The Rivers and Harbors Bill was a bill passed by Congress in 1846 to provide $500,000 to improve rivers and harbors. When the Senate passed the Rivers and Harbors Bill 34 to 16 on July 24, 1846, opponents lobbied for a presidential veto. It was vetoed by President

James K. Polk James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...

on August 3. The bill would have provided for federally funded internal improvements on small harbors, many of them on the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

. Polk believed that this was unconstitutional because the bill unfairly favored particular areas, including that which had no foreign trade. Polk believed that these problems were local and not national. Polk feared that passing the Rivers and Harbors Bill would encourage legislators to compete for favors for their home districts, a type of political corruption that would spell doom to the virtue of the republic. In this regard he followed his hero,

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

, who authored the

Maysville Road veto The Maysville Road veto occurred on May 27, 1830, when United States President Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill that would allow the federal government to purchase stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, which had ...

in 1830 on similar grounds. Henry Clay and his Whig Party, by contrast, supported the bill because they believed the national government had a responsibility to promote trade commerce and economic modernization.Michael Holt, ''The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party'' (1999), 232–37

References

{{James K. Polk, state=collapsed 1846 in American law Presidency of James K. Polk United States proposed federal legislation Veto