Latin America and the United States Part 19

Henceforth, sir, in addition to your high claims as an ill.u.s.trious statesman and wise administrator, you have from us the endearing t.i.tle of friend, a friend who appreciates us with fairness, who will rejoice at our future triumphs in the arena of progress, who will lament our misfortunes, who will applaud our victories and will encourage us in our discomfitures.

For some time past, especially since you undertook the n.o.ble task of proclaiming justice and righteousness as the basis for the relations of the republics of America with one another, we have followed with the liveliest interest your glorious career, of which the goal is the promotion of ideals of human fraternity. We have admired you, we have applauded you as one applauds the eloquence of wise and good men. But henceforth a current of profound sympathy will flow between you and us, and our admiration and applause will reach you, quickened by the vibrations of our enthusiasm.

Soon you will return to your own country, that splendid country where everything is great from the cataclysms of nature to the manifestations of freedom. Our most fervent desire is that you may take away an impression of Mexico and of her people as agreeable and affectionate as that which you leave behind, and that, in justice toward us, you will tell those among your countrymen who do not yet know us, that ours is a civilized nation, working out its greater welfare, educating itself intellectually, living and desiring to remain in peace with itself and in peace with all who respect its rights,--in a word, living up to its mission as a free and honorable community. Tell your President that in Mexico we appreciate and applaud his great and n.o.ble efforts in behalf of his country and in behalf of the peace of other nations, and that when his name is p.r.o.nounced by us, it is p.r.o.nounced with expressions of respect and homage for his good qualities.

Receive, sir, these words, which are the expression of sentiments that are sincere, as a new demonstration to yourself and to your distinguished family of our feelings of esteem and our desire for your happiness.

PUEBLA

SPEECH OF GENERAL MUCIO P. MARTiNEZ

GOVERNOR OF PUEBLA

At a Banquet at the Munic.i.p.al Palace, October 9, 1907

A poetic tradition of our aborigines has been kept, and still lives--transmitted from generation to generation of the races that people our wooded mountains and smiling plains; this tradition teaches us that to ill.u.s.trious guests, above all to those who come like you as messengers of peace on earth and good-will to men, should be offered as an emblem of sincere and respectful affection, the richest of fruits, the handsomest of flowers, and the most delicious of dishes.

A reception such as the one now being given to your excellency and those nearest and dearest to your heart, must be, no doubt, inferior in magnificence to the welcome tendered to such ill.u.s.trious guests in other countries; but believe me, none has ever surpa.s.sed our sincerity, because Mexico, as it is the first to admire brilliant careers in politics, in science, in art, in industry, and in commerce, takes pleasure in offering you its most cordial attentions with no other desire than to make your stay in this republic as pleasing as possible and to show you that this country is an ardent admirer of yours and takes pleasure in calling itself a sister of the United States not only because of geographical contiguity, but also because of the liberty and freedom of its inst.i.tutions.

I therefore pray that your excellency accept this humble repast as a token of the most affectionate hospitality tendered you by me in the name of the people of Puebla, and I beg you to convey to the ill.u.s.trious President of the American Union the brotherly regard we all have for him.

REPLY OF MR. ROOT

I am greatly pleased by this delicate hospitality which is like the traditional hospitality of the Mexican nation. I shall personally convey to President Roosevelt the message of cordial welcome and good-will shown by this city, and it will undoubtedly contribute to further the good work undertaken by President Roosevelt to uphold justice and protect the rights of humanity. I shall also bring to President Roosevelt's attention the a.s.surances of this country to protect the happiness and prosperity of the people. I cannot help remembering that when foreigners came to Puebla in hostile manner they were shown that Puebla knows how to defend its rights. It is also pleasing to me to see the ability of the Mexican people to govern themselves: nations like Mexico and the United States which have given proof of this ability may well boast that they belong to those which form the vanguard of modern civilization.

