ASHINGTON, _June 3, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 18th
ultimo, a report from the Secretary of State, with an accompanying
paper.[23]

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 23: Communication from George Bancroft, United States minister
at Berlin, relative to political questions in Germany.]

WASHINGTON, _June 3, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, for consideration with a view to its
ratification, an additional convention to the treaty of the 7th of
April, 1862, for the suppression of the African slave trade, which
additional convention was signed on this day in the city of Washington
by the plenipotentiaries of the high contracting parties.

U.S. GRANT.

WASHINGTON, _June 6, 1870_.

_To the Senate of the United States:_

I transmit to the Senate, in answer to their resolution of the 3d
instant, the accompanying report[24] from the Secretary of State.

U.S. GRANT.

[Footnote 24: Stating that he has received no official information
relative to a reported persecution and massacre of Israelites in
Roumania.]

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _June 13, 1870_.

_To the Senate and House of Representatives:_

In my annual message to Congress at the beginning of its present session
I referred to the contest which had then for more than a year existed in
the island of Cuba between a portion of its inhabitants and the
Government of Spain, and the feelings and sympathies of the people and
Government of the United States for the people of Cuba, as for all
peoples struggling for liberty and self-government, and said that "the
contest has at no time assumed the conditions which amount to war in the
sense of international law, or which would show the existence of a _de
facto_ political organization of the insurgents sufficient to justify a
recognition of belligerency."

During the six months which have passed since the date of that message
the condition of the insurgents has not improved, and the insurrection
itself, although not subdued, exhibits no signs of advance, but seems to
be confined to an irregular system of hostilities, carried on by small
and illy armed bands of men, roaming without concentration through the
woods and the sparsely populated regions of the island, attacking from
ambush convoys and small bands of troops, burning plantations and the
estates of those not sympathizing with their cause.

Bu