I directed the withdrawal of all opposition by the United States authorities to the landing of the cable and to the working of it until the meeting of Congress.  I regret to say that there has been no modification made in the company’s concession, nor, so far as I can learn, have they attempted to secure one.  Their concession excludes the capital and the citizens of the United States from competition upon the shores of France.  I recommend legislation to protect the rights of citizens of the United States, as well as the dignity and sovereignty of the nation, against such an assumption.  I shall also endeavor to secure, by negotiation, an abandonment of the principle of monopolies in ocean telegraphic cables.  Copies of this correspondence are herewith furnished.

The unsettled political condition of other countries, less fortunate than our own, sometimes induces their citizens to come to the United States for the sole purpose of becoming naturalized.  Having secured this, they return to their native country and reside there, without disclosing their change of allegiance.  They accept official positions of trust or honor, which can only be held by citizens of their native land; they journey under passports describing them as such citizens; and it is only when civil discord, after perhaps years of quiet, threatens their persons or their property, or when their native state drafts them into its military service, that the fact of their change of allegiance is made known.  They reside permanently away from the United States, they contribute nothing to its revenues, they avoid the duties of its citizenship, and they only make themselves known by a claim of protection.  I have directed the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States to scrutinize carefully all such claims for protection.  The citizen of the United States, whether native or adopted, who discharges his duty to his country, is entitled to its complete protection.  While I have a voice in the direction of affairs I shall not consent to imperil this sacred right by conferring it upon fictitious or fraudulent claimants.

On the accession of the present Administration it was found that the minister for North Germany had made propositions for the negotiation of a convention for the protection of emigrant passengers, to which no response had been given.  It was concluded that to be effectual all the maritime powers engaged in the trade should join in such a measure.  Invitations have been extended to the cabinets of London, Paris, Florence, Berlin, Brussels, The Hague, Copenhagen, and Stockholm to empower their representatives at Washington to simultaneously enter into negotiations and to conclude with the United States conventions identical in form, making uniform regulations as to the construction of the parts of vessels to be devoted to the use of emigrant passengers, as to the quality and quantity of food, as to the medical treatment of the sick, and as to the rules to be observed during the voyage, in order to secure ventilation, to promote health, to prevent intrusion, and to protect the females; and providing for the establishment of tribunals in the several countries for enforcing such regulations by summary process.