he 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. As the result thereof
the company in question renounced the exclusive privilege, and the
representative of France was informed that, understanding this
relinquishment to be construed as granting the entire reciprocity and
equal facilities which had been demanded, the opposition to the landing
of the cable was withdrawn. The cable, under this French concession,
was landed in the month of July, 1869, and has been an efficient and
valuable agent of communication between this country and the other
continent. It soon passed under the control, however, of those who
had the management of the cable connecting 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
direct