Bonus Bill
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The Bonus Bill of 1817 was a bill introduced by John Calhoun to provide United States highways linking The East and South to The West using the earnings Bonus from the Second Bank of the United States. It was a part of the American System, which was proposed by Henry Clay, a colleague of Calhoun.
Calhoun argued for it using general welfare and post roads clauses. The bill was strongly opposed in New England, because people there feared that providing the means for settlers to travel would drain their population and create competing states in the area obtained in the Louisiana Purchase.
Though he approved of the goals, President James Madison vetoed the bill as unconstitutional under strict constructionist ideals.
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[edit] Bonus Bill of 1930s
Veterans of the First World War in the United States had been promised a cash bonus payable in 1945. Beginning in 1931 veterans organized to get full payment immediately. Congressman Wright Patman and Senator Huey Long were the leading proponents. Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt strongly opposed the payment. 45,000 veterans calling themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force or Bonus Army marched on Washington in 1932 and were driven out by the Army. Congress passed several bonus bills that were vetoed and finally overcame Roosevelt's veto in 1936 (Adjusted Compensation Payment Act, 1936, January 27, 1936, ch. 32, 49 Stat. 1099). The Treasury distributed $1.5 billion in cash to the 4 million veterans.
- Paul Dickson and Thomas B. Allen. The Bonus Army: An American Epic (2004).
- Donald Lisio. The President and Protest: Hoover, MacArthur, and the Bonus Riot (1994)
- Primary documents, including veto messages by Hoover
