US Presidency
1870

The Secretary of State, to whom was referred the resolution of the Senate requesting the President to institute an inquiry, by such means as in his judgment shall be deemed proper, into the present condition of the commercial relations between the United States and the Spanish American States on this continent, and between those countries and other nations, and to communicate to the Senate full and complete statements regarding the same, together with such recommendations as he may think necessary to promote the development and increase of our commerce with those regions and to secure to the United States that proportionate share of the trade of this continent to which their close relations of geographical contiguity and political friendship with all the States of America justly entitle them, has the honor to report: The resolution justly regards the commercial and the political relations of the United States with the American States of Spanish origin as necessarily dependent upon each other.