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The Maysville Road veto occurred on May 27, 1830 when President Andrew Jackson vetoed a bill which would allow the Federal government to purchase stock in the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington Turnpike Road Company, which had been organized to construct a road linking Lexington and the Ohio River, the entirety of which would be in the state of Kentucky. Its advocates regarded it as a part of the national Cumberland Road system. Congress passed a bill in 1830 providing federal funds to complete the project. Jackson vetoed the bill on the grounds that federal funding of intrastate projects of this nature was unconstitutional. He declared that such bills violated the principle that the government shouldnt be an economic affair. Jackson also pointed out that funding for these kinds of projects interfered with the paying off of the national debt. Proponents of internal improvements, such as the development of roads and bridges, argued that the federal government had an obligation to harmonize the nations diverse, and often conflicting, sectional interests into an American System. Jacksons decision was heavily influenced by his Vice President Martin Van Buren. Some authors have described the motives behind the veto decision as personal, rather than political. The veto has been attributed to a personal grudge against Henry Clay, as well as to preserve the trade monopoly of the Erie Canal, in the case of Van Buren. Debate in Congress | 
