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MEMORIAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Paiinctir (TrUfivuph (fompaini 
 
 AND THE 
 
 |tcir tf nulantt Wmw (tdfj^vaph (S ompauy 
 
 TO T ir IB 
 
 CONIJHESS OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 f 
 
 
 Hl.liNM^iS, »n D »t 4% . «iM i 'TH. AA^-Ui'^H. 
 
v-V *' . ^ 
 
 ►>-. 
 
 
 i: 
 

 Pem0):ial. 
 
 To THE Senate and House of Representatives of the 
 United States op America, in Conqress assembled. 
 
 The Memorial of the Magnetic Telegraph Company^ and 
 the New England Union Telegraph Company, by their 
 Joint Committee duly authorized, respectfully repre- 
 sents: 
 
 That the Magnetic Telegraph Company, whose Line 
 of Telegraph extends from Washington to New York, 
 was the first Telegraph Company organized in the United 
 States to give practical effect to Professor Morse's inven- 
 tion of the American Electro-Magnetic Telegraph, now 
 pervading the civilized world, and was soon after followed 
 by the organization of the New York and Boston Mag- 
 netic Telegraph Associp.tion, which, having been united 
 with a competing Lin<; on substantially the same route, is 
 now known by the name of the New England Union 
 Telegraph Company. 
 
 The Magnetic Telegraph Company has since, by lease, 
 obtained control of the Washington and New Orleans 
 Line, so that they now possess the Line along the Atlantic 
 coast, from New York to New Orleans. 
 
 Upon these Companies devolved the necessity of solving 
 many problems in relation to long Lines of Electric Tele- 
 graph which had hitherto been involved in doubt, and 
 
 ¥^ 
 
 aJi»; 
 
■^ K 
 
 could only be solved by expensive experiments. Scarcely, 
 hoAvever, had they begun to receive a return for their in- 
 vestments, when rival Lines sprung up, under different 
 systems of telegraphing, which the two Companies be- 
 lieved to be infringements of Morse's Patent, for the use 
 of which they had given half their stock. Expensive 
 • litigation was the consequence ; from which, however, no 
 effective protection was obtained, on account of the defect- 
 ive character of the patent laws, and the conflicting princi- 
 ples applied to their construction by the judicial tribunals. 
 Nevertheless, your Memorialists would have been con- 
 tent to carry on their business with the imperfect protec- 
 tion which the existing laws afford them, without an appeal 
 to Congress for further legislation, had they been left to 
 contend only with infringers of their patented rights, or 
 even with a full and fair domestic competition. But your 
 Memorialists represent and charge, that a combination has 
 been entered into by parties and Companies in and out of 
 the United States, endeavoring to force the Companies 
 represented by the undersigned to surrender their prop- 
 erty into the hands of such combination on their own 
 terms, or of destroying its value altogether. And your 
 Memorialists charge that this combination, through con- 
 cealment of its ultimate objects, and through representa- 
 tions and pledges of some of its active managers, pre- 
 vented your Memorialists from taking steps to protect 
 their interests, while the said combination were procuring 
 the aid of the British Province of Newfoundland, the 
 Government of Great Britain and the Government of the 
 United States. 
 
a 
 
 Your Memorialists desire to be understood as not op- 
 posed to the great enterprise of connecting Europe and 
 America by a Telegraphic Cable, nor to any assistance in 
 ships or money which their Government may think proper 
 to give it ; but they maintain that it is the duty of their 
 Government, whether they assist the enterprise or not, to 
 see that it shall not be used to oppress one interest in the 
 United States for the purpose of building up another, and 
 that this duty becomes more imperative when the Govern- 
 ment furnishes it with material aid. 
 
 Your Memorialists further represent, that the combina- 
 tion of which they complain is composed of the New York, 
 Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company, incorpo- 
 rated by the Legislature of the British Province of New- 
 foundland; the American Telegraph Company, incorpo- 
 rated under the laws of the State of New York ; and the 
 Atlantic Telegraph Company, a British Corporation, em- 
 bracing an Atlantic Telegraphic Cable from Newfound- 
 land to the coast of Ireland. Whether there is a fourth 
 party covering a Telegraph Line from the Irish terminus 
 of the proposed Atlantic Cable to the City of London, 
 your Memorialists are not advised, nor is it material. 
 
