US Presidency
1846

When we advance a step beyond this point, and, in addition to the establishment and support, by appropriations from the Treasury, of lighthouses, beacons, buoys, piers, and other improvements within the bays, inlets, and harbors on our ocean and lake coasts immediately connected with our foreign commerce, attempt to make improvements in the interior at points unconnected with foreign commerce, and where they are not needed for the protection and security of our Navy and commercial marine, the difficulty arises in drawing a line beyond which appropriations may not be made by the Federal Government. One of my predecessors, who saw the evil consequences of the system proposed to be revived by this bill, attempted to define this line by declaring that expenditures of this character should be confined below the ports of entry or delivery established by law. Acting on this restriction, he withheld his sanction from a bill which had passed Congress to improve the navigation of the Wabash River.