Counselor not savior: Hamilton Fish and foreign policy decision-making during the Grant administration

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines significant diplomatic moments during the Grant administration – the Cuban neutrality proclamation and the Treaty of Washington – and the methods employed by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish to manage diplomacy and to keep the United States out of war with Europe. It argues that Fish was a pragmatic adviser to the President, not a manipulator pushing Grant towards his own ends, or a savior pulling Grant back from disaster. Rather, Fish counseled Grant to make sound diplomatic decisions that insured peace, leading to greater autonomy in decision-making and a successful relationship between president and secretary of state.