INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS. From the beginning of the United States Government till 1860, the question of a system of internal improvements carried on by the general Government was a party question. The Republican (Demo cratic-Republican), and after it the Democratic party as the party of strict construction, opposed such a system. Improvements, the property in which re mains in the general government, as lighthouses, etc., were not opposed, but improvements on rivers and roads, the benefit of which passes to the States, were the objects of attack. Most of the earlier States were on the sea-coast, and the improvement of their harbors was at first carried on by means of ton nage taxes on the commerce of the port, levied with the consent of Congress (see Constitution, Article I, section 10, clause 3). This practice was, in isolated cases, continued till the middle of the 19th cen tury; it was generally discontinued much earlier. As early as 1800 the improve ment of roads by the National Govern ment was conceived in order to indem nify the interior States, and in 1823, the improvement by the National Govern ment directly of rivers and harbors was begun. The Republican (Democratic Republican) Presidents, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, opposed these nu provenients as unconstitutional, though toward the end of his term Monroe be came more favorable to the system.
John Quincy Adams was a warm advo cate thereof and Jackson its stern op ponent. Though the Democrats opposed any general system of improvements, they continued to apply funds to par ticular purposes. The Whigs now adopted the system originated by the Democrat, Jackson, viz., the distribution of the surplus among the States. But once did the Whigs attempt to put this into execution, and then, in 1841, the veto of President Tyler, at odds with his party in Congress, put an end to that scheme, which has not since been revived. The introduction of railroads has partly done away with the question of improvements for roads, while a sys tem of assistance to the railroads, by means of the grant of land along the line of their route, has sprung up. From this policy a revulsion has set in and the present tendency is to the re covery of as much of the land so granted as has not been earned by a strict com pliance with the terms of the grant. To this both of the great political parties stand committed.