ore
latitudinous construction was indicated, though it was not broadly
asserted and exercised until 1825. Small appropriations were first made
in 1820 and 1821 for surveys. An act was passed on the 3d of March,
1823, authorizing the President to "cause an examination and survey to
be made of the obstructions between the harbor of Gloucester and the
harbor of Squam, in the State of Massachusetts," and of "the entrance of
the harbor of the port of Presque Isle, in Pennsylvania," with a view to
their removal, and a small appropriation was made to pay the necessary
expenses. This appears to have been the commencement of harbor
improvements by Congress, thirty-four years after the Government went
into operation under the present Constitution. On the 30th of April,
1824, an act was passed making an appropriation of $30,000, and
directing "surveys and estimates to be made of the routes of such roads
and canals" as the President "may deem of national importance in a
commercial or military point of view or necessary for the transportation
of the mails." This act evidently looked to the adoption of a general
system of internal improvements, to embrace roads and canals as well
as harbors and rivers. On the 26th May, 1824, an act was passed making
appropriations for "deepening the channel leading into the harbor of
Presque Isle, in the State of Pennsylvania," and to "repair Plymouth
Beach, in the State of Massachusetts, and thereby prevent the harbor
at that place from being destroyed."

President Monroe yielded his approval to these measures, though he
entertained, and had, in a message to the House of Representatives on
the 4th of May, 1822, expressed, the opinion that the Constitution had
not conferred upon Congress the power to "adopt and execute a system of
internal improvements." He placed his approval upon the ground, not that
Congress possessed the power to "adopt and execute" such a system by
virtue of any or all of the enumerated grants of power in the
Constitution, but upon the assumption that the power to make
appropriations of the public money was limited and restrained only by
the discretion of Congress. In coming to this conclusion he avowed that
"in the more early stage of the Government" he had entertained a
different opinion. He avowed that his first opinion had been that "as
the National Government is a Government of limited powers, it has no
right to expend money except in the performance of acts authorized by