 Your Memorialists represent, that the three Telegraph 
 Companies aforesaid originated with certain capitalists in 
 the City of New York, who are stockholders in all of 
 them, and control two of them directly and absolutely, 
 and the third indirectly but effectually. The New York, 
 Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company, and the 
 American Telegraph Company, are composed mainly of 
 the same men, and are under the same control ; and the 
 
I 
 
 same men who control them are influential stockholders 
 in the Atlantic Telegraph Company, which could not 
 have existed in its present shape without their consent. 
 In fact, the Atlantic Telegraph Company and the Ame- 
 rican Telegraph Company were but parts of one scheme, 
 which was originally embraced in the Act incorporating 
 the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph 
 Company, and in interest and control they arc still parts 
 of one scheme, insomuch that the success of one contri- 
 butes, if it be not absolutely essential to, the success of 
 all ; and any aid afforded by the Government giving 
 strength to one, gives strength and power to all. 
 
 That these three Companies are one in origin and de- 
 sign, is conclusively shown by the Act of the Legislature 
 of Newfoundhind incorporating the New York, Newfound- 
 land, and London Telegraph Company, passed April 15th, 
 1854. The 14th and 18th sections of that Act are in 
 the following words, viz : 
 
 " 14th. The Corporation hereby created shall have the 
 ' sole and exclusive right to build, make, occupy, take or 
 
 * work the said Line or any Line of Telegraph between 
 
 * Saint Johns and Cape Ray, or between any other 
 ' points in this Island, (excepting only the existing Line 
 ' between Saint Johns and Carbonear,) for the full period 
 
 * of fifty years from the passing of this Act, subject, nev- 
 
 * ertheless, to the right of pre-emption by the Oovern- 
 
 * ment of this Colony, as hereinafter provided ; and during 
 
 * the said period of fifty years, no other person or per- 
 
 * sons, body or bodies politic or corporate, shall be per- 
 
 * mitted to construct, purchase, take or operate any Line 
 
 * or Lines of Telegraph on this Island, or to extend to, 
 
 * enter upon or touch any part of this Island, or the coast 
 
thereof, or of the islands or places within the jarisdiction 
 of the Government of this Colony, with any telegraphic 
 cable, wire, or other means of telegraphic communica- 
 tion, from any other island, country or place whatsoever: 
 Provided^ however, That if said Line of Telegraph shall 
 not have been completed from Saint Johns to Cape Ray, 
 or other point on the western coast of Newfoundland, 
 and a communication by telegraph across Prince Edward 
 Island, or the Island of Cape Breton or otherwise, es- 
 tablished with the Continent of America within five 
 years from the passing of this Act, the exclusive privi- 
 leges granted by this section shall cease." 
 
 " 18th. The said Company shall have power to estab- 
 lish, construct and work a Line or Lines of Telegraph 
 between Newfoundland and Ireland, or any other island, 
 place, or places in the Atlantic Ocean, or in Europe, or 
 in the United States, and to construct, purchase, and 
 work any Telegraph Line or Lines or means of communi- 
 cation in Canada, Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, 
 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the United States, 
 and in the waters adjacent to or between the said Islands, 
 Provinces or States, and between any of them and New- 
 foundland : Provided, however, That such consent as may 
 be necessary shall be first obtained of the Governments of 
 said Provinces and States, respectively; and generally 
 to purchase or hire any Line of Telegraph which may 
 now or hereafter be constructed by any person or per- 
 sons, or body or bodies politic or corporate in the United 
 States, or British Provinces of North America, or in 
 Europe, and to use the same for the transmission of 
 messages and intelligence; and they may also construct, 
 purchase, hire or use any steam or other vessels to aid 
 in the acquisition or transmission of intelligence between 
 America and Europe, or in carrying on any of the oper- 
 ations of the said Compuny." 
 
r^^ 
 
 The 14th section, it will be perceived, confers on the 
 Company an absolute monopoly for fifty years of landing 
 a Telegraphic Cable on the coasts of Newfoundland, and 
 the 18th section confers on them the power to establish 
 and work a line of Telegraph "between Newfoundland 
 and Ireland," the precise enterprise now in course of exe- 
 cution with the aid of Government by the Atlantic Tele- 
 graph Company. If the latter Company, therefore, have 
 any right to land a Telegraphic Cable on the coast of 
 Newfoundland, it must have been derived from the New- 
 foundland Company, to whom the grant was originally 
 made. 
 
