Grover Cleveland: “I answer in the negative.”

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.

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.

It is not claimed, I believe, that the time has come for the further restriction of immigration on the ground that an excess of population overcrowds our land.

To the Senate of the United States: In response to the resolution of the Senate of February 4, 1897, I transmit a report from the Secretary of State.