Harrison and Blaine: No Reciprocity for Canada

In four short years, 1889-93, President Benjamin Harrison and Secretary of State James G. Blaine launched the most ambitious program of commercial reciprocity of the late nineteenth century. The effort centered on the rec- iprocity amendment attached to the McKinley Tariff of 1890 as part of a comprehensive attempt to strengthen ties with all the nations of the hemis- phere-except Canada. The legendary Blaine indeed made the struggle to establish commercial reciprocity "the last great political effort of his career...Yet he also fought for a "hemispheric system based on peaceful intercourse, arbitral procedures for the settlement of disputes, and con- ferences that would deal with general inter-American issues." He had the unqualified commitment of Harrison, "the first President since the Civil War who fully recognized the need to coordinate the strategic, diplomatic, and economic factors of [foreign] policy."1 But Harrison and Blaine had separate plans for Canada. As long as Canada remained part of the British Empire, the two statesmen could not integrate it into a hemisphere dominated by the United States.