Mr. McCook to Mr. Seward.
Sir: I desire to call your attention to an effort which I am informed is now being made by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to obtain such a modification of their contract with the government of the United States as may relieve their China-bound ships from touching at these islands. I do this because I think it necessary that you should be kept thoroughly advised in relation to everything which can in any way affect the interests of our government in this country.
I believe that American interests would be greatly benefited by establishing a line of steamers between here and the Pacific coast; but the mere touching of these China steamers at any point on this group can result in no possible benefit to the political interests of our government, or the individual interests of any of our citizens. I think that the interests of the (our) government here require that the political influence of the United States should be absolutely paramount. Commercial and individual interests require that communication should be rapid, regular, and safe between the two countries, and that Americans who have their capital invested in these islands in the production of sugars, and the large population of California, Oregon, Nevada, and the rest of the Pacific coast who depend entirely on this production for their supply, should be secured reliable means for transportation of the cheapest and best character. Will any of these requirements be fulfilled by a line of steamers simply touching here once a month, landing and receiving the mails and a few passengers, and then sailing, without any further communication with the shore than will be necessary for these purposes? I think not. On the contrary, if the object in establishing and subsidizing this steam communication be to increase the commercial intercourse now existing between the two countries, to encourage American emigration, strengthen American influence, and assist such American capital and enterprise as may have already selected this country for its field of operation, I should think all this would be much more thoroughly accomplished by affording the American merchants of the Pacific coast and the American planters on these islands safe, regular, and rapid means for exchanging their commodities by a line of steamers whose terminal points will be San Francisco and Honolulu, and whose steamers will remain sufficiently long in each port to permit the transaction of the large [Page 496] freighting business, upon which any line to these islands must rely almost exclusively for a support. A line of this character would undoubtedly prove a benefit to all, and I think I have succeeded in impressing his Hawaiian Majesty’s government, as well as the American residents here, with my view of the matter. The whole question was thoroughly canvassed at the time the contract between the Hawaiian government and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company was under discussion, and the contract, as concluded, provides simply for steam communication between the Pacific coast of the United States and Honolulu, in consideration of which the Hawaiian government grants nothing more than free wharfage, water, &c., concessions which, by treaty stipulations, they had already guaranteed to any steam line which might be established between the two countries.
Aside from all considerations as to the disadvantage our steam merchant marine would labor under in competing for the carrying trade of China, Japan, and India, if compelled to lengthen their sailing distance some sixteen or eighteen hundred miles, against adverse winds and currents, in order to touch at these islands, I am confident that if the design is to create an American interest here, nothing will be accomplished by the China line merely touching—everything by a separate line terminating here. I cannot understand why these interests should be combined or confounded, as they certainly have nothing in common. To require the ships of the China line to touch at these islands is simply imposing an additional burden on them, without conferring any adequate benefit on either Americans or Hawaiians. The only class of persons who can possibly derive any benefit from it will be the hotel-keepers of Honolulu, and such travellers between China and the United States as may desire, from motives of curiosity or interest, to stop a few days or a few hours at these islands. Their claims can certainly receive no very grave consideration when so radically opposed to the interests of the Pacific coast and the success of the great enterprise about being inaugurated under the auspices of the government.
I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the greatest respect, your very obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.