[1] Proponents of the bill stressed the nearly universally accepted need for improvements and brushed off strict constructionists with their own arguments in favor of "implied powers.
The bonus of $1.5 million and dividends, estimated at $650,000 annually,[1] would be used as a fund "for constructing roads and canals and improving the navigation of watercourses."
The bill proposed no specific system or improvements, but when pressed, Calhoun endorsed something along the lines of Albert Gallatin's 1808 Report,[1] which had been printed in 1816.
Initially proposed as an open-ended financing mechanism for improvements, the bill by the time of its passage, required for each state to benefit equally from the new fund and to approve all federal activities within its borders.
[1] On the last day of his administration, on March 3, 1817, Madison vetoed the bill for fear that Clay, Calhoun, and their supporters were playing too fast and loose with the Constitution.