Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 10).djvu/92

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92
THE CUMBERLAND ROAD

port from those who traveled upon it. As we have seen, a law was passed in both houses of Congress, in 1824, authorizing the Government to erect tollgates and charge toll on the Cumberland Road as the states should surrender this right.[1] This bill was vetoed by President Monroe, on grounds already stated, and the road fell into a very bad condition. But what the national Government could not do the individual states could do, and, consequently, as fast as repairs were completed, the Government surrendered the road to the states through which it passed. Maryland, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Virginia, accepted completed portions of the road between 1831 and 1834.[2] The legislatures of Ohio and Pennsylvania at once passed laws concerning the erection of tollgates, Ohio authorizing one gate every twenty miles, February 4, 1831,[3] and Pennsylvania authorizing the erection of six tollgates by

  1. Laws of Pennsylvania (pamphlet), p. 500.
  2. See Appropriation No. 27, in Appendix A.
  3. Laws of Ohio, XXIX, p. 76. For specimen advertisement for bids for erection of tollgates in Ohio see Appendix D.