Special Message

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith the report of Messrs. James B. Angell, of Michigan, John E. Russell, of Massachusetts, and Lyman E. Cooley, of Illinois, who were appointed commissioners under the authority of a law passed March 2, 1895, to make inquiry and report, after conference with such similar commissioners as might be appointed on behalf of Great Britain or the Dominion of Canada, concerning the feasibility of the construction of such canals as will enable vessels engaged in ocean commerce to pass between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, and the most convenient location and probable cost of such canals, together with other facts and information in said act specified relating to their construction and use.

The commissioners have prosecuted the work assigned them with great zeal and intelligence, resulting in the collection of a mass of information embodied in their report and its accompanying exhibits which is of great importance and interest as related to the project subjected to their examination.

The advantages of direct and unbroken water transportation of the products of our Western States and Territories from convenient points of shipment to our seaboard ports are plainly palpable. The report of the commissioners contains, in my opinion, demonstration of the feasibility of securing such transportation, and gives ground for the anticipation that better and more uninterrupted commerce, through the plan suggested, between the great West and foreign ports, with the increase of national prosperity which must follow in its train, will not long escape American enterprise and activity.

It will be observed that the report of the commissioners, though as comprehensive as the time and facilities at their disposal permitted, does not definitely deal with the cost of the work they were called upon to consider and omits some of the other details related to it. Thus far they have labored without compensation, and a part of the small sum appropriated for the payment of their expenses still remains unexpended.

I suggest to the Congress the propriety of making economical provision for such further prosecution of their work as will more fully develop the information necessary to an exact and complete understanding of this interesting and important subject.

GROVER CLEVELAND.