Note 228 — Chapter III · The Power of Congress to Establish Postroads

The validity of Monroe’s argument is treated below, p. 81. Perhaps it may not be amiss to add that I have not attempted an exhaustive consideration of congressional activity in respect to road construction. This has been done by Nelson, Presidential Influence on the Policy of Internal Improvements, and Young, A Political and Constitutional Study of the Cumberland Road. There are also excellent and less specialized accounts in Babcock, The Rise of American Nationality, ch. xv, Turner, The Rise of the New West, ch. xiii (American Nation, vols. 13 and 14), and Schouler, History of the United States, vol. iii. My sole purpose has been to treat congressional action and presidential opinion from their constitutional aspects in relation to the power to establish postoffices and postroads.