96, 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.

It is eminently fitting as well as fortunate that the attempts to
accomplish results so beneficent should be initiated by kindred peoples,
speaking the same tongue and joined together by all the ties of common
traditions, common institutions, and common aspirations. The experiment
of substituting civilized methods for brute force as the means of
settling international questions of right will thus be tried under the
happiest auspices. Its success ought not to be doubtful, and the fact
that its ultimate ensuing benefits are not likely to be limited to the
two countries immediately concerned should cause it to be promoted all
the more eagerly. The examples set and the lesson furnished by the
successful operation of this treaty are sure to be felt and taken to
heart sooner or later by other nations, and will thus mark the beginning
of a new epoch in civilization.

Profoundly impressed as I am, therefore, by