[216] Congress granted the Second Bank of the United States a twenty-five-year charter[215] and passed the Tariff of 1816, which set high import duties for all goods that were produced outside the United States.[216] Madison approved federal spending on the Cumberland Road, which provided a link to the country's western lands;[217] however, in his last act before leaving office, he blocked further federal spending on internal improvements by vetoing the Bonus Bill of 1817 arguing that it unduly exceeded the limits of the General Welfare Clause concerning such improvements.[218]

Native American policy
Further information: Treaty of Fort Wayne (1809) and Tecumseh's War
The Battle of Tippecanoe took place in the Northwest Territory on November 7, 1811.
Upon becoming president, Madison said the federal government's duty was to convert Native Americans by the "participation of the improvements of which the human mind and manners are susceptible in a civilized state".[171] In 1809, Harrison began to push for a treaty to open more land for white American settlement. The Miami, Wea, and Kickapoo were vehemently opposed to selling any more land around the Wabash River.