EXECUTIVE MANSION, _Washington, February 27, 1889_.
_To the Senate_:
I transmit herewith, in confidence, for the information of the Senate, a
report from the Secretary of State, showing the progress of the
correspondence in relation to the conference to be held at Berlin
between the Governments of the United States, Germany, and Great Britain
to settle the affairs of the Samoan Islands.
The nature of this information and the stage of the negotiations thus
agreed upon and about to commence at Berlin make it proper that such
report should be communicated to the Senate in the confidence of
executive session.
As the conference has been proposed and accepted and the definitive
bases of its proceedings agreed upon by all three Governments and on the
lines with which the Senate has heretofore been made fully acquainted,
nothing remains to be done but to select and appoint the commissioners
to represent the United States, and the performance of this duty, in
view of the few days that now remain of my term of office, can be most
properly left to my successor.
In response to the inquiry of the German minister at this capital
whether the names of the proposed representatives of the United States
at the conference in Berlin could at once be given to him, he has been
informed that the appointments in question would be made by my successor
and not by me, and that in coming to this decision the expedition
desired by Germany in the work of the conference would in my judgment be
promoted.