_December 6, 1832_.
_To the House of Representatives_:
In addition to the general views I have heretofore expressed to Congress
on the subject of internal improvement, it is my duty to advert to it
again in stating my objections to the bill entitled "An act for the
improvement of certain harbors and the navigation of certain rivers,"
which was not received a sufficient time before the close of the last
session to enable me to examine it before the adjournment.
Having maturely considered that bill within the time allowed me by the
Constitution, and being convinced that some of its provisions conflict
with the rule adopted for my guide on this subject of legislation, I
have been compelled to withhold from it my signature, and it has
therefore failed to become a law.
To facilitate as far as I can the intelligent action of Congress upon
the subjects embraced in this bill, I transmit herewith a report from
the Engineer Department, distinguishing, as far as the information
within its possession would enable it, between those appropriations
which do and those which do not conflict with the rules by which my
conduct in this respect has hitherto been governed. By that report it
will be seen that there is a class of appropriations in the bill for the
improvement of streams that are not navigable, that are not channels of
commerce, and that do not pertain to the harbors or ports of entry
designated by law, or have any ascertained connection with the usual
establishments for the security of commerce, external or internal.
It is obvious that such appropriations involve the sanction of a
principle that concedes to the General Government an unlimited power
over the subject of internal improvements, and that I could not,
therefore, approve a bill containing them without receding from the
positions taken in my veto of the Maysville road bill, and afterwards in
my annual message of December 6, 1830.
It is to be regretted that the rules by which the classification of the
improvements in this bill has been made by the Engineer Department are
not more definite and certain, and that embarrassments may not always be
avoided by the observance of them, but as neither my own reflection nor
the lights derived from other sources have furnished me with a better
guide, I shall continue to apply my best exertions to their application
and enforcement. In thus employing my best faculties to exercise the
power with which I am invested to avoid evils and to effect the greatest
attainable good for our common country I feel that I may trust to your
cordial cooperation, and the experience of the past leaves me no room to
doubt the liberal indulgence and favorable consideration of those for
whom we act.
The grounds upon which I have given my assent to appropriations for the
construction of light-houses, beacons, buoys, public piers, and the
removal of sand bars, sawyers, and other temporary or partial
impediments in our navigable rivers and harbors, and with which many of
the provisions of this bill correspond, have been so fully stated that I
trust a repetition of them is unnecessary. Had there been incorporated
in the bill no provisions for works of a different description,
depending on principles which extend the power of making appropriations
to every object which the discretion of the Government may select, and
losing sight of the distinctions between national and local character
which I had stated would be my future guide on the subject, I should
have cheerfully signed the bill.