ims on account of acts committed against their persons or
property during the rebellion, as also to those subjects of Great
Britain whose claims, having arisen subsequent to the 9th day of April,
1865, could not be presented to the late commission organized pursuant
to the provisions of the treaty of Washington.

The electric telegraph has become an essential and indispensable agent
in the transmission of business and social messages. Its operation on
land, and within the 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 government.

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 between 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 the practicability of maintaining such means of
communication. The cost of correspondence 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, however, a heavy charge
upon a means of communication 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 conviction 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 a long 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. T