 It will also be perceived, that the 18th section confers 
 on the Company power to construct, purchase, hire and 
 work Telegraph Lines in the United States as w^ell as in 
 the British Provinces. This power has not been exer- 
 cised in the United States in the name of the Newfound- 
 land Company; but the same men who control that 
 Company have organized themselves into another Com- 
 pany called the American Telegraph Company, who are, 
 in connection with the Newfoundland and Ocean Com- 
 panies, carrying into eflfect the American branch of the 
 original scheme. 
 
 Here, then, we have three Telegraph Companies carved 
 out of one. The object is the same ; but the responsibili- 
 ties are divided. The principal managers arc virtually, 
 if not identically, the same ; but they now act through 
 three organizations instead of one. These managers are 
 the principal Stockholders of the Newfoundland and 
 American Telegiaph Companies, heavy Stockholders in 
 
the Atlantic Telegraph Company, and are the orighiators 
 of the whole scheme. 
 
 If further evidence were needed to prove a community 
 of interest between these three Companies, it is found in 
 the recent proceedings of the Atlantic Telegraph Com- 
 pany in England, constituting some of the principal 
 Stockholders of the American Company, who are also 
 Stockholders of the Newfoundland Company, Honorary 
 Directors of the Atlantic Company. 
 
 If any douht could exist as to the ultimate object cf 
 this scheme, it is solved by the eiforts of its autliors to 
 hedge round the Continent and the Islands of America, 
 so as to render impracticable competition with them by 
 other Telegraph Lines across the Atlantic Ocean, and even 
 to extend their monopoly into the United States. 
 
 Their Newfoundland Monopoly is as exclusive as lan- 
 guage can make it. No other company or individual is 
 permitted to ^^ touch " the shores of that Island by a Tele- 
 graph Line of any sort. If, as has been represented, that 
 is the only point where the Ocean can be crossed by a 
 Telegraphic Cable, that grant is of itself a bar to every 
 other enterprise of the same sort. But lest it should be 
 found practicable to land a Telegraphic Cable at some 
 point further West, the managers of the Newfoundland 
 Monopoly sought to cut off the possibility of a rival Line 
 by the extension of their monopoly to the coasts of the 
 other British Provinces and the United States. 
 
 They sought, and claim to have secured, the exclusive 
 right of landing a Telegraphic Cable in the Province of 
 Nova Scotia. 
 
8 
 
 They sought, and actually procared, from the Legisla- 
 ture of the State of Maine, au Act prohibiting all other 
 parties from laying a Submarine Cable from any foreign 
 country touching the coasts of that State for twenty- 
 five years. The title of this Act, and the prohibitory 
 clause, are in the following words, viz : 
 
 "^M Act granting certain privileges to the New York, 
 Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company. 
 
 " Sec. 1. For and during the term of twenty-five years 
 ' from and after the time when the Ncvr York, Newfound- 
 ' land and London Telegraph Company, incorporated by 
 ' the Legislature of Newfoundland for the purpose among 
 
 * others of establishing a Line of Telegraphic commuuica- 
 
 * tion between America and Europe by way of Newfound- 
 ' land, shall have established, with or without tho aid of 
 
 * an associated Line or Lines, a Telegraphic communica- 
 ' tion between America and Europe, and so long during 
 ' saiv rwenty-five years as such communication :vhall be 
 ' regularly maintained by said Company, and all matters 
 ' passing thereon for the United States be transmitted 
 ' through the State of Maine upon the Lines of the Amer- 
 
 * ican Telegraph Company, as Lessees of the Maine Tele- 
 
 * graph Company, no other person or persons, body or 
 ' bodies politic or corporate, shall be permitted to extend 
 ' to, enter upon, or touch any part of the State of Maine, 
 ' or the coasts thereof, or of the Islands under its jurisdic- 
 ' tion, with any Telegraphic Cable, wire or other means 
 
 * of Telegraphic communication from any other province, 
 
 * State, County, [Country ?] or place whatsoever beyond 
 
 * the Continent of America." 
 
 This Act was approved April 10th, 1856. It does rot, 
 as the title erroneously represents, grant any privilege 
 to the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph 
 
B 
 
 Company, but merely prohibits any ether party from 
 landing a Transatlantic Tel'^^^'aph Cable in the State of 
 Maine. And thia prohibition is equally for the benefit of 
 that Company and of the American Telegraph Company, 
 for whom it purports to secure a monopoly of the foreign 
 telegraphic correspondence through the State of Maine. 
 Indeed, nothing could show more strongly than the pro- 
 curement of this Act, the identity of interest and manage- 
 ment of the American and Newfoundland Companies. 
 
