EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, January 5, 1897.

To the Senate: 

I transmit herewith, in response to a resolution of the Senate of the 22d ultimo, a report from the Secretary of State, accompanied by copies of correspondence concerning the death of Charles Govin, a citizen of the United States, in the island of Cuba.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, January 8, 1897.

To the House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith, in response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of May 8, 1896, requesting information as to what had been done by the Department of State to carry out the provision in the act of March 2, 1895, making appropriations for the Department of Agriculture for the year 1896, as to negotiations with Great Britain to secure the abrogation or modification of the regulations requiring the slaughter of cattle from the United States at the port of entry, a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, January 8, 1897.

To the House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith the report of the Secretary of State in response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of June 5, 1896, calling for information concerning the changes made in the force of his Department since the 4th day of March, 1893.

This report has been in my hands since the 9th day of December, 1896, and its transmission to the House of Representatives has been delayed by my inadvertence.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 11, 1897.

To the Senate: 

I transmit herewith a treaty for the arbitration of all matters in difference between the United States and Great Britain.

The provisions of the treaty are the result of long and patient deliberation and represent concessions made by each party for the sake of agreement upon the general scheme.

Though the result reached may not meet the views of the advocates of immediate, unlimited, and irrevocable arbitration of all international controversies, it is nevertheless confidently believed that the treaty can not fail to be everywhere recognized as making a long step in the right direction and as embodying a practical working plan by which disputes between the two countries will reach a peaceful adjustment as matter of course and in ordinary routine.

In the initiation of such an important movement it must be expected that some of its features will assume a tentative character looking to a further advance, and yet it is apparent that the treaty which has been formulated not only makes war between the parties to it a remote possibility, but precludes those fears and rumors of war which of themselves too often assume the proportions of national disaster.