US Presidency
1884

These are the elements from which it is sought to devise a scheme by which, without unfavorably changing the condition of the workingman, our merchant marine shall be raised from its enfeebled condition and new markets provided for the sale beyond our borders of the manifold fruits of our industrial enterprises. The problem is complex and can be solved by no single measure of innovation or reform. The countries of the American continent and the adjacent islands are for the United States the natural marts of supply and demand. It is from them that we should obtain what we do not produce or do not produce in sufficiency, and it is to them that the surplus productions of our fields, our mills, and our workshops should flow, under conditions that will equalize or favor them in comparison with foreign competition. Four paths of policy seem to point to this end: First. A series of reciprocal commercial treaties with the countries of America which shall foster between us and them an unhampered movement of trade.