and bridges, argued that the federal government had an obligation to harmonize the nation's diverse, and often conflicting, sectional interests into an "American System." Jackson's decision was heavily influenced by his Secretary of State Martin Van Buren. Some authors have ...
The United States population had some semi-unique advantages in that they were former British subjects, had high English literacy skills, for that period, including over 80% in New England, had stable institutions, with some minor American modifications, of courts, laws, right to vote, protection of property rights and in many cases personal ...