Maysville Veto

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MAYSVILLE VETO

MAYSVILLE VETO, the veto of a bill to allocate federal funds for a road from Maysville to Lexington in Kentucky, was cast by President Andrew Jackson on 27 May 1830. While significant Jacksonians in Congress favored the bill, Vice President Martin Van Buren argued for a veto, and Jackson ultimately agreed with him. In his veto message, which was a product of Van Buren's pen, Jackson repeated the constitutional arguments on which Van Buren and his Virginia allies had erected their Democratic Party in the 1820s. As Thomas Jefferson and James Madison had done before him, Jackson coupled his denial of the constitutionality of federal expenditures for "purely local" public works with a call for a constitutional amendment to legitimize such projects.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cole, Donald B. The Presidency of Andrew Jackson. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1993.

K. R. ConstantineGutzman

See alsoConstitution of the United States ; Veto Power of the President .

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