Latin America and the United States Part 5

I regret in my turn that I cannot respond to you in the language of the great race which has made the great country of Brazil. I thank you both for myself and in behalf of my country for your generous hospitality and the friendship you have exhibited. It is the sincere desire of the President and of all the people of the United States to maintain with the people of Brazil a firm, sincere, and helpful friendship. Much as we differ, in many respects we are alike. Like yours, our fathers fought for their country against savage Indians. Like yours, our fathers fought to maintain their race in their country against other European races. It is a delight for me on these historic sh.o.r.es to come to this famous place, made glorious by such centuries of heroic, free, and n.o.ble patriotism. It is especially delightful for me to be welcomed here, where the cause of human freedom received the powerful and ever-memorable support of a native of Pernambuco, whose name is dear to me, Joaquim Nabuco--a name inherited from a distinguished ancestry by my good friend, your ill.u.s.trious townsman, the present amba.s.sador of Brazil to the United States. It is the chief function of an amba.s.sador from one country to another to interpret to the people to whom he goes the people from whom he comes; and Joaquim Nabuco has presented to the people of the United States a conception of Brazilians, and especially of the men of Pernambuco, admirable and worthy of all esteem. He is our friend, and because he is our friend we wish to be your friends. I ask you to join me now in drinking to the health of the President of the republic of Brazil.

BAHIA

SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY SENHOR DOCTOR JOSe MARCELINO DE SOUZA

GOVERNOR OF BAHIA

At a Banquet given by him to Mr. Root, at Bahia, July 24, 1906

It is not without reason that the entire world is elated at the grand spectacle exhibited in the New World congregating its free and independent peoples in order to lay the foundations of a lasting peace.

In fact, the Old World looks on with sincere admiration at the complete demolition of the ancient precepts of international law. Ever since the right of the stronger has ceased to supersede the sound principles of justice; ever since the divine philosophy of the Jews taught men brotherly love for one another, the ancient international law underwent profound transformations.

Notwithstanding this, however, for a long time armies and costly navies continued to weigh down our public treasuries and the cannon continued to decide questions arising among nations.

Now, all Europe has its eyes turned towards America, which has noteworthily const.i.tuted itself the apostle of peace.

For a long time the American peoples have been settling their difficulties by means of arbitration.

It is this policy that is seen to be manifesting itself since the downfall of the ancient inst.i.tute of international law which, instead of causing the people on the other side of the Atlantic fear, ought to fill them with joy, because it tightens the international economic and commercial relations of this planet.

These are the aims and objects of Pan Americanism.

It does not inculcate war. Its gospel is concord. It has seen what a little while ago was nothing more than the dream of poets, the ideal of philosophers, develop into a reality.

Gentlemen, America must grow up, but intrenching itself with peace, and growing not by the augmentation of the sinews of war but by systematizing and utilizing the resources of her economic force.

This is the ideal of American nations. Therefore, although the other continents have long feared this propaganda, it is to be hoped that she will carry out her program of love and of fraternization, because thus America will have established international and economic relations with the entire world upon indestructible foundations.

The Honorable Elihu Root, the herald of the prosperous and powerful North American republic, who brings to Brazil the a.s.surance of his friendship and the most hearty support of the Pan American Congress whose third conference has just been opened at Rio, is the most important missionary of that gospel.

The presence of His Excellency in that noteworthy a.s.semblage is the a.s.surance of reconciliation, of the growth of the free people of America.

Bahia, an important part of the Brazilian Federation, which receives this testimonial of friendship from the great republic of the North, through its Secretary of State, cannot help but feel the greatest joy at foreseeing the great results of that conference and of this auspicious visit, which a.s.sumes the proportions of an emba.s.sy, of an appeal to the republics of the new continent for the inauguration of inseparable bonds of mutual solidarity, for the concerted effort to compel the disappearance of the sad note of war.

In the shadow of the solemn inauguration of Pan Americanism, three nations of Central America found themselves in the battlefield in a deplorable spectacle of hatred and bloodshed.

