remember, there was the attempt to establish an empire in mexico with maximilian and so forth who was assassinated. before grant became president he engaged in this thought that perhaps the united states should invade mexico and throw out maximilian and so forth. he was very interested in maintaining amicable relationships with mexico. he was quite close to the mexican ambassador, then it was called minister, in washington. i think those two men working together did keep the relationship between the countries fairly strong. you are right in pointing out grants attention --grant's attention was primarily focused elsewhere. there was no sense at that time of an activist foreign policy with the state department having all these ideas of how we treat central america and europe. it was a most as if the united states in its foreign affairs operated on an ad hoc basis. when crises came up like the alabama claims, he dealt with them. the united states paid a lot more attention to cuba at the time because of the cubans attempt to overthrow spanish rule. grant may have wanted to help out milita