 A zealous effort was made to secure similar legislation 
 in Massachusetts, but without success. 
 
 Without adverting to rumors of similar operations else- 
 where, these instances arc abundantly sufficient to show 
 the design of these parties to hedge round the Continent 
 of America by exclusive grants and prohibitions, so that 
 the United States should be unapproachable telegraphi- 
 cally otherwise than through their Line from the Coast of 
 Ireland, and through the Newfoundland and American 
 Lines chiefly owned by them or under their control ; and 
 this monopoly they are endeavoring to extend practically 
 through the several States. 
 
 Your Memorialisto further represent, that the aid of the 
 Governments of Newfoundland, of Great Britain, and of 
 the United States, has been sought and obtained to estab- 
 lish this monopoly on a basis which shall forbid all at- 
 tempts to get up competition. 
 
 The Government of Newfoundland, in addition to the 
 monopoly of fifty years* duration, gave the Company 
 about twenty-five thousand dollars in cash for clearing a 
 bridle-path necessary to the construction and repairs of 
 
their Lino of Telegraph, guaranteed six per cent, interest 
 on about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of bonds 
 issued by them, and granted them fifty square miles of 
 public lands when the Line on the Island should be com- 
 pleted and connected with the Lines on the Continent, and 
 fifty square miles more when the communication with the 
 coast of Ireland shall be established. These grants were 
 made, it Avill bo remembered, to a Company which em- 
 braced in its plan the building and hiring of Lines in the 
 United States and laying a Telegraphic Cable to the coast 
 of Ireland; and the grant of fifty square miles of the 
 land is expressly in consideration of the successful accom- 
 plishment of the latter enterprise. But whether the i-ight 
 to the lands as well as the enterprise has been transferred 
 to the Atlantic Telegraph Company, is to your Memo- 
 rialists unknown, though they have reason to believe it 
 has not ; nor do they know how or by what authority the 
 Ocean part of the original scheme has been severed from 
 the Newfoundland Company, and vested in another Com- 
 pany, though they do not doubt it was a measure pro- 
 jected and matured by the chief managers of the original 
 Company. 
 
 Your Memorialists further represent, that the plan of a 
 Transatlantic Telegraph, though perhaps originally pro- 
 jected as a noble enterprise, in which its promoters ex- 
 pected to receive their chief recompense in the glory of 
 success and the gratitude of nations, has been since con- 
 verted into an enormous scheme of monopoly, aiming to 
 control the telegraph business of the two hemispheres for 
 the purpose of securing, directly and indirectly, inordi- 
 
11 
 
 nate gains to a few individuals. The facts of the case, 
 in their estimation, warrant this conclusion. 
 
 Your Memorialists have already shown that this meas- 
 ure is but a part of a more extensive operation from which 
 it has been nominally severed, though still as effectually 
 united in interest as if it still remained under the direct 
 control of the Newfoundland Company. As a separate 
 concern, the stock of the Atlantic Telegraph Company 
 was raised, at least in part, upon the representations of a 
 Circular marked [" Private."] The amount of stock was 
 fixed at £300,000, since increased to X3o0,000, equal to 
 about $1,700,000. 
 
 That Circular represented that " upon a very moderate 
 
 * computation of profits, the capital will yield a return ex- 
 
 * ceeding 40 per cent." 
 
 These profits are not to be divided among all the Stock- 
 holders in the ordinary way ; but one-half of the amount 
 over ten per cent, is to go to four individuals, three of 
 them British subjects, and one of them a citizen of the 
 United States. 
 
 That citizen is the gentleman who procured the Act of 
 the Legislature of Newfoundland incorporating the New 
 York, Newfoundland and Loudon Telegraph Company ; 
 the same who got up the American Telegraph Company ; 
 the same who doubtless originated the present plan of the 
 Atlantic Telegraph Company ; and the same who is now 
 said to be entrusted with the duty of superintending the 
 laying of the Atlantic Cable. 
 
 Of the one-half of the profits over ten per cent, this 
 gentleman is to receive thirteen parts out of twenty-four^ 
 
 < 
 
ir 
 
 12 
 
 which, if the estimate of profits as held out to subscribers 
 shall be realized, will give him an annual income exceed- 
 ing $120,000, in addition to twenty-five per cent, upon 
 his stock in common with other Stockholders. 
 
