Believing, however, that I contend for his just rights, I shall steadily
pursue all proper means to cause them to be respected.
Hon. William H. Seward,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.
(A A.)
Messrs, Sibley & Collins to
Prince Gortchacow
St. Petersburg,
March 9-21, 1865.
The respectful and dutiful protest of Hiram Sibley and P. McD.
Collins against the decision of the Russian government and the
imperial telegraph department of Russia, in regard to the remarks
added to the 17th section of conditions of agreement, signed and
done in convention at St. Petersburg on the 9-21st March, A. D.
1865, between the director-in-chief of the department of imperial
telegraphs, his excellency J. Tolstoy, on the part of the imperial
government, and the undersigned, on the part of the Western Union
Telegraph Company, of Rochester, in the State of New York, United
States of America, under an act of the Siberian committee,
sanctioned by his Imperial Majesty on the 15th day of May, A. P.
1863, No. 820.
This protest most respectfully and dutifully showeth, that by the
original grant, No. 820, cited above, Major P. McD. Collins, a
citizen of the United States of America, was authorized to form a
company for the construction of a telegraph from the mouth of the
Amoor river, in Asiatic Russia, to the frontiers of Russian
America.
In this original grant certain inducements were held out, in order to
encourage and effect the formation of a company for the construction
of said telegraph, one of which was that, “for the encouragement of
the undertaking of the company, the Russian government will allow a
deduction of 40 per cent, upon the net profits of despatches
transmitted along the Russian telegraph lines, solely to and from
America.” This promised aid formed the leading inducement in the
formation of the company and the subscriptions to and sale of its
shares. The words of the grant No. 820, as well as the true intent
and meaning of the passage cited above, now section 17, incorporated
in the convention signed on the 9-21st March, A. D. 1865, bound the
imperial government, as the company and the undersigned believed, in
good faith, that the “net profits on despatches to and from America”
were to he ascertained solely in reference to American despatches
passing over Russian government telegraph lines. Now, however, the
imperial telegraph department has interpreted the meaning of this
clause, as we consider, quite differently. The department of
telegraphs contend, in order to reckon the net profits of American
despatches, that the whole system of Russian telegraphs must be
brought into account, and that the expenses of the whole
administration of government telegraphs must be paid before the net
profits on American despatches can be allowed to the company. To
this mode of reckoning we cannot agree.
We contend that the cost and charges upon despatches to and from
America should only be reckoned, and not the gross sum of all
government telegraphs. The company was formed and the capital raised
upon the original promise of the imperial government; England and
the United States granted co-operative charters upon the basis of
the original Russian grant, No. 820; the company purchased vessels
and freighted them with materials; engineers and exploring parties
were sent forward, and the government of the United States, under
the act of Congress, furnished a steamer in aid of the undertaking
of the company.
We came to St. Petersburg in October, A. D. 1864, and laid before the
director-in-chief of ways of public communications, General
Melnikoff, the proofs required in the original grant, No. 820; these
proofs were acknowledged to be satisfactory by the department, and
we awaited an early response.
But after several months of ineffectual entreaty and correspondence
with the imperial department of telegraphs, we were compelled to
assent to its views, as we believe, subversive of the original
grant, No. 820, in regard to the allowance of the 40 per cent, upon
American despatches.
Our ships were upon the sea, our capital invested, the enterprise
happily on foot, when we found the undertaking must be abandoned, or
submit to the views of the department of imperial telegraphs. Our
views, and the correspondence upon this question of 40 per cent,
encouragement as promised in the original grant, No. 820, are at
great length before the
[Page 376]
department, and consequently it is not deemed requisite to repeat
them here. We appealed in vain against the decision of the imperial
department of telegraphs as to the remarks to section 17. We were
told by his excellency J. Tolstoy, director-in-chief of imperial
telegraphs, that if we did not sign the conditions with the
objectionable remarks added to section 17, the obligations of Russia
would not guarantee to us the construction of our telegraph under
the grant No. 820, and that all our rights under that giant would be
forfeited, and that our capital and the money already invested must
be lost, and the construction of the telegraph would be given over
to another company. This we consider unjust, but, pressed by the
vast interests involved, we were obliged to submit to his
excellency’s decision.
We had gone on in good faith, as we believed, under the original
grant, No. 820. Our capital was invested, and to abandon the
undertaking under the decision of the imperial department of
telegraphs would be the absolute destruction of the company and loss
of all the capital invested. Therefore, in order to save the company
from great loss, and the abandonment of the construction of the
telegraph, we were forced to sign the convention, as insisted upon
by his excellency the chief of imperial telegraphs, and resort to
this protest for our protection and the rights of the company under
the original grant, No. 820.
Now, therefore, we, the undersigned, P. McD. Collins, the original
grantee under the act No. 820, and Hiram Sibley, the president of
the Western Union Telegraph Company, in our own names, and as the
agents and representatives of said Western Union Telegraph Company,
do hereby most respectfully, and as in duty bound, protest against
the actions, doings, and decisions of the Russian government, and
the imperial department of Russian telegraphs; claiming for
ourselves and the company, or to whomsoever the rights and
obligations of the original grant No. 820 may appertain, the full
force, meaning, and intent of said original grant.
HIRAM SIBLEY.
P. McD. COLLINS.
His Excellency Prince Gortchacow, Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Foreign
Affairs,
