Grover Cleveland: “I think little, if any, more infirmity than is usually found in men of the age of the claimant.”

I have not thought it compatible with the public interest that the correspondence referred to in the resolution should be communicated pending the public and exhaustive investigation about to be instituted.

A departure from this rule, even in aid of cases of hardship, can not fail to establish precedents inviting the abandonment of reasonable and justifiable pension theories.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:I transmit herewith, for the information of the Congress, a communication from the Secretary of State, covering the report of the Director of the Bureau of the American Republics for the year 1896.

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State, submitting a list of the claims filed in the Department of State by citizens of the United States against Spain.