In the year 1800 Georgia was authorized to collect a duty of three-pence per ton for "clearing the river Savannah."
Two years later, certain light-houses and public piers were authorized to be constructed in the Delaware River, and thirty thousand dollars were appropriated for the purpose.
The funds for further improvements of the Delaware were authorized to be collected by the port wardens of Philadelphia levying a duty of four cents per ton, by an act passed February 28, 1806.
Again in 1816 Congress assented to an act of Virginia incorporating a company for the improvement of the James River.
On the admission of Alabama as a State, March 2, 1819, an act was passed authorizing the appropriation of five per cent, of the net proceeds of land sold after September, 1819, for public roads, canals, and the improvement of the navigation of its rivers.
The first appropriation for surveys of the Mississippi and its tributaries, amounting to nine thousand five hundred dollars, was passed April 14, 1820. The next year the Secretary of the Navy was authorized to expend one hundred and fifty dollars in removing obstructions from the mouth of the river Thames in Connecticut; and on the same date—March 3, 1821—the President was authorized and requested to cause examinations and surveys for light-houses to be made by "proper and intelligent persons;" also to have a pier repaired at Portsmouth, "by contract under the direction of the collector of the district."
The following year the responsibility of supervising these affairs was transferred to the Secretary of the Treasury, and on May 7, 1822, he was authorized to build, by contract to be approved by the President, a sea-wall at Smutty Nose and the breakwater in Delaware Bay. In 1823 the authority to make several surveys was vested in the President, and he was authorized to employ one of the Topographical Engineers of the United States[1] for the survey of Presque Isle, Pennsylvania; for this purpose one hundred and fifty dollars were appropriated.
In the year 1824 several important acts were passed extending the duties of the President with reference to public works, authorizing him to cause the necessary surveys, plans, and estimates to be made "of such roads and canals as he may deem of national importance," and "to employ two or more skilful civil engineers, and such officers of the corps of engineers, or who may be detailed to do duty with that corps, as he may think proper," also to provide the necessary "plant." On February 21, 1825, an appropriation was passed " for making surveys and carrying on the operations of the board of engineers." During this and the next year certain special bills were passed, and the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to subscribe to the stock of the Louisville and Portland and of the Dismal Swamp Canal Companies.
Beginning with May 20, 1826, the policy of Congress appeared to be to assemble the sundry items into a general bill, which was passed annually, throughout the John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson administrations, until the year 1839, when only a few special appropriations were made. This condition of affairs continued until June 11,
- ↑ The United States Military Academy was organized in 1802.
