capacity of said line, at such rates of compensation for messages transmitted as Congress may by law provide.

Fourthly. That thereupon, and in consideration of such free use and said reservation, the government shall permit the parties to select from the public lands not before sold or appropriated in the territories, along and within fifteen miles of said line of telegraph, any quantity, not more than a section and in alternate sections, two millions of acres, which shall then be conveyed to them.

The citizens of the United States residing upon the Pacific coast have the strongest ties connecting them with the older States. They have established themselves there, organized a powerful State, and are rapidly creating a commerce reaching to the islands and the Asiatic coast. Their peculiar position gives them claims of an imperative character upon the protection and care of the government. Europe is extending lines of telegraph into Asia and Africa, and lines of great length have been constructed in India. When this proposed link shall be completed, the Pacific ocean will be touched upon either shore by lines which, spanning continents, reach to the opposite shores of the Atlantic ocean, and are destined, perhaps, to cross the latter and unite together.

The benefits which will follow the execution of this enterprise cannot be partial or sectional; they must necessarily be of incalculable national importance, and the moral influences resulting therefrom will be coextensive with the world of civilization and commerce. The results of such a work can hardly be overrated, in the enlivening spirit which it will infuse into the business and other relations existing between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, in its influence upon the varied interests of that vast population which is destined so soon to occupy every part of the territory embraced within the limits of the republic, and in the facilities which it will be able to render the government in peace and

While immense advantages must flow from the construction of the proposed line, your committee are not aware that a single evil can; and objections, if any there be, must be directed against the mode recommended to insure its success, rather than the object sought to be accomplished.

It may be contended that the precise point for the location of the line, at its eastern terminus, should be fixed in the bill. This is not important. It is left discretionary with the memorialists to commence from "such point on the Mississippi or Missouri rivers as they may hereafter select." It will undoubtedly be for their interest to start from some prominent point of population and business. The best route cannot be determined upon without an examination and survey; and as the public interests cannot suffer thereby, it is thought expedient to leave the eastern terminus and general direction of the line entirely open. The fact that from the point selected for an eastern terminus, wherever it may be, diverging lines running in any direction may and will be made to connect with it, is a sufficient answer to any desire for fixing it in the bill.

It has been said that the building of a telegraph line to the Pacific should be connected with that of a railroad; and, further, that the construction of a telegraph line, as an independent measure, will be mark

ing out a line for the Pacific railroad. The force of these objections is not seen by the committee. If the telegraph is to await the construction of the railroad, it is evident that its completion must be postponed for some years, even if the latter be commenced immediately, while two years will suffice for the construction of the former. The plan of the memorialists cannot mark out the route for a railroad, or influence the decision of that question, for the reason that the straightest practicable line between the termini is the most desirable. It would cross mountains, valleys, and rivers, in directions utterly unsuitable and impracticable for the route of a railroad; its location would be controlled by other considerations than those of grades, bridges, excavations, and embankments, which must enter so largely into the location of the former. Connect the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by telegraph communication, and the impulse which it will give to business, and that great tide of emigration setting towards California, will add to the necessity for railroad communication. In this instance, the telegraph should precede the railway.

The bill provides that the telegraph line shall be completed within two years from its passage, and after such State legislation shall have been secured as may be necessary to authorize its construction in the States through which it may pass. The parties having had much experience in similar undertakings, have full confidence in their success and their ability to complete the work within the time specified. The benefits, therefore, which will accrue from this measure, are not to be postponed to an indefinite future; they are close at hand and within our immediate grasp.

