To James Madison from Henry Clay, 3 March 1817
From Henry Clay
Confidential
3 Mar. 17.
Dr sir
Knowing that we cannot differ on the question of the object of the Internal Improvement bill, however we may on the Constitutional point, will you excuse me for respectfully suggesting whether you could not leave the bill to your successor? If it receive his approbation, within the ten days, I am inclined to think the law is valid. The notification to the two houses of the passage of any bill, by the Presidents approbation, is I am induced to believe a formula not essential to the validity of the Law. These suggestions, hastily made, proceed from considerations connected at once with a regard to your personal character & the public good. I pray you to do justice to the motives which dictate their suggestion & to excuse the liberty I have presumed to take.1 Respectfully & Sincerely Your’s
H. Clay.
RC (KyU: Samuel M. Wilson Collection). RC bears a note in an unidentified hand that the letter was addressed to JM “on last day of His term of office.”
1. In his speech on this bill on 4 Feb. 1817, Clay urged the House to do no more than approve in principal the pledge to establish the fund for future internal improvements. “If we attempt anything beyond this; if we touch the details; if we go into a specification of the objects on which the fund is to be expended, the inevitable effect will be, that we shall do nothing.” In the vote on whether to override JM’s veto, Clay departed from the rules of the House and insisted on exercising his right to vote in order to pass the bill ( , 14th Cong., 2d sess., 847, 866, 1062–63).