 As this estimate was promulgated before application was 
 made to Congress for assistance, and there was no mention 
 of any bounty from the British Government, it would 
 seem that the eight per cent, per annum said to be secured 
 from the two Governments for a term of years was not 
 included in the forty per cent, estimate, and while four 
 per cent, of it is to go to swell the dividends of the Stock- 
 holders beyond twenty-five per cent., the other four is to 
 be divided — thirteen parts to the American citizen, and 
 eleven parts to the British subjects hereinbefore alluded to. 
 
 As no interest in the fifty square miles of land appro- 
 priated by the Legislature of Newfoundland to encourage 
 the laying of the Telegraphic Cable, is mentioned as vested 
 in the Atlantic Company, it is presumed that the New 
 York, Newfoundland and London Company purpose re- 
 taining the bounty, while they transfer to another Com- 
 pany the service for which it was provided. But if the 
 fifty square miles of land is to go to the Atlantic Tele- 
 graph Company, it will swell the enormous profits antici- 
 pated from other sources beyond the foregoing estimate. 
 
 Your Memorialists further represent, that the instru- 
 ment through which this combination, backed by the direct 
 aid, influence and money of the three Governments, seeka 
 lo force the New England Union and Magnetic Lines of 
 Telegraph into connection with them on their own terms, 
 under penalty of the destruction of their property in case 
 
13 
 
 of refusal, is the American Telegraph Company. This 
 Company covers a field of operations, as already shown, 
 which was embraced in the Newfoundland Act of Incorpo- 
 ration. It was gotten up by the same men who control 
 the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph 
 Company. Both Companies have the same President, are 
 composed mainly of the same Stockholders, and are under 
 the same control. 
 
 The objects of this separation have been substantially 
 avowed. If the original project had been prosecuted un- 
 der the Newfoundland Act of Incorporation, the State 
 and Federal Governments would have had direct control 
 over that Corporate Body by operating upon the Ameri- 
 can branch of their enterprise, and that control would 
 have reached the Submarine Electric Cable. But by cut- 
 ting off the American branch of the original scheme, and 
 confining the operations of the Newfoundland Company to 
 the British Provinces, that Company, as well as its other 
 branch, the Atlantic Company, are placed beyond the 
 reach of the direct legislation of the United States, and 
 of the several States through which their connecting 
 Lines may pass. And the avowed object of the chief 
 proprietors and principal managers of the Newfoundland 
 and American Companies — being in the main the same 
 men, and all or nearly all citizens of the United S^^ates — 
 is to bar all Telegraph Lines in these States, except such 
 as may be owned, controlled, or in league with them, 
 from connection with the Atlanta Cable, by means of op- 
 erations carried on by them in part beyond the jurisdic- 
 tion of their own Government, and in part by special 
 
 i i 
 
r 
 
 "TI 
 
 ^!l 
 
 il 
 
 34 
 
 grants and prohibitions procured from State Legislatures, 
 as shown in the Act of the State of Maine. 
 
 Your Memorialists charge, that backed by the New- 
 foundland monopoly, and an anticipated exclusive connec- 
 tion through that monopoly with the Atlantic Cable, the 
 authois and managers of the combined operation have at- 
 tempted to bring the principal Lines in the United States 
 under their control upon their own terms ; and, not suc- 
 ceeding in relation to the Lines represented by your Me- 
 morialists, are now employing the power thus acquired, 
 strengthened by domestic combinations and the bounty 
 of the Government, to destroy the business of said Lines 
 and render them valueless, not only by cutting them off 
 from all connection with the Atlantic Cable, but by get- 
 ting up rival Lines in the United States, and making them 
 the exclusive recipients of European Telegraphic corres- 
 pondence. 
 
 A brief history of the origin and progress of the Amer- 
 ican Telegraph Company is necessary to a clear under- 
 standing of the present position of the subject and the 
 object of this Memorial. 
 
 After the Newfoundland Company was formed, its 
 managers and most of its Stockholders, as already stated, 
 organized themselves into another Company, with a nomi- 
 nal capital of §100,000, (since increased to $200,000,) and 
 assuming the name of the American Telegraph Company 
 became a Corporation under the laws of New York. 
 
