But did he agree with them on the need for overseas expansion? For that matter, was there any indication that the people supported such a program? Even President Harrison didn't seem to expect public support for an activist foreign policy. In his inaugural address, it's true he did call for making sure we had adequate support overseas for our tradesmen and naval vessels, and urged that we attempt to secure agreements with foreign nations to that end. But he made sure it was understood: "These and other trading privileges we will feel free to obtain only by means that do not in any degree partake of coercion, however feeble the government from which we ask such concessions."
Also from the same address, we have this: "We have happily maintained a policy of avoiding all interference with European affairs. We have been only interested spectators of their contentions in diplomacy and in war, ready to use our friendly offices to promote peace, but never obtruding our advice and never attempting unfairly to coin the distresses of other powers into commercial advantage to ourselves. We have a just right to expect that our European policy will be the American policy of European courts."
However "neoconservative" he may have been while outside of the public spotlight, he didn't dare be one while standing in it.
And the fact that every single President in that nearly 50 year plan was elected hints more than slightly that the public supported the international expansion.