which was just then under consideration, a provision for
reciprocity of trade with American countries. This meeting was
not a complete success, since Congress gave him only half of what
he wanted by providing for reciprocity but making it general
instead of purely American. Nevertheless one permanent and solid
result was secured in the establishment of the Bureau of American
Republics at Washington, which has become a clearing house of
ideas and a visible bond of common interests and good feeling.

Throughout the years of Blaine's prominence, the public took more
interest in his bellicose encounters with Europe, and
particularly with Great Britain, than in his constructive
American policy; and he failed to secure for either an assured
popular support. His attempt to widen the gulf between Europe and
America was indeed absurd at a time when the cable, the railroad,
and the steamship were rendering the world daily smaller and more
closely knit, and when the spirit of democracy, rapidly
permeating western Europe, was breaking down the distinction in
political institutions which had given point to the pronouncement
of 1823. Nevertheless Blaine did actually feel the changing
industrial conditions at home which were destroying American
separateness, and he made a genuine attempt to find a place for
the United States in the world, without the necessity of sharing
the responsibilities of all the world, by making real that
interest in its immediate neighbors which his country had
announced in 1823. Even while Blaine was working on his plan of
"America for the Americans," events were shaping the most
important extension of the interests of the United States which
had taken place since 1823.