 Their first step was to make proposals to lease the ex- 
 isting Morse Lines on the Atlantic Coast, from the Brit- 
 ish Provinces to New Orleans and from New York to 
 
16 
 
 Buffalo, for an annual rent in general below their current 
 incnme. The several Companies were much inclined to 
 accede to these proposals, though there were well-grounded 
 objections in the small capital of the new Company to 
 the security for the rents ; but before they had time to 
 consider and act upon the proposals, the American Com- 
 pany suddenly withdrcAV them. 
 
 The next step of the American Company was to pur- 
 chase a new and untried Telegraph instrument; and 
 while they were spending hundreds and thousands of dol- 
 lars upon it to make it of any use, they silently allowed 
 the Agent of the Associated Press, of or through whom 
 they had made the purchase, to fill the country with mis- 
 representations in relation to its powers and performances, 
 and to announce their purpose to establish new Lines of 
 Telegraph along the principal commercial routes in the 
 United States in competition with the existing Lines. 
 
 When these publications, suffered to pass by them 
 without contradiction, had circulated long enough to 
 thoroughly alarm the Stockholders of existing Lines, the 
 American Company came forward with a new set of pro- 
 posals to rent them on terms much reduced below those 
 w^hich they had withdrawn. Convinced that the policy 
 of the American Company was to force them into a sur- 
 render of their property through fear of destruction in 
 case of refusal, the Companies addressed, with a natural 
 repugnance to such a system of coercion, rejected these 
 new proposals. 
 
 In the mean time the American Company rented the 
 Maine Line, taking into their service the President and 
 
w 
 
 Superintendent of that Line, thereby effecting a connec- 
 tion between the City of Boston and the British Provinces. 
 
 Not succeeding in securing, by lease, control of any 
 considerable Line south of Boston, the American Com- 
 pany purchased an existing Lino between that City and 
 New York, and entered into competition with the New 
 England Union Line between those Cities. This was the 
 condition of Telegraph matters, as between the American 
 Company and the Companies represented by your Memo- 
 rialists, when the Atlantic Telegraph Company made 
 application to Congress for the aid and bounty of the 
 Government. 
 
 The community of interests between that Company and 
 the American Company, is proved by tlie fact that this 
 application was made through the President and princi- 
 pal Stockholders A' the latter Company, who visited and 
 spent much time in Washington to promote the passage 
 of the bill. 
 
 Your Memorialists further represent, that some of the 
 Stockholders of the Magnetic Telegraph Company, appre- 
 hensive that the power which in anticipation was already 
 used against them, and might hereafter be used against 
 the commercial and political interests of their country, 
 would be greatly strengthened should Congress accede to 
 this application, interposed to prevent its success, and for 
 a time its fate became doubtful. 
 
 Your Memorialists charge, and are prepared to prove, 
 that in this emergency the principal manager of the ap- 
 plication on the part of the Atlantic Company, who is 
 also one of the chief managers of the American and 
 
Newfoundland Companies, and a large Stockholder in all 
 three of them, accompanied hy a British Stockholder in 
 the Atlantic Company, called on some of the most influ- 
 ential Stockholders of the Magnetic Company, and by 
 pledges that the Atlantic Cable should not be so managed 
 as to affect injuriously the interests of the Magnetic Com- 
 pany, prevented the interposition of the said Stockholders 
 in opposition to the passage of the bill then before Con- 
 gress. And they further charge, that within less than 
 {'our months thereafter, in anticipation of the immediate 
 successful laying of the Atlantic Cable, these pledges 
 were falsified by one of the men who made them and his 
 associates in the American Company, who entered into 
 arrangements, the palpable object of which is, to use the 
 power anticipated from the absolute control by their three 
 coiubined Companies over the transatlantic correspondence 
 for the injury, and, if practicable, the destruction of the 
 Lines owned and controlled by the Magnetic Telegraph 
 Company, as well as those owned and controlled by the 
 New England Union Telegraph Company. These ar- 
 rangements were made secretly during the pendency of 
 negotiations, with a view of securing to the Magnetic 
 Company that position in relation to the Atlantic Cable 
 which had been pledged to them at Washington, as well 
 as to put an end to telegraphic warfare. And in pursu- 
 ance of those arrangements, the American Company have 
 established a Line from New York to Philadelphia, and 
 avow a design to extend it further South, for the purpose, 
 not only of monopolizing the European correspondence, 
 but depriving the Magnetic Company of its local business. 
 