Happily, as is announced by telegraph, thanks to the good offices of the United States and of Mexico, peace has been established among the nations, to the honor of the Christian civilization of our continent.

This policy of concord, therefore, accomplishes good. I repeat, America must prosper. It is necessary that the Monroe Doctrine triumph, not to the exclusion of the civilization of the Old World, but to the benefit of all humanity.

Nature has cut the continent from north to south without regard to its continuity; from north to south is the same political regime; and protecting it with two great nations, nature has not wished to isolate us from the rest of the world, but on the contrary to endow us with sources of wealth and to multiply the means of easy communication with centers of civilization.

Gentlemen, in the name of Bahia, I greet the great ideal of humanity that is treading a victorious path! I greet the republic of North America, the efficient collaborator in this profoundly humane policy, the princ.i.p.al promoter of the Pan American Conference, in the person of its ill.u.s.trious Secretary of State, Elihu Root!

REPLY OF MR. ROOT

I beg to acknowledge with sincere appreciation your kindly and most flattering expressions regarding myself. I receive with joy the expression of sentiments regarding my country, which I hope may be shared by every citizen of the great republic of Brazil. It is with much sentiment that I find myself at the gateway of the south, through which the civilization of Europe entered from the Iberian Peninsula the vast regions of South America. I, whose fathers came through the northern gateway, on Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, thousands of miles away,--where the winters bring ice and snow and where a rugged soil greeted the first adventurers,--find here another people working out for themselves the same problems of self-government, seeking the same goal of individual liberty, of peace, of prosperity, that we have been seeking in the far north for so many years. We are alike in that we have no concern in the primary objects of European diplomacy; we are free from the traditions, from the controversies, which the close neighborhood of centuries on the continent of Europe has created--free, thank Heaven, from necessity for the maintenance of great armies and great navies to guard our frontiers, leaving us to give our minds to the problem of building up governments by the people which shall give prosperity and peace and individual opportunity to every citizen. In this great work, it is my firm belief that we can greatly a.s.sist each other, if it be only by sympathy and friendship, by intercourse, exchange of opinions and experience, each giving to the other the benefits of its success, and helping the other to find out the causes of its failures. We can aid each other by the peaceful exchanges of trade. Our trade--yes, our trade is valuable, and may it increase; may it increase to the wealth and prosperity of both nations. But there is something more than trade; there is the aspiration to make life worth living, that uplifts humanity. To accomplish success in this is the goal we seek to attain. There is the happiness of life; and what is trade if it does not bring happiness to life? In this the dissimilarity of our peoples may enable us to aid each other. We of the north are somewhat more st.u.r.dy in our efforts, and there are those who claim we work too hard. We are too strenuous in our lives. I wish that my people could gather some of the charm and grace of living in Bahia.

We may give to you some added strength and strenuousness; you may give to us some of the beauty of life. I wish I could make you feel--I wish still more that I could make my countrymen feel--what delight I experience in visiting your city, and in observing the combination of the bright, cheerful colors which adorn your homes and daily life, with the beautiful tones that time has given to the century-old walls and battlements that look down upon your n.o.ble bay. The combination has seemed to me, as I have looked upon it today, to be most remarkable; and these varying scenes of beauty have seemed to be suggestive of what nations can do for each other, some giving the beauty and the tender tones; some giving the st.u.r.dy and strenuous effort. May the intercourse between the people of the north and the people of Brazil hereafter not be confined to an occasional visitor. May the advance of transportation bring new and swift steamship lines to be established between the coasts of North and South America. May we hope by frequently visiting each other to make our peoples strong in intercourse and friendship. May we be of mutual advantage and help to each other along the pathway of common prosperity, and may my people ever be mindful of the honor which you have done to them, through the gracious and bountiful hospitality with which you have made me happy!

SPEECH OF SENATOR RUY BARBOSA

After Mr. Root's admirable speech, after such an orator as Mr. Root, and so inspired as he has been, n.o.body should have the courage to speak.

