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22 

HEALTH AND HOSPITAL CORPORATION OF MARION 
CTY. v. TALEVSKI 
THOMAS, J., dissenting 

It carries with it “no incidental power, nor does it draw after
it any consequences of that kind.”  Id., at 168.  Monroe pro-
ceeded  to  carefully  distinguish  the  spending  power  from 
Congress’ authority to impose obligations and duties: “[T]he
use or application of the money after it is raised is a power 
altogether of a different character” from Congress’ enumer-
ated regulatory powers such as the taxing power; “[i]t im-
poses no burden on the people, nor can it act on them in a 
sense to take power from the States.”  Id., at 164. 

Applying this understanding of the spending power to the
question of internal improvements, Monroe explained that 
Congress  could  only  “appropriate  the  money  necessary  to 
make them.”  Id., at 168.  Where none of Congress’ enumer-
ated regulatory powers was applicable, Monroe concluded, 
“[f]or every act requiring legislative sanction or support the
State authority must be relied on.”  Ibid.  Thus, Congress
could not itself pass laws providing for “[t]he condemnation 
of  the  land,  . . .  the  establishment  of  turnpikes  and  tolls, 
and the protection of the work when finished.”  Ibid. 

Monroe’s  summation  of  the  federal  spending  power,  re-
flecting that it does not carry with it any regulatory power,
was accepted throughout the 19th century by friends and 
foes of federal power alike.  In his 1825 inaugural address,
President  John  Quincy  Adams  explained  that  Monroe’s
Views  had  “conciliated  the  sentiments  and  approximated
the opinions of enlightened minds upon the question of con-
stitutional power.”  Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1825, in 5
American State Papers, Foreign Relations 753, 755 (1858).
Five  years  later,  President  Andrew  Jackson  vetoed  the 
Maysville  Road  Bill  of  1830  for  the  same  reasons  Monroe
had  vetoed  the  Cumberland  Road  Bill  of  1822:  Congress 
lacks “[t]he right to exercise as much jurisdiction as is nec-
essary to preserve the works and to raise funds by the col-
lection of tolls to keep them in repair,” and “[w]ithout [such 
power]  nothing  extensively  useful  can  be  effected.”    Rich-
ardson 492.