?^(S5r!ByS5B!WBP"il^WWPPIIP( 
 
 Your Memorialists further represent, that the arrange- 
 ments thus secretly entered into were afterwards publicly 
 ratified, and that they provide in effect for cutting off the 
 Companies represented by your Memorialists for thirty 
 years from business reaching the Continent of America by 
 the Atlantic Cable; and to make the exclusion more effect- 
 ive they contemplate the extension of the American Lines 
 along the Atlantic Coast south to New Orleans. Finding 
 their very existence thus threatened, the Magnetic and 
 New England Union Companies combined together for 
 mutual defence for a like term of thirty years, and made 
 contracts of the same duration for connections with other 
 Lines. It soon became evident that the American Com- 
 pany and their allies, foreign and domestic, were not to 
 destroy the Magnetic and New England Union Lines 
 without a severe and expensive struggle, when that Com- 
 pany indicated a willingness to amalgamate the three 
 Companies. While some of the Stockholders of the two 
 former Companies were willing to attempt a removal of 
 the obstacles which had been created by contracts on both 
 sides for exclusive connections for thirty years, others 
 thought the attempt useless, and for that and other rea- 
 sons the project was not entertained. 
 
 Your Memorialists further represent, that by a contract 
 of the Maine Telegraph Company, entered into before the 
 lea.se of their Line to the American Telegraph Company, 
 the Maine Line of Telegraph was bound to a perpetual 
 connection with the New England Union Company at 
 Boston to the extent of returning that Company as much 
 business from the East as they niight receive by it from 
 
the West, and this contract, at the time of the lease, the 
 American Company became bound to fulfil in good faith. 
 But since they purchased a Line for their own use from 
 Boston to New York, they have, under various pretexts, 
 refused to fulfil this contract so far as it relates to busi- 
 ness from beyond Portland, thus cutting off the New 
 England Union Line and its connections from all business 
 coming from points East of that City in the United 
 States, in the British Provinces, and from Europe through 
 the Atlantic Cable. 
 
 Your Memorialists further represent, that the Act of 
 Congress, approveu March 3d, 1857, " to expedite Tele- 
 graphic communication for the uses of the (iovernment 
 in its foreign intercourse," provides for a contract "with 
 any competent person, persons or association," for the aid 
 of the Government in laying the Submarine Cable and for 
 its use, paying therefor $70,000 per year until the net in- 
 come of said parties shall be six per cent., and afterwards 
 $50,000 per annum for twenty-five years. As the persons 
 constituting the New York, Newfoundland and London 
 Telegraph Company, have the exclusive right of landing 
 a Telegraph Cable on the Coast of Newfoundland, and 
 those persons are in the main the same who constitute the 
 American Telegraph Company, it is evident that this libe- 
 ral grant is for the benefit of the individuals composing 
 the latter Company as much as the former. If the New- 
 foundland Company have ceded their exclusive right to 
 the Atlantic Company, it is not likely to have been done 
 without a consideration of which a part would accrue to 
 the principal Stockholders in the American Company, and 
 
MF 
 
 20 
 
 in any event the bounty of the Government will go to 
 strengthen each of the combined Companies through 
 those individuals who are heavy Stockholders in them all. 
 But if the profits of the Atlantic Company shall equal 
 even less than one-half of the estimate of its projectors, 
 then thirteen dollars out of forty-eight of the Government 
 appropriations, both of Great Britain and the United 
 States, will accrue to a citizen of New York, who is be- 
 lieved to be financially the projector of the whole scheme, 
 and is notoriously the life and soul of each and -11 of the 
 three Companies which compose it. 
 
 Your Memorialists are not disposed to complain of any 
 thing their Government may be inclined to do in promot- 
 ing or rewarding this great enterprise ; all that they de- 
 sire and ask is, that the parties thus strengthened and 
 enriched, shall not be permitted to exercise the power 
 thus acquired for the oppression and destruction of the 
 Companies which they represent, and the foregoing de- 
 tail of facts has been given merely to show the extent of 
 that power and the use which is already made of it. 
 
