slavery insupportable in Cuba and Porto Rico at once and ultimately so in Brazil; it is to settle the unhappy condition of Cuba, and end an exterminating conflict; it is to provide honest means of paying our honest debts, without overtaxing the people; it is to furnish our citizens with the necessaries of everyday life at cheaper rates than ever before; and it is, in fine, a rapid stride toward that greatness which the intelligence, industry, and enterprise of the citizens of the United States entitle this country to assume among nations.

U.S.  GRANT.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, D.C.  June 2, 1870.

To the Senate of the United States:

In reply to your resolution of the 1st instant, requesting, “in confidence,” any information in possession of the President “touching any proposition, offer, or design of any foreign power to purchase or obtain any part of the territory of San Domingo or any right to the Bay of Samana,” I transmit herewith a copy of a letter, dated 27th of April, 1870. addressed to “Colonel J.W.  Fabens, Dominican minister, Washington,” by “E.  Herzberg Hartmount, Dominican consul-general in London.”

U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, June 3, 1870.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 18th ultimo, a report from the Secretary of State, with an accompanying paper.[23]

U.S.  GRANT.

[Footnote 23:  Communication from George Bancroft, United States minister at Berlin, relative to political questions in Germany.]

WASHINGTON, June 3, 1870.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to its ratification, an additional convention to the treaty of the 7th of April, 1862, for the suppression of the African slave trade, which additional convention was signed on this day in the city of Washington by the plenipotentiaries of the high contracting parties.

U.S.  GRANT.

WASHINGTON, June 6, 1870.

To the Senate of the United States:

I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 3d instant, the accompanying report[24] from the Secretary of State.

U.S.  GRANT.

[Footnote 24:  Stating that he has received no official information relative to a reported persecution and massacre of Israelites in Roumania.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, June 13, 1870.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

In my annual message to Congress at the beginning of its present session I referred to the contest which had then for more than a year existed in the island of Cuba between a portion of its inhabitants and the Government of Spain, and the feelings and sympathies of the people and Government of the United States for the people of Cuba, as for all peoples struggling for liberty and self-government, and said that “the contest has at no time assumed the conditions which amount to war in the sense of international law, or which would show the existence of a de facto political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a recognition of belligerency.”