The line is to be constructed in the most permanent manner, with two independent conductors, placed under ground, where they will be exempt from all the causes which operate to prevent the efficiency and reliability of lines constructed in the ordinary way. The wires are to be so completely protected by the insulating material, itself imperishable, that they will not corrode; and, being securely placed in the earth, no accidental breaking can occur. The electrical state of the atmosphere, or the most violent storms, can have no effect to interrupt the working of lines thus laid down. The plan proposed also includes the location of testing-tubes at intervals of five miles, and working stations at average distances of one hundred miles. Under such arrangements, should the line from any cause be interrupted, it could be speedily repaired. The parties are entirely confident that they will be able to work the line at all times as readily as air-lines are operated in the most favorable weather, and consequently that they can always transmit despatches directly through. This mode of construction, which has been attended with satisfactory success in Europe, will, it is confidently believed, secure all the advantages claimed for it by the memorialists, who have a practical knowledge of the building and operating lines of telegraph; being connected with the management of some of the best regulated telegraph companies in the country. The bill provides for two lines of wire, which will insure the transaction. of a larger amount of business, and a degree of certainty and reliability to the government and the citizen in the transmission of despatches,

which might, for obvious reasons, be sometimes interrupted if the dependence was upon but one line of wire.

A subterranean line of two wires, such as the bill provides for, is estimated to cost eleven hundred and fifty dollars per mile. Calling the distance twenty-four hundred miles, the entire cost of the line, including the buildings necessary at the working stations, together with incidental expenses to be incurred in its construction, such as explorations and engineering, land transportation of materials, cost of supplies, and erection of forts to protect way stations, would be not less than two million seven hundred and sixty thousand dollars. The annual cost of operating the line is estimated at three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Fifty operators will be necessary, and a force of two hundred and fifty other men will be required, constantly in the work of repairing and protecting the line. These men will be posted in small parties at the different working stations. It is proposed to have a double set of operators, so that the line may be worked by night as well as by day.

The value of the lands located along and near the telegraph line, if estimated as the government valued its bounty lands given to its soldiers in the Mexican war, when it commuted with them, giving one hundred dollars in scrip, or one hundred and sixty acres of land, would be only at the rate of sixty-two and a half cents per acre. Valuing the proposed grant of two millions of acres at the same rate, it would be worth twelve hundred and fifty thousand dollars, considerably less than one-half the estimated cost of the line. It should be remembered that the bill confines the grant to the Territories, while those soldiers had the right of locating in both Territories and States. It is thought, therefore, that the sum of twelve hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a fair valuation of their worth, if estimated as aid in the construction of the line. These lands are so far remote that it must be years before they can become of value to the government. No person could afford to purchase them at the government price of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and retain them until they became marketable; he never would realize the cost and interest. The value to the government of the privilege of transmitting without charge eight thousand words per month is, at the rates named in the bill, equal to a yearly interest account of one hundred thousand dollars, a sum equivalent to an annual interest at eight per centum on the value of two millions of acres of land according to the foregoing estimate. In addition to this privilege, the government is to have the prior use of the line for all its business, without restriction, at rates to be established by itself.

The principle so frequently regarded of selecting alternate sections where grants have been made by the government, in aid of great works of public importance, is incorporated into this bill.

It may be inquired why the government is asked to aid in this enterprise? The answer is clear, and, we think, satisfactory. Telegraphic lines are of recent origin, and the profits of their business uncertain. As an investment, they have not yet acquired that favor with the public which will induce the capitalist to take stock in a line like the proposed, running thousands of miles through a savage country. It is believed that the numerous telegraphic lines put in operation in this

country, exceeding in their aggregate length the united lines of all other countries, have not, on the whole, been a profitable investment to those interested. This project does not hold out sufficient grounds for success as a profitable investment, to induce subscriptions, without government encouragement. Without that assistance, it is not to be expected that a telegraph line, as an independent measure, can, for years to come, be carried through with reasonable hopes of remuneration for the outlay of capital which would be required. A grant of land under the conditions named, will give to the enterprise a degree of confidence in the public estimation which cannot otherwise be created. It will give those engaged in it a credit and responsibility which will enable them to command means at once to carry on the work to an early completion, and overcome a great many obstacles which would be fatal to its success, if confined strictly to the efforts of private enterprise alone.

