James Monroe, John Marshall and ‘The Excellence of Our Institutions’, 1817–1825

When James Monroe became president in 1817, the United States urgently needed a national transportation system to connect new states and territories in the west with older states facing the Atlantic Ocean. In 1824, the Supreme Court declared that Congress had the power to regulate traffic on all navigable rivers and lakes in the United States. Congress began clearing obstructions from rivers, and these projects enabled steamboats to transform cross-country travel in the United States. This book