information:highlighting
Foreign affairs

Grant had limited foreign policy experience, so relied heavily on his talented Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. Grant and Fish had cordial friendship. Besides Grant, the main players in foreign affairs were Fish and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Charles Sumner. Sumner, who hated Grant, led the opposition to Grant's plan to annex Santo Domingo, despite fully supporting annexation of Alaska.

Grant had an expansionist impulse to protect American interests abroad and was a strong advocate of the Monroe Doctrine. For instance, when Tomás Frías became President of Bolivia in 1872, Grant stressed the importance of maintaining good relations between Bolivia and the US. He had an idealist side to his foreign policy. For instance, Grant appointed a Jewish lawyer, Benjamin F. Peixotto, U.S. Consul in Bucharest, in response to the Romanian persecution of Jews. Grant said that respect "for human rights is the first duty for those set as rulers" over the nations.