TO RICHARD WATSON GILDER
Your letter of August 3d with enclosure did not reach me till yesterday. I return the address with my signature, as I earnestly desire the maintenance of a true and lasting friendship between the American and the British nations. I mean such a friendship as is represented by James Bryce on the British side.
I distrust that kind of British friendship which would hurry us into an imperialistic policy and thus make us dependent upon British aid, obliging us in turn to give American aid in promotion of British policies; and which by a most unscrupulous manipulation of the news service seeks to stir up ill feeling between this country and other nations.
I wish I could attach this to my signature. But if that cannot properly be done, I shall find some occasion for expressing my sentiments to that effect.
OUR FUTURE FOREIGN POLICY[1]
The future foreign policy of the United States will be largely determined by the peace soon to be concluded with Spain. Although a preliminary protocol has been signed, I shall discuss the matter as if it were an open one, which it really will be so long as the Senate has not ratified the treaty.
If our Government insists upon Spain altogether withdrawing her power from this hemisphere, or even from all of her colonies, there will hardly be much dissent
- ↑ Address at Saratoga, N. Y., Aug. 19, 1898, before a National Conference held under the auspices of the Civic Federation, for the purpose of considering our future attitude toward Cuba, Porto Rico, etc.
