lege, and the President's objection was withdrawn. The cable was laid in July, 1869; it ran from Brest, France, to St. Pierre, a French island off the southern coast of Newfoundland, thence to Duxbury, Massachusetts, and was known as the First French Cable." It soon passed, however, into the control of the Anglo-American Company, controlling the cables connecting Great Britain with this continent. (Senate Doc. 122, pp. 63, 71).

In a note respecting this cable, dated July 10, 1869, and addressed to the French and British ministers, Mr. Fish said:

"It is not doubted by this Government that the complete control of the whole subject, both of the permission and the regulation of this mode of foreign intercourse, is with the Government of the United States, and that, however suitable certain legislation on the part of a State of the Union may become, in respect to its proprietary rights in aid of such enterprises, the entire question of the allowance or prohibition of such means of foreign intercourse, commercial and political, and of the terms and conditions and its allowance, is under the control of the Government of the United States." (Senate Doc. 122, p. 65.)

In his annual message of December, 1875, President Grant recounts his action respecting the French cable of 1869, and

says:

"The right to control 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 legislation by 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 proposed. 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 established by authority of this Government to land upon French territory and to connect with French land lines, and enjoy all the necessary facilities or privileges incident to the use thereof upon as favorable terms as any other company, be conceded." (Senate Doc. 122, p. 70.)

After adverting to the need of new cables in order to provide competition and reduce rates, President Grant continues:

"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 respective States. In the absence, however, of international conventions on the subject, municipal legislation 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:

"I. 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.

"II. 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 otherwise to the satisfaction of this Government, prohibited from consolidating or amalgamating with any other cable-telegraph line or combining therewith for the purpose of regulating and maintaining the cost of telegraphing.

"III. All lines should be bound to give precedence in the transmission of the official messages of the Governments of the two countries between which it may be laid.

"IV. A power should be reserved to the two Governments, either conjointly or to each, as regards the messages dispatched from its shores, to fix a limit to the charges to be demanded for the transmission of messages.

7843-VOL 22, PT 1——2

"I present this subject to the earnest consideration of Congress.

"In the meantime, and unless Congress otherwise direct, I shall not oppose the landing of any telegraphic cable which complies with and assents to the points above enumerated, but will feel it my duty to prevent the landing of any which does not conform to the first and second points as stated, and which will not stipulate to concede to this Government the precedence in the transmission of its official messages, and will not enter into a satisfactory arrangement with regard to its charges." (Senate Doc. 122, pp. 71, 72.)

It will be observed that President Grant rested his authority to annex conditions to the landing of a foreign cable upon his power to prevent its landing altogether, if deemed by him inimical to the interests of this Government, its people, or their business. The right to prevent carried with it the right to control.

The Direct United States Cable Company completed its line in 1875 from Ballinskelligs Bay, Ireland, to Ryebeach, N. H., by way of Torbay, Nova Scotia. This cable was laid under the act of March 29, 1867 (15 Stats., 10), conferring upon the American Atlantic Cable Telegraph Company the privilege for twenty years to land a submarine telegraph cable at any place on the Atlantic coast except the coast of Florida, and to operate the same, the Government to have the preference in its use, on terms to be agreed upon between the Postmaster-General and the company, Congress reserving the right to alter, amend, or repeal the act. Application was made to the Department of State for the privilege of landing, accompanied by the voluntary assurance of the company that no amalgamation should take place with any other company for the purpose of controlling

rates.

In view of these assurances, the landing of the cable was acquiesced in by the President, Mr. Fish, in his letter to Mr. Eckert of January 2, 1877, saying:

"On receiving such assurances from the promoters of the company, the President decided to withhold resistance to the landing of their cable.

"The President adheres to the views which he expressed to Congress in December, 1875, that no line should be allowed to land on the shores of the United States which is not, by prohibition in its charter, or otherwise to the satisfaction of the Government, prohibited from consolidating or amalgamating with any other cable-telegraph line, or combining therewith for the purpose of regulating and maintaining the cost of telegraphing.

"These views are understood to have met the approval of Congress and of the people of the United States, indicated by the tacit acquiescence of the Congress, and by the expressed approval of individual members of that body, and the general approval of the public press of the country. In the same message the President announced that the right to control 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. And he further stated that, unless Congress otherwise direct, he would feel it his duty to prevent the landing of any telegraphic cable which does not conform (among others) to the point above referred to.

"The President is of the opinion that the control of the United States over its jurisdictional waters extends to the right of discontinuing and preventing their use by a cable whose proprietors may violate any of the conditions on which the Government by acquiescence or silent permission allowed its landing as well as to the resistance and prohibition of an original landing." (Senate Doc. 122, pp. 11, 12.) The so-called "Second French Cable" was laid by La Compagnie Française du Telégraphe de Paris à New York in 1879 from Brest to St. Pierre, and thence to Cape Cod. The company applied, through the French minister, to your Department for permission to land the cable, and the privilege was granted upon substantially the conditions formulated in President Grant's message of 1875, Mr. Evarts, in his letter of November 10, 1879, to Mr. Outrey, saying:

"I have, without delay, brought the subject, together with the information conveyed by your note, to the atten

tion of the President, and he authorizes me to say that in view of the assurances thus received from the French Government that reciprocal privileges of landing will be granted by France to any company which may be formed by citizens of the United States upon the same terms that these privileges are granted to the present or any future company of French citizens that may apply for such landing privilege; and having also received the acceptance by the directors of the Compagnie Française du Telégraphe de Paris à New York of the conditions prescribed by this Government, the executive permission of the Government of the United States will be granted to that company to land its cable at Cape Cod, in the State of Massachusetts. It is proper for me to add, however, that this executive permission is to be accepted and understood by the company as being subject to any future action of Congress in relation to the whole subject of submarine telegraphy as explained in my note to you of the 27th ultimo." (Senate Doc. 122, p. 76.)

The Mackey-Bennett commercial cable was laid in 1884 from the coast of Europe to the United States, by permission of the President, upon substantially the conditions outlined in President Grant's message to Congress in 1875. Mr. Frelinghuysen, in his letter of December 5, 1883, describes the attitude of the Government thus:

"This Government regards with favorable consideration all efforts to extend the facilities for telegraphic communication between the United States and other nations, and in pursuance of this sentiment the President is desirous of extending every facility in his power to promote the laying of the cables. While there is no special statute authorizing the Executive to grant permission to land a cable on the coast of the United States, neither is there any statute prohibiting such action; and I find on examination of the records of this Department that in 1875 conditional authority was given to land a French cable at Rye Beach, New Hampshire, and that in 1879 permission was given to land a cable at Cape Cod.

"These precedents seem to justify a similar concession to the promoters of the present enterprise, which there is the