Mr. SHERMAN. I am very glad on this sleep day to have waked u my honorable frien from Michigan to a litt e zeal in the interests of commerce; but I suppose that commerce ought to be always free, and here he proposes to grant a monopoly to affect the commerce of this country with South America. with the West India islands, with Panama, and all the regions south, and place it in the hands of an exclusive company. I believe we have enough trouble now growing out of exclusive monopolies; and I supposed one of the subxjects the Senfrom Michigan was so anx ious about when he asked us to allow him this day for bills reported by his committee was an exclusive monopoly in railroad grants between this cit and the city of New lork. I desire to avoi all monopolies. Theotherday, having occasion to o to NewYork, I felt the incon venience oft at monopoly. I believe that the Government of the U.S. ought to see to it that commerce between the States and commerce between the nations is free, and ought to encourage our commercial relations with all nations; but it seems to me that the way to do that is not to grant to incorporated companies exclusive privileges. I have no doubt that within 20 years from this time there will be 20 telegraph lines between this country and Havana. The system of telegraphic communication is but in its infancy. suppose 3 or 4 years ago, when it seemed to e an improbable thing that awire would be stretched across this continent to SanFrancise o, we had then granted an exclusive monopoly for ten years to the Pacific Company. We grant them now a bounty of $40,000 a year, when that stock is among the most profitable known in this country. We gave them money when it was not necessary to give them money. If we had simply allowed them the right of way over our territory, they would have made a very large fortune; and now new lines are bein constructed without bounty, and I have no doubt that before ten years from the passage of the original act authorizing the telegraph line to California, there will be 20 wires stretched between this and SanFrancise o.