The
strict-construction theory that these works should be built by the
individual States threw upon the newer States a burden which they could
ill afford to bear. The West was almost ready to revolt against the
hidebound policy of the Administrations.
Individualism was characteristic of the Southern States as a whole,
but this improvement question broke the ranks of individualism by
allying the newer Southern States with the newer Northern States for
the benefits of national paternalism. To illustrate: a proposition in
1824 to employ the army engineers in making surveys for roads and
canals passed the House without a negative vote from Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana, or Alabama. Of the
older States, Maryland and Pennsylvania, interested in opening up the
western parts of their respective domains in this manner, joined
themselves to the Western States and made possible the passage of the
bill. Different speakers deplored this tendency to arouse sectional
animosities; to array the older States, which had made such improvements
from their own resources, against the new States, which would presumably
be the sole gainers by government aid.
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