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378
The Story of the Atlantic Telegraph
·
Henry M. Field
95
Probably
no
measure
was
ever
introduced
in
Congress
for
the
help
of
any
commercial
enterprise,
that
some
member,
imagining
that
it
was
to
benefit
a
particular
section,
did
not
object
that
it
was
"unconstitutional"!
This
objection
was
well
answered
in
this
case
by
Mr.
Benjamin,
of
Louisiana,
who
asked:
"If
we
have
a
right
to
hire
a
warehouse
at
Port
Mahon,
in
the
Mediterranean,
for
storing
naval
stores,
have
we
not
a
right
to
hire
a
company
to
carry
our
messages?
I
should
as
soon
think
of
questioning
the
constitutional
power
of
the
Government
to
pay
freight
to
a
vessel
for
carrying
its
mail-bags
across
the
ocean,
as
to
pay
a
telegraph
company
a
certain
sum
per
annum
for
conveying
its
messages
by
the
use
of
the
electric
telegraph."
This
touched
the
precise
ground
on
which
the
appropriation
was
asked.
In
their
memorial
to
the
President,
the
Company
had
said:
"Such
a
contract
will,
we
suppose,
fall
within
the
provisions
of
the
Constitution
in
regard
to
postal
arrangements,
of
which
this
is
only
a
new
and
improved
form."
Mr.
Bayard,
of
Delaware,
explained
in
the
same
terms
the
nature
of
the
proposed
agreement:
"It
is
a
mail
operation.
It
is
a
Post-Office
arrangement.
It
is
for
the
transmission
of
intelligence,
and
that
is
what
I
understood
to
be
the
function
of
the
Post-Office
Department.
I
hold
it,
therefore,
to
be
as
legitimately
within
the
proper
powers
of
the
Government,
as
the
employing
of
a
stage-coach,
or
a
steam-car,
or
a
ship,
to
transport
the
mails,
either
to
foreign
countries,
or
to
different
portions
of
our
own
country."
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