660 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



extension, to enable the court to dispose of all of 

 the claims which have been presented. 



I recommend the legislation which may be deemed 

 proper to enable the court to complete the work be- 

 fore it. 



I recommend that some suitable provision be 

 made, by tLe creation of a special court or by con- 

 ferring the necessary jurisdiction upon some appro- 

 priate tribunal, for the consideration and determina- 

 tion of the claims of aliens against the Government 

 of the United States which have arisen within some 

 reasonable limitation of time, or which may here- 

 after arise, excluding all claims barred by treaty 

 provisions or otherwise. It has been found impos- 

 sible to give proper consideration to these claims by 

 the Executive Departments of the Government. 

 Such a tribunal would afford an opportunity to aliens 

 other than British subjects to present their claims on 

 account of acts committed against their persons or 

 property during the rebellion, as also to those sub- 

 jects ot Great Britain whose claims, having arisen 

 subsequent to the 9th day of April, 1865, could not 

 be presented to the late commission organized pur- 

 suant to the provisions of the Treaty of Washing- 

 ton. 



The electric telegraph has become an essential and 

 indispensable agent in the transmission of business 

 and social messages. Its operation on land, and 

 within tne limit of particular States, is necessarily 

 under the control of the jurisdiction within which it 

 operates. The lines on the high-seas, however, are 

 not subject to the particular control of any one gov- 

 ernment. 



In 1869 a concession was granted by the French 

 Government to a company which proposed to lay a 

 cable from the shores of France to the United States. 

 At that time there was a telegraphic connection be- 

 tween the United States and the continent of Europe 

 (through the possessions of Great Britain at either 

 end of the line), under the control of an association 

 which had, at large outlay of capital and at great 

 risk, demonstrated th practicability of maintaining 

 such means of communication. The cost of corre- 

 spondence by this agency was great, possibly not too 

 large at the time for a proper remuneration for so 

 hazardous and so costly an enterprise. It was, how- 

 ever, a heavy charge upon a means of communica- 

 tion which the progress in the social and commercial 

 intercourse of the world found to be a necessity, and 

 the obtaining of this French concession showed that 

 other capital than that already invested was ready 

 to enter into competition, with assurance of adequate 

 return for their outlay. Impressed with the convic- 

 tion that the interests, not only of the people of the 

 United States, but of the world at large, demanded, 

 or would demand, the multiplication of such means 

 of communication between separated continents, I 

 was desirous that the proposed connection should 

 be made ; but certain provisions of this concession 

 were deemed by me to be objectionable, particularly 

 one which gave for along term of years the exclusive 

 right of telegraphic communication by submarine 

 cable between the shores of France and the United 

 States. I could not concede that any power should 

 claim the right to land a cable on the shores of the 

 United States, and at the same time deny to the 

 United States, or to its citizens or grantees, an equal 

 right to land a cable on its shores. The right to con- 

 trol the conditions for the laying of a cable within 

 the jurisdictional waters of the United States, to 

 connect our shores with those of any foreign state, 

 pertains exclusively to the Government of the United 

 States, under such limitations and conditions as 

 Congress may impose. In the absence of legisla- 

 tion bv Congress, I was unwilling, on the one hand, 

 to yield to a foreign state the right to say that its 

 grantees might land on our shores, while it denied 

 a similar right to our people to land on its shores ; 

 and, on the other hand, I was reluctant to deny to 

 the great interests of the world and of civilization 



the facilities of such communication as were pro- 

 posed. I therefore withheld any resistance to the 

 landing of the cable on condition that the offensive 

 monopoly feature of the concession be abandoned, 

 and that the right of any cable which may be estab- 

 lished by authority of this Government to land upon 

 French territory, and to connect with French land- 

 lines, and enjoy all the necessary facilities or privi- 

 leges incident to the use thereof upon as favorable 

 terms as any other company, be conceded. As the 

 result thereof the company in question renounced 

 the exclusive privilege, and the representative of 

 France was informed that, understanding this re- 

 linquishment to be construed as granting the entire 

 reciprocity and equal facilities which had been de- 

 manded, the opposition to the landing of the cable 

 was withdrawn. The cable, under this French con- 

 cession, was landed in the month of July, 1869, and 

 has been an efficient and valuable agent of commu- 

 nication between this country and the other conti- 

 nent. It soon passed under the control, however, 

 of those who had the management of the cable con- 

 necting Great Britain with this continent, and thus 

 whatever benefit to the public might have ensued 

 from competition between the two lines was lost, 

 leaving only the greater facilities of an additional 

 line, and the additional security in case of accident 

 to one of them. But these increased facilities and 

 this additional security, together with the control 

 of the combined capital of the two companies, gave 

 also greater power to prevent the future construction 

 of other lines, and to limit the control of telegraphic 

 communication between the two continents to those 

 possessing the lines already laid. Within a few 

 months past a cable has been laid, known as the 

 United States Direct Cable Company, connecting 

 the United States directly with Great Britain. As 

 soon as this cable was reported to be laid and in 

 working order, the rates of the then existing con- 

 solidated companies were greatly reduced. Soon, 

 however, a break was announced in this new cable, 

 and immediately the rates of the other line, which 

 had been reduced, were again .raised. This cable 

 being now repaired, the rates appear not to be re- 

 duced by either line from those formerly charged by 

 the consolidated companies. 



There is reason to oelieve that large amounts of 

 capital, both at home and abroad, are ready to seek 

 profitable investment in the advancement of this 

 useful and most civilizing means of intercourse and 

 correspondence. They await, however, the assur- 

 ance of the means and conditions on which they 

 may safely be made tributary to the general good. 



As these cable telegraph-lines connect separate 

 states, there are questions as to their organization 

 and control which probably can be best, if not 

 solely, settled by conventions between the respec- 

 tive states. In the absence, however, of interna- 

 tional conventions on the subject, municipal legisla- 

 tion may secure many points which appear to me 

 important, if not indispensable for the protection of 

 the public against the extortions which may result 

 from a monopoly of the right of operating cable- 

 telegrams, or from a combination between several 

 lines : 



1. No line should be allowed to land on the shores 

 of the United States under the concession from 

 another power, which does not admit the right of 

 any other line or lines, formed in the United States, 

 to land and freely connect with and operate through 

 its land-lines. 



2. No line should be allowed to land on the 

 shores of the United States which is not by treaty 

 stipulation with the government from whose shores 

 it proceeds, or by prohibition in its charter, or other- 

 wise to the satisfaction of this Government, prohib- 

 ited from consolidating or amalgamating with any 

 other cable telegraph-line, or combining therewith 

 for the purpose of regulating and maintaining the 

 cost of telegraphing. 



