US Presidency
1897

It will be our aim to pursue a firm anddignified foreign policy, which shall be just, impartial, ever watchfulof our national honor, and always insisting upon the enforcement of thelawful rights of American citizens everywhere. Our diplomacy should seeknothing more and accept nothing less than is due us. We want no wars ofconquest; we must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression. War shouldnever be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace ispreferable to war in almost every contingency. Arbitration is the truemethod of settlement of international as well as local or individual differences. It was recognized as the best means of adjustment of differences betweenemployers and employees by the Forty-ninth Congress, in 1886, and its applicationwas extended to our diplomatic relations by the unanimous concurrence ofthe Senate and House of the Fifty-first Congress in 1890.