=337. The Panama Congress.=—Adams fared as badly or worse when he indorsed the scheme of General Bolivar, the South American patriot hero, for holding at Panama a convention, or congress, of all the American republics. Both Adams and Clay, the latter of whom had long taken interest in South American affairs, believed that through such a congress the influence of the United States would be extended and the Monroe Doctrine be more firmly established. But although commissioners were finally sent to Panama, they arrived too late to participate in the conference, owing to the protracted debates in Congress on the propriety of sending them. Although Adams’s opponents would under any circumstances have delighted to harass him, these debates were mainly due to the fact that Hayti, a republic of revolted negro slaves, was to be represented at Panama. Southern congressmen disliked the social and political recognition involved, and feared that the subject of slavery might come up for discussion. As a matter of course, Adams’s opponents made him bear the brunt of the fiasco. =338. Internal Improvements.=—In domestic affairs the President’s policy was still more unsuccessful. In his tactless way he favored internal improvements to an extent unwarranted at the time. He knew of the general prejudice against the government’s undertaking what the states preferred to do themselves, and he should have known also that the vetoes of his two predecessors had carried great weight. Besides, it was almost amusing to counsel the American people, as he did, to build observatories, when they were more interested in finances, public and private, than in astronomy. Some money had indeed been spent on improvements, especially upon the Cumberland Road, a highway running through Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio, and designed to connect East and West. More money was spent during Adams’s term; but much opposition was aroused, particularly in the South, even Calhoun being now dubious of the constitutionality of such expenditure of the public funds.