MINOR, President Puget Sound Telegraph Company to Abraham Lincoln, June 10, 1883

Mr. Minor to the President.

Sir: The Legislature of the Dominion of Canada having made an appropriation for the purchase and laying of a telegraph cable from Vancouver Island, British -Columbia, across the Straits of San Juan de Fuca to Point Angelos, in Washington Territory, I have the honor respectfully to urge that permission be not accorded to the Dominion Government to land said cable in the United States until similar rights and privileges be accorded by that Government to American citizens to lay telegraph cables and open telegraph offices in British Columbia.

The Puget Sound Telegraph Company, which I have the honor to represent, has repeatedly requested permission from the authorities both of British Columbia and the Dominion of Canada to lay a cable to Vancouver Island and open a telegraph office in Victoria, British Columbia. These reasonable requests have in every case been entirely unheeded, or the permission sought has been refused.

The rights they claim from us should also be accorded by them to our citizens.

I am, &c.,