Grover Cleveland

To the Senate:I transmit herewith, with a view to its ratification, a convention concluded at this capital on the 17th instant between the United States and China concerning the subject of emigration between those two countries.

To the Congress: I transmit herewith copies of certain dispatches lately received from our minister at Hawaii, together with copies of the inclosures which accompanied such dispatches.

I transmit herewith, for the information of Congress, a communication from the Secretary of State, covering the report of the Director of the Bureau of the American Republics for the year 1893.

To the Congress:I transmit herewith two dispatches received a few days ago from our minister at Hawaii.

I transmit herewith copies of dispatches received from our minister to Hawaii after the arrival of those copies which accompanied my message of the 20th instant.

I also inclose, for the information of Congress, copies of reports and a copy of an order just received by the Secretary of the Navy from Rear-Admiral Irwin, commanding our naval forces at Honolulu.

It is certainly very questionable whether piers should be permitted at all in the North River at the point designated for the location of this bridge.

It seems absolutely certain that within a few years a great volume of shipping will extend to that location, which would be seriously embarrassed by such obstruction.

The objection to piers in the river for the purpose of supporting bridges is in any event so serious that...should not in such an indirect manner as is done by this bill be applied to a like structure at Twenty-third street.

I transmit herewith dispatches received yesterday from our minister at Hawaii.

I hereby return without my approval House bill No. 3289.

At the same time, it is a plain dictate of wisdom and expediency that the commerce of the river be not unnecessarily interfered with by bridges or in any other manner.

It seems to me that the language of the bill under consideration...is equivalent to a new grant to that company.

I return without my approval House bill No. 71.

I am convinced that such a relaxation of our existing land laws as is contemplated by the bill under consideration would not be in the interest of good administration.

I fully concur in the objections made to this bill by the officers having charge of the public lands.

In transmitting certain correspondence with my message dated December 18, 1893, I withheld a dispatch from our present minister, numbered 3 and dated November 16, 1893, and also a dispatch from our former minister, numbered 70 and dated…

The dispatch numbered 70 and dated October 8, 1892, above referred to, is still withheld for the reason that such a course still appears to be justifiable and proper.

Inasmuch as the contents of the dispatch of November 16, 1893, are referred to in the dispatches of a more recent date, now sent to Congress, and inasmuch as there seems no longer to be sufficient reason for withholding said dispatch, a…

To test fitness for the classified departmental service there shall be a clerk-copyist examination and such supplementary and special examinations as the Commission may provide to meet the special requirements of the service.

I regard the cause of civil service reform as so firmly established and its value so fully demonstrated.

Any other theory cheapens and in a measure discredits a process which more than any other is a manifestation of sovereign authority.

It will hardly do to say that the States and Territories who are the recipients of these large gifts may be trusted to do justice to its citizens.

The existence of a surplus in the Treasury is no answer to these objections.

The direct tax levied in 1861 is not even suspected of invalidity.