The aid of the government is invoked. Can it be granted with safety and security to the public interests? It is evident that it can. It is provided in the bill that no lands can be selected until after the completion of the line, and the free use of it tendered to the government. This condition is ample security. Again, it is provided that the line becomes forfeited to the government, in case of neglect on the part of the memorialists to operate it for a period of six months after its completion. The proposed grant in aid of the undertaking is not a gift of a portion of the public lands, but such a disposition of them as will confer great and lasting advantages to the citizen and the government. Looking at it in a pecuniary point of view, it is an investment by the government, upon which it will annually receive, in the transmission of its various orders, civil, military, and naval, a consideration of eight per centum on the value of the lands appropriated. This privilege, together with the "further prior use, to any extent within the capacity of the line, at such rates of compensation for messages transmitted as Congress may by law provide," are not of a temporary character; they are perpetual. The risk, labor, and responsibility, are all upon the side of the memorialists. The government incurs no expense in the construction of the line; in a word, it hazards nothing.

The committee report back the Senate bill with amendments, with a recommendation that they be adopted, and that the bill, thus amended, do pass.

IN SENATE-February 8, 1853.

The Committee on Territories, to whom was referred the memorial of Hiram 0. Alden and James Eddy, asking for the right of way for a telegraph to the Pacific, and a grant of land in aid of the construction of such telegraph, having considered the same, beg leave to report:

The memorialists are practically acquainted with the construction and working of telegraphs, having built one of the most permanent and efficient lines in the country-one of them being president, and the

other superintendent, of the line. Inquiries satisfactorily answered have established the competency of these persons to build and manage a line to the Pacific, should Congress deem it expedient that such a line should be constructed under national auspices.

The telegraph which the memorialists propose to build is to be subterranean, made of imperishable materials, and perfectly insulated. A line on poles, in the ordinary manner, is, for the tract of country over which it is proposed to build, simply useless. Atmospheric electricity, fires on the prairie, the thunder-storms among the mountains, herds of buffalo, the necessities of the emigrant, are considerations sufficient to establish that the working of a line in the air would be impracticable. Subterranean telegraphs, tried with indifferent success in this country, have been found to work well abroad. Long lines in the kingdom of Prussia, especially, 'attest the practicability and superior working capacity of the subterranean telegraph.

As to a grant of land along the line of the telegraph, your committee are decidedly disposed to recommend it. The land is worth nothing now to the government, but doubtless will be of value in the hands of these memorialists and their associates when the line shall have been built. Your committee are advised, in regard to telegraph enterprises in this country, that they are by no means certain paying investments. They understand that on the stock of some of the most important lines in the country no dividend is paid. On the other hand, other lines pay a handsome dividend. Some lines are valueless. Many of them have been dead failures, and the lines have been taken down. Such being the character of telegraph stock, it will be seen that the request of these memorialists for a grant of land by which they may call capital to their aid, considering the national character of the work, is by no means unreasonable; and your committee do not hesitate to recommend such an appropriation, with the best conditions which are wont to be annexed to such grants.

The advantages of this telegraph to the government, the convenience and facility it will give them in communicating with their officers on the Pacific coast and in the intervening territories, cannot well be overestimated. Orders from the War, Navy, Treasury, Interior, and Post Office Departments would be found going over this line, to the great advantage of the several services. Accidents in California-demonstrations which, before we hear from them, have hardened into history-could be arrested or prevented by the aid of the telegraph. The movements of hostile Indian tribes and of our troops could be daily known at the War Department. Should a national vessel cast anchor in the harbor of San Francisco, her arrival would be known at the department here almost as soon as a boat from her could reach the shore. By the facilities this line furnishes for giving orders from the departments, the great delays now experienced, and the necessity of special messengers, would be avoided.

In the coast survey, which is already begun on the Pacific side, the telegraph is invaluable. The speed and accuracy by which the longitude can be determined, has made it, for the uses of the survey, almost indispensable. We state, on information furnished by intelligent officers connected with the survey, that the observations of one night