ORIZABA

SPEECH OF SEnOR D. TEODORO A. DEHESA

GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF VERA CRUZ

At a Luncheon at the Cocolopan Factory, October 10, 1907

In your honor, and as a testimony to your personal worth and sterling character, as a representative of the great American people, I take particular pleasure in tendering to you this lunch. The occasion gives rise to the thought that your Washington and our Hidalgo were the instruments chosen for planting the sacred tree of national independence now so deeply rooted in our respective countries, and which has brought forth the fruit of liberty to nourish the people of the United States and Mexico.

Here in Orizaba you have seen, Mr. Secretary, some evidences of the material advances made by our country, which to a man of your broad views and lofty ideals I must believe are pleasing. These are blessings that we owe to peace. Those two great statesmen and lovers of peace--Roosevelt and Diaz--are one in desire and endeavor to preserve peace, not only to secure its benefits for their own people, but to extend its beneficent sway over the whole American continent.

Such a purpose commands the respect and admiration of the world. I invite all present to join me in drinking to our ill.u.s.trious and most welcome guest, whom we all so much admire for his many distinguished qualities--extending to him and to his charming family our best wishes for health and happiness.

REPLY OF MR. ROOT

This cordial welcome has not been a surprise to me, as I already knew of the qualities of the Governor of Vera Cruz. By this time, I have become accustomed to the hospitable character of the Mexicans; but notwithstanding this, it has been very pleasing and gratifying to me to receive these demonstrations from the people of Vera Cruz whose frankness of disposition is well known. I appreciate your words very highly, Mr. Governor, and I thank you for them as I do the residents of Orizaba.

It is but right for you Mexicans to remember Washington, as it is for us Americans to remember Hidalgo and the other heroes of Mexican history together with our own. I firmly believe that Mexico has pa.s.sed beyond the state in which civil dissensions devastated this fortunate country, and that in the future there will be no door open to internal strife, thanks to the wise administration and foresight of the great statesman Porfirio Diaz.

How true it is that the beautiful and the useful can be combined: here in Orizaba I find the proof of this truth, as in the midst of the natural beauty of the scenery offered by the exuberant vegetation and the lovely peak crowned with snow--the proud sentinel of the state of Vera Cruz--stand as signs of progress the important factories we have just visited.

Mr. Governor, I feel grateful for the frank reception of which I have been the object, and I hope that Mexico will continue to progress and develop as well as the United States, and that both nations will render mutual a.s.sistance to each other and avail themselves of the prosperous or unprosperous occurrences adopting the one or the other as lessons of experience for humanity in order to demonstrate to natives and foreigners the excellences of the republican form of government.

GUADALAJARA

SPEECH OF GOVERNOR AHUMADA

October 14, 1907

Although our president, General Porfirio Diaz, with the high international representation awarded him by our inst.i.tutions, and by the personal adherence of all federal and state authorities, as well as by the love of the Mexican people in general, has already given a cordial welcome in the name of all of us, allow me, in the name of the state which I govern, to express to you the kind feelings of sympathy which exist in all hearts beating within this important section of our country. Jalisco, Mr. Secretary, has always been a land that loves all that is great and useful for the country, and as during the time when we fought for independence and liberty it did not spare its sons, in the same way we want to join our voice to the voice of the people that from the _bravo_ to the _usumacinta_ praise and bless you, to take our share in the work for peace which you initiated during the Third Pan American Conference in Rio de Janeiro, which you continued by your visit to the main republics of South America, and which you are carrying to an end now by tokens of friendship you are giving to Mexico and the people of the state of Jalisco. The people of this state believe that the best way to take part in this labor is to tell you through me: "Welcome be the n.o.ble emissary who, like the dove of the ark, brings the symbolic olive branch which announces that clouds have been dissipated and the sun of friendship is rising between the peoples of the new continent."

We should have been pleased to have you among us a longer time, to give you better tokens of our esteem and to show you the high appreciation we feel for the people of the United States and her great ruler, President Roosevelt. But inasmuch as this is impossible, owing to your important and urgent labors at home, allow me, Mr. Secretary, to state that if our demonstrations of friendship are short, they are made in the land of traditional frankness and true friendship.

