Bonus Bill of 1817
E337186
The Bonus Bill of 1817 was a proposed U.S. federal law that sought to use funds from the Second Bank of the United States to finance internal improvements like roads and canals, but became historically notable when President James Madison vetoed it on constitutional grounds.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Bonus Bill of 1817 canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T3215412 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Bonus Bill of 1817 Context triple: [Presidency of James Madison, vetoed, Bonus Bill of 1817]
-
A.
Tariff of 1832
The Tariff of 1832 was a U.S. federal customs law that modestly reduced earlier tariff rates but remained protectionist enough to provoke fierce Southern opposition and help trigger the Nullification Crisis.
-
B.
Macon's Bill Number 2
Macon's Bill Number 2 was an 1810 U.S. law that sought to motivate Britain and France to stop interfering with American trade by conditionally lifting earlier trade restrictions and threatening to reimpose them against whichever nation failed to respect U.S. neutrality.
-
C.
Independent Treasury Act of 1840
The Independent Treasury Act of 1840 was a U.S. law that created a federal system of government-owned vaults and sub-treasuries to hold public funds, separating them from private banks and limiting the role of state-chartered institutions in managing federal money.
-
D.
Compromise Tariff of 1833
The Compromise Tariff of 1833 was a U.S. law engineered primarily by Henry Clay that gradually reduced protective tariffs to ease sectional tensions and defuse the Nullification Crisis between South Carolina and the federal government.
-
E.
Tariff of 1816
The Tariff of 1816 was the first major protective tariff in U.S. history, enacted after the War of 1812 to shield emerging American industries from foreign competition and support Henry Clay’s American System.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Bonus Bill of 1817 Target entity description: The Bonus Bill of 1817 was a proposed U.S. federal law that sought to use funds from the Second Bank of the United States to finance internal improvements like roads and canals, but became historically notable when President James Madison vetoed it on constitutional grounds.
-
A.
Tariff of 1832
The Tariff of 1832 was a U.S. federal customs law that modestly reduced earlier tariff rates but remained protectionist enough to provoke fierce Southern opposition and help trigger the Nullification Crisis.
-
B.
Macon's Bill Number 2
Macon's Bill Number 2 was an 1810 U.S. law that sought to motivate Britain and France to stop interfering with American trade by conditionally lifting earlier trade restrictions and threatening to reimpose them against whichever nation failed to respect U.S. neutrality.
-
C.
Independent Treasury Act of 1840
The Independent Treasury Act of 1840 was a U.S. law that created a federal system of government-owned vaults and sub-treasuries to hold public funds, separating them from private banks and limiting the role of state-chartered institutions in managing federal money.
-
D.
Compromise Tariff of 1833
The Compromise Tariff of 1833 was a U.S. law engineered primarily by Henry Clay that gradually reduced protective tariffs to ease sectional tensions and defuse the Nullification Crisis between South Carolina and the federal government.
-
E.
Tariff of 1816
The Tariff of 1816 was the first major protective tariff in U.S. history, enacted after the War of 1812 to shield emerging American industries from foreign competition and support Henry Clay’s American System.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
internal improvements bill
ⓘ
proposed United States federal law ⓘ |
| amountOfFund | 1,500,000 dollars per year (approximately) ⓘ |
| associatedWithPolicy |
American System (economic plan)
ⓘ
surface form:
American System
|
| associatedWithPolitician |
Henry Clay
ⓘ
John C. Calhoun ⓘ |
| branchOfGovernmentInvolved |
executive branch of the United States
ⓘ
legislative branch of the United States ⓘ |
| constitutionalIssue |
federal power to fund internal improvements
ⓘ
interpretation of the General Welfare Clause ⓘ strict construction of the Constitution ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| dateProposed | 1817 ⓘ |
| era | post-War of 1812 period ⓘ |
| followedBy | continuing congressional debates over internal improvements in the 1820s ⓘ |
| fundingSourceProposed |
Second Bank of the United States
ⓘ
bonus and future dividends from the Second Bank of the United States ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance |
early test of federal role in economic development
ⓘ
illustrated tension between nationalist and strict constructionist views ⓘ important precedent in constitutional debate over internal improvements ⓘ |
| influencedDebateOn |
scope of the Necessary and Proper Clause
ⓘ
use of federal funds for infrastructure ⓘ |
| intendedPurpose |
construct canals
ⓘ
construct roads ⓘ fund internal improvements ⓘ improve transportation infrastructure ⓘ |
| introducedBy |
John C. Calhoun
ⓘ
Representative from South Carolina ⓘ |
| introducedIn | United States Congress ⓘ |
| introducedInChamber | United States House of Representatives ⓘ |
| legislativeOutcome | did not become law ⓘ |
| legislativeStatus | vetoed ⓘ |
| opposedBy | strict constructionists in Congress ⓘ |
| presidentialTerm |
Presidency of James Madison
ⓘ
surface form:
James Madison presidency
|
| proposedSolutionByMadison | constitutional amendment to authorize internal improvements ⓘ |
| reasonForVeto | James Madison believed Congress lacked constitutional authority to fund internal improvements without an amendment ⓘ |
| relatedInstitution | Second Bank of the United States ⓘ |
| relatedTopic |
constitutional interpretation
ⓘ
federalism in the United States ⓘ internal improvements in the United States ⓘ |
| supportedBy | nationalists favoring federal support for economic development ⓘ |
| timePeriod | Era of Good Feelings ⓘ |
| vetoDate | March 3, 1817 ⓘ |
| vetoedBy | James Madison ⓘ |
| vetoType | pocket veto status avoided by formal veto ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Bonus Bill of 1817 Description of subject: The Bonus Bill of 1817 was a proposed U.S. federal law that sought to use funds from the Second Bank of the United States to finance internal improvements like roads and canals, but became historically notable when President James Madison vetoed it on constitutional grounds.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.