Nevertheless, I do not know how to resist the wishes of our amiable host, our eminent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and of those who surround me here. This is quite an unexpected surprise for me; but it comes in so imperious a way that I cannot but submit, hoping you will be indulgent.

We have felt in Mr. Root's words the vibration of the American soul in all its intensity, in all its eloquence, in all its power, in all its trustiness. So they could not have a better answer than the applause of so brilliant an audience as has just greeted his remarkable speech.

However, since the task of rendering the echo of Mr. Root's words in our hearts devolves upon me, I can only perform it truthfully by thanking him "again and still again," for his beneficent visit to Brazil.

We suppose, Mr. Root, that it does not come only from you. We are sure that you would not take this far-reaching step unless you counted, without a shadow of doubt, upon the sanction of American opinion. And knowing as we do that the United States are, from every standpoint, the most complete and dazzling success among modern nations, admiring them as the honor and pride of our continent, we rejoice, we exult, to open our homes, our bosoms, the arms of our modest and honest hospitality, to the giant of the republics, to the mother of American democracies, in the person of her own Government, one of whose strongest and n.o.blest functions centers in the person of her Secretary of State.

Our life as an independent nation is not yet a long one. We are, as such, only about eighty years old, albeit this may not be a very brief period in these days of ours, when time should not be measured by the number of years, inasmuch as not a great deal more than a century has been enough for the United States to become one of the greatest powers in the world. Short as it is, however, our national existence has not been devoid of n.o.ble dates, of fruitful and memorable events.

Amidst them, Mr. Root, this one will stand forever as a blessed landmark, or rather as the gushing-out of a new political stream, whose waves of peace, of freedom, of morality, shall spread by and by all over the immensity of our continent.

This is our wish, I will not say our dream, but our hope. You must have felt it, and will continue to feel it, at the throbbing of our national arteries, in Recife, in Bahia, now in this capital, and tomorrow in So Paulo.

Do not see in my words the looming of a momentous sensation. No! They do not tell my own impressions as an individual. They convey truthfully the voice of the people through the lips of a man who does not serve other interests. They only antic.i.p.ate, I believe, what you shall hear from our legislative representation, in the highest demonstration of public feeling possible under a popular government; may the historic scene of Lafayette, the liberal French soldier, the fellow-helper in American independence, being received in the American House of Representatives, find a worthy imitation in the reception of the great American Minister, the daring promoter of union in the American continent, by the two Houses of our National Congress.

So let us raise our cup to the northern colossus, the model of liberal republics, the United States of America, in their living and vigorous personification, in their image visible and cherished among us, Mr.

Elihu Root.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] _Deuxieme Conference de la Paix_, Vol. II, p. 644.

[2] This speech was not reported and therefore cannot be reproduced.

URUGUAY

MONTEVIDEO

SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY JOSe ROMEU

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS

At a Banquet given by him to Mr. Root, August 10, 1906

When, after plowing through the waters of the Caribbean Sea and running along the eastern coast of Brazil the North American cruiser _Charleston_ entered the magnificent bay of Rio de Janeiro, I had the opportunity of sending to the ill.u.s.trious representative of the United States, who today is our distinguished guest, a telegraphic greeting on the occasion of his arrival in South America and expressing the desire that his arrival might be the beginning of an era of fraternity and intercourse advantageous to all the nations of the American Continent.

The words of the telegram, the significant reply of the Secretary, and the very eloquent words he delivered before the Pan American Congress at Rio de Janeiro, are not a mere act of international courtesy; they are, in my judgment, the expression of the popular sentiment. They const.i.tute the aspiration of all America. They express, at the least, the fervent desires of the Uruguayan people and of its Government, who see in the visit of the ill.u.s.trious Secretary of State the foreshadowing of progress, of culture, and fraternity, which will bring the peoples closer together, contributing to their prosperity and to their greatness, through which they may figure with honor in the concert of civilized nations.