4. It will divert little or no European traffic from the Suez Canal.
5. It will give an immense impulse to United States manufactures, especially cotton and iron, and will greatly stimulate the shipbuilding industry and development of the naval power of the United States.
6. It will cost more than the estimates show ($80,084,176.00 at that time) but it will have a traffic greater than is usually admitted.
7. In the interest of the world it must be neutralized, and the true policy of the United States is to forward that end and thus make this international highway a powerful factor for the preservation of peace.
To the eminently conservative and disinterested conclusions of this patriotic English expert, I may be permitted to give my adherence no less than to the publicly expressed opinions of the great American statesmen whose names I have mentioned and to the practically unanimous approval of the Congress of the United States, after having actively discussed the Canal question for twenty years.
With assurances of my highest esteem I beg to remain,
Sir: Your most obedient servant,
William Lawrence Merry.