 The Act of Congress above alluded to, contains the fol- 
 lowing Proviso, viz : 
 
 " Provided further, That the United States, and the 
 ' citizens thereof, shall enjoy the use of said submarine 
 
 * communication for all time on the same terms and con- 
 ' ditions which shall be stipulated in favor of the Govern- 
 
 * ment of Great Britain, and the subjects thereof, recog- 
 
 * nising equality of rights among the citizens of the 
 ' United States in the use of the said submarine commu- 
 *■ nication, and the Lines of Telegraph which may at any 
 ' time connect with the same at its terminus on the Coast 
 
21 
 
 ' of Newfoundland and in the United States, in any con- 
 * tract so to be entered into by such person, persons or 
 ^ asssociation with that Government." 
 
 Your Memorialists are already admonished that the 
 " equality of rights" seemingly provided for in this proviso 
 is, so far as their Companies are concerned, wholly illusory. 
 
 No Line other than that of the Newfoundland Company 
 can connect with the Submarine Cable, on account of their 
 monopoly. 
 
 No Line but that of the American Company can con- 
 nect with the Newfoundland Line, because both virtually 
 belong to and are managed by the same men. 
 
 Members of the American Company have already de- 
 nied the right of any other Telegraph Lines to insist on a 
 reciprocal connection with the Submarine Cable through 
 the Newfoundland and their own Lines for the purpose of 
 sending and receiving intercontinental messages, claiming 
 that privilege as a portion of their own property. And 
 by this exclusive connection, as well as by the legislation 
 of the State of Maine, the managers of the scheme vir- 
 tually extend their Newfoundland monopoly through the 
 British Provinces and into the United States ; for though 
 messages going to Europe may be delivered to them at 
 any of their stations in the United States, all messages 
 from Europe to any of their stations or stations of par- 
 ties in alliance with them, will be sent to their own Lines, 
 the practical effect of which will soon be to make the 
 Lines of the American Company in the United States the 
 exclusive channels of European telegraphic correspond- 
 ence. 
 
iUlUllfilUlSfflHSHIPaBBPiHli^lii" 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 22 
 
 But if the " equality of rights" mentioned in the pro- 
 viso includes a right of Telegraph Lines in the United 
 States to a reciprocal connection with the Submarine Ca- 
 ble through connecting Lines for business both ways, it is 
 a right depending on a contract to which the American 
 and Newfoundland Companies are not proposed to be 
 parties, and of course it will impose upon them no obliga- 
 tion. And the Atlantic Company is in no shape bound to 
 secure access to its OAvn terminus, and if it were, could be 
 held responsible, a^ the m..tter now stands, only by the 
 withdrawal of the future bounty of the Government. 
 
 Your Memorialists neither ask nor desire the interposi- 
 tion of Congress to protect them against competition in the 
 United States. They neither ask nor desire the with- 
 drawal of the aid of the Government from the Atlantic 
 Telegraph Company, ' its refusal to any other Company 
 which may be organized to span the Ocean with a Line of 
 Telegraph. All they ask is to be protected against com- 
 binations for the purpose of oppressing or destroying them 
 between parties operating in the United States and out of 
 the United States, and to be put on an equal footing, with 
 all others in their connection with foreign Lines entering 
 the United States by sea or land. 
 
 This protection your Memorialists are advised it is the 
 province of Congress to afford them, by virtue of their 
 constitutional power to regulate trade and intercourse 
 with foreign nations. And they appeal the more confi- 
 dently for this protection on account of the aid granted 
 by Congress to the combination against them, increasing 
 their po\ver to oppress. 
 
23 
 
 Your Memorialists, therefore, pray fr r the passage of a 
 general law which shall prevent combinations between 
 Citizens or Companies in the United States, and Monop- 
 olists or Companies out of the United States for the 
 purpose of oppressing Telegraph Companies and monop- 
 olizing the business of telegraphing in the United States, 
 and shall enable all Telegrapli Lines in the United States 
 to form connections with all Telegraph Lines approaching 
 their borders on terms of perfect eciualitj. 
 
 Your Memorialists are the more emboldened to present 
 this prayer, from the consideration, that the monopoly of 
 telegraphic intercourse between, if not throughout the 
 Old and New Worlds, now sought to be established, may be 
 applied with fearful effect to the commercial and political 
 as well as telf^graphic interests of the United States, 
 unless regulated by law. 
 
 March 10, 1858. 
 
 AMOS KENDALL, 
 SAMUEL C. BISHOP, 
 ZE^^US BARNUM, 
 
 Committee of the Magnetic Telegraph Company. 
 
 FRANCIS 0. J. SMITH, 
 H. M. SCHIEFFELIN, 
 Committee of the New England Union 
 
 Telegraph Company.