Let us drink, ladies and gentlemen, to the health of his excellency, Mr.

Root, his distinguished wife, and his "simpatica" daughter, and wishing for all of them all kinds of happiness, let us prove that we have shaken their hands in the spirit that sons of Jalisco always shake hands--our heart is our hand.

MR. ROOT'S REPLY

I thank you very heartily for your kind words, for your flattering description of myself, and for the spirit of friendship for my country which you exhibit. I am highly appreciative of all the hospitality, the warm welcome, and the graceful and most agreeable entertainment which you and your people of Guadalajara and of the state of Jalisco have given to my family and to myself.

I think it is perhaps fitting that I should make the last extended visit of all I have been making in Mexico, to the city of Guadalajara. The most striking feature of Mexican life to a stranger is that rare combination of history and progress which one finds. The two eras of history, the Spanish, and before that the Indian civilization, which has to so great an extent pa.s.sed away, and beside that the modern development, the spirit of modern enterprise, the active progress of mining and agriculture and manufactures, the stimulus of sound finance, and the general determination of the people to take rank with the great productive nations of the earth,--nowhere have I found that combination more marked and distinct than I find it here in Guadalajara. As I said to you a short time ago, your excellency, the things that impressed me most on entering this city were, first, that it was clean; secondly, that there were many fine-looking people; thirdly, that it was cheerful; and, fourthly, that it had many beautiful buildings. I can add to that a fifth, that it is bright with the rainbow of hope for the fruits of its many enterprises.

This may be the last time I rise to speak to any audience in Mexico before my departure for my own country, and there are two things that I wish to say; one is, that nothing could have been more generous, more tactful, and more grateful to us than the hospitality and friendship which my family and I have received during the entire time since we crossed the border at Laredo. We are grateful for it, we are deeply appreciative of it. The other thing that I wish to say is that I have all the time since I came to Mexico been thinking about the question of the permanence of your new prosperity. I go back to my home encouraged and cheered by having found, as I believe, evidence, substantial evidence, that the new prosperity of Mexico is not evanescent and temporary, but is permanent. I do not believe that Mexico will ever again return to the disorder of the condition which characterized the first sixty years of her independence. I believe that during this long period of peace and order which has been secured for your people by your great, wise, strong President Diaz, there has grown up a new spirit among Mexicans and a new appreciation of individual duty to civilization in the maintenance of peace and order.

So I go back, not only charmed with the beauty of your country, not only delighted with the opportunity to see the wonderful historic monuments you possess, not only delighted with the hospitality of your homes and charmed with the character of your people, but I go back with the feeling that the Mexican people have joined forever the ranks of the great, orderly, self-controlled, self-governing republics of the world.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] This address was answered in appropriate terms by General Rincon Gallardo as the representative of President Diaz, and among other things he congratulated himself on the fact that the Mexican Committee had been granted the pleasing privilege of continuing to San Antonio in order to give there a welcome to the distinguished visitors. Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Garcia Cuellar also made an address. Neither of these addresses were preserved.

[6] Yale lectures on the Responsibilities of Citizenship, 1907. See also: _Addresses on Government and Citizenship_, by ELIHU ROOT; pp.

3-76. Harvard University Press, 1916.

ADDRESSES IN THE UNITED STATES ON LATIN AMERICAN RELATIONS

THE CENTRAL AMERICAN PEACE CONFERENCE

In December, 1907, a Central American Peace Conference was held at Washington, between delegates representing the five Central American republics--Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Salvador. Mexico and the United States were invited to partic.i.p.ate in a friendly capacity and accepted the invitation. The conference grew out of the initiative taken during the previous summer by the presidents of the United States and Mexico, in an endeavor to secure an adjustment of then pending disputes between several of these republics, in some form that would secure permanent peace among them and foster their development. The conference was called together by the following note of the Secretary of State, addressed to the delegates: