Latin America and the United States Part 8

BANQUET AT THE GOVERNMENT HOUSE

SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY DR. J. FIGUEROA ALCORTA

PRESIDENT OF ARGENTINA

At a Banquet given by him, August 14, 1906

The American republics are at this moment tightening their traditional bonds at a congress of fraternity whose importance has been indicated by the presence of our ill.u.s.trious guest, who pa.s.ses across the continent as the herald of the civilization of a great people.

The world's conscience being awakened by the progress of public thought, the members of the family of nations are trying to draw closer together for the development of their activities, without fetters or obstacles, under the olive branch of peace and the guaranty of reciprocal respect for their rights.

International conferences are a happy manifestation of that tendency, because, in the contact of representatives of the various states, hindrances and prejudices are dissipated, and there is shown to exist in the collective mind a common aspiration for the teachings of liberty and justice.

America gives a recurring example of such congresses of peace and law.

As each one takes place it is evident that the attributes of sovereignty of the nations which const.i.tute it are displayed more clearly; that free government is taking deeper root, that democratic solidarity is more apparent, and that force is giving way more freely to reason as the fundamental principle of society.

The congress of Rio de Janeiro has that lofty significance. Its material, immediate consequences will be more or less important, but its moral result will be forever of transcendent benefit--a new departure and a step in advance in the development of liberal ideas in this part of the American Continent.

Mr. Secretary of State, your country has taken gigantic strides in the march of progress until it occupies a position in the vanguard. It has set a proud and shining example to its sister nations.

As in the dawn of their emanc.i.p.ation it recognized in them the conqueror's right to stand among the independent states of the earth, so likewise it later stimulated the high aspiration to establish a political system representing the popular will, now inscribed in indelible characters in the preambles of American legislation.

The Argentine Republic, after rude trials, has completed its const.i.tutional regime, gathering experience and learning from the great republic of the North.

The general lines of our organization followed those of the Philadelphia convention, with the modifications imposed by circ.u.mstances, by the irresistible force of tradition, and by the idiosyncrasies peculiar to our race. The forefathers who drafted the Argentine const.i.tution were inspired in their work by those who, to the admiration of the world, created the Const.i.tution of the United States.

Many of our political doctrines are derived from the writings of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay; the spirit of Marshall and Taney are seen in the hearings of our tribunals; and even the children in our schools, where they learn to personify the republican virtues, the love and sacrifice for country, respect for the rights of man, and the prerogatives of the citizen, speak the name of George Washington with that of the foremost Argentines.

Our home inst.i.tutions being closely united and the shadows on the international horizon having disappeared, the Argentine Republic can occupy itself in fraternizing with other nations; and, like the United States, she aspires to strengthen the ties of friendship sanctioned by history and by the ideal philanthropy common to free inst.i.tutions.

Your visit will have, in this aspect, great results. We have invited you to visit our territory in order to link the two countries more intimately; and your presence here indicates that this n.o.ble object will be realized, inspired as it is by the convenience of mutual interests and the sharing of n.o.ble aims.

You are a messenger of the ideals of brotherhood, and as such you are welcome to the Argentine Republic.

I salute you, in the name of the Government and the people who have received you, as the genuine representative of your country, with that sincere desire for friendship which is loyally rooted in the national sentiment of Argentina.

Gentlemen: To the United States of America; to its ill.u.s.trious President, Theodore Roosevelt; to the Secretary of State of North America, Honorable Elihu Root!

REPLY OF MR. ROOT

I thank you, sir, for your kind welcome and for your words of appreciation. I thank you for myself; I thank you for that true and n.o.ble gentleman who holds in the United States of America the same exalted office which you hold here. I thank you in behalf of the millions of citizens in the United States. When your kind and courteous invitation reached me, I was in doubt whether the long absence from official duties would be justified; but I considered that your expression of friendship imposed upon me something more than an opportunity for personal gratification; it imposed upon me a duty. It afforded an opportunity to say something to the Government and the people of Argentina which would justly represent the sentiments and the feelings of the people of the United States toward you all. We do not know as much as we ought in the United States; we do not know as much as I would like to feel we know; but we have a traditional right to be interested in Argentina. I thought today, when we were all involved in the common misfortune, at the time of my landing, that, after all, the United States and Argentina were not simply fair-weather friends. We inherit the right to be interested in Argentina, and to be proud of Argentina. From the time when Richard Rush was fighting, from the day when James Monroe threw down the gauntlet of a weak republic, as we were then, in defense of your independence and rights--from that day to this the interests and the friendship of the people of the United States for the Argentine Republic have never changed. We rejoice in your prosperity; we are proud of your achievements; we feel that you are justifying our faith in free government, and self-government; that you are maintaining our great thesis which demands the possession, the enjoyment, and the control of the earth by the people who inhabit it. We have followed the splendid persistency with which you have fought against the obstacles that stood in your path, with the sympathy that has come from similar struggles at home. Like you, we have had to develop the resources of a vast unpeopled land; like you, we have had to fight for a foothold against the savage Indians; like you, we have had conflicts of races for the possession of territory; like you, we have had to suffer war; like you, we have conquered nature; and like you, we have been holding out our hands to the people of all the world, inviting them to come and add to our development and share our riches.

We live under the same const.i.tution in substance; we are maintaining and attempting to perfect ourselves in the application of the same principles of liberty and justice. So how can the people of the United States help feeling a friendship and sympathy for the people of Argentina? I deemed it a duty to come, in response to your kind invitation to say this, to say that there is not a cloud in the sky of good understanding; there are no political questions at issue between Argentina and the United States; there is no thought of grievance by one against the other; there are no old grudges or scores to settle. We can rejoice in each other's prosperity; we can aid in each other's development; we can be proud of each other's successes without hindrance or drawback. And for the development of this sentiment in both countries, nothing is needed but more knowledge--that we shall know each other better; that not only the most educated and thoughtful readers of our two countries shall become familiar with the history of the other, but that the entire body of the people shall know what are the relations and what are the feelings of the other country. I should be glad if the people of Argentina--not merely you, Mr. President; not merely my friend, the minister of foreign affairs; not merely the gentlemen connected with the Government, but the people of Argentina--might know that the people of the United States are their friends, as I know the people of Argentina are friends of the United States.

I have come to South America with no more specific object than I have stated. Our traditional policy in the United States of America is to make no alliances. It was inculcated by Washington; it has been adhered to by his successors ever since. But, Mr. President, the alliance that comes from unwritten, unsealed instruments, as that from the convention, signed and ratified with all formalities, is of vital consequence. We make no political alliances, but we make an alliance with all our sisters in sentiment and feeling, in the pursuit of liberty and justice, in mutual helpfulness; and in that spirit I beg to return to you and to your Government and the people of this splendid and wonderful country my sincere thanks for the welcome you have given me and my country in my person.

RECEPTION BY AMERICAN AND ENGLISH RESIDENTS

SPEECH OF MR. FRANCIS B. PURDIE

At St. George's Hall, August 16, 1906

Americans resident in Buenos Ayres and in the Argentine Republic are sensible of the honor you have done them by accepting their invitation for this evening, and they appreciate most highly the courtesy of the Argentine Government, whose distinguished guest you are, in allowing them this coveted privilege. As Americans we welcome you to Buenos Ayres, and it is our earnest hope that your visit here will bind more closely the ties of friendship which unite the great republics of the North and of the South, and that the knowledge you will gain of this great country and of its magnificent resources will lead to more familiar intercourse and to that good understanding which should exist between nations governed by like principles, living under const.i.tutions framed in a like spirit, and having similar national aims.

This gathering is the result of a public meeting called immediately after it was learned that you had accepted the invitation of the Argentine Government to visit this city. It was a meeting typically American, which had no dividing line on the question that our Secretary of State was a man whom we would all delight to honor. The executive committee of the North American Society of the River Plata was intrusted with the arrangements. We believe you should know something of that society. Organized only last November, it embraces in its membership practically every American in Buenos Ayres. For its age, I am not afraid to say that it is the most flourishing social organization that has ever been established in this country. What is the object of the society?

Not, I conceive, such as will arouse antagonism or jealousy in the mind of any man. As set forth in the preamble to its const.i.tution, it is: "To keep alive the love of country and foster the spirit of patriotism,...

and for such other purposes as will advance the interests of our country, encourage and maintain friendly relations with the country of our residence, and a.s.sist in promoting closer commercial union between the United States and the countries of the River Plata."

It is an organization framed in the spirit of our beloved Lincoln, "with malice toward none." The society has no political aim or purpose. It plots for nothing but the well-being of all, and wishes for nothing less than the prosperity of the home land and the land of our residence. Its members are imbued with that spirit which is the characteristic American att.i.tude toward all nations and peoples, the spirit of "live and let live." Apart from all that your visit may mean in international comity, it means much to us here; for you, Mr. Secretary, are the very living embodiment of the spirit to which I have referred, that broad Americanism which does not seek to advantage itself by intruding on the rights of others. Every speech made by you since leaving home has been an inspiration to us, and has strengthened us in our determination to live up to the principles upon which our society is founded.

But it is not alone the Americans in Buenos Ayres who have come here tonight to greet you, and who have wished to do you honor. Your kinsmen from across the sea are here in their hundreds, for when it became known that such a reception as this was contemplated, the requests for the privilege of joining with us were so great in number that the sincerity of the English-speaking people could not be questioned, and the American society welcomed the opportunity to invite as its guests as many of the representative British and other English-speaking residents of Buenos Ayres as this hall can hold; and there is represented here every important public interest and private enterprise in this republic, and I have the honor, in their name as well as in the name of your countrymen, to a.s.sure you that you are in the house of your friends.

I have told you, Mr. Root, what your countrymen feel about your coming here; I have referred to the cordial sympathy shown by the English-speaking residents; and it is with feelings of genuine pleasure that I now make reference to the att.i.tude of the Argentine Government and the Argentine people. This reference will not be my personal view alone; it is the expression of the feelings of representative Americans in this city which has been voiced at every meeting we have held within the past few weeks. The Argentine people are, and wish to remain, the friends of the United States. Our committees have had the privilege of holding interviews with high officials of the government, with various committees of the leading citizens; and we have been convinced of the genuine nature of the reception prepared for you. This is too proud a nation to pretend that which it does not feel, and the history of Buenos Ayres will convince any student that this city has never been afraid to speak out, to applaud or condemn as its judgment dictated. The government officials have been sincerely cordial, and they have not been content merely to express their wish to give us every friendly help; they have, apart from their own magnificent preparations, given the Americans here material a.s.sistance.

The world owes much of its progress to opposing views, and the healthiest nations have the strongest political parties taking differing views upon questions of national policy, and these parties reach the public by means of the newspapers. The Argentine Republic is not an exception, but I doubt if there has ever been a theme upon which the press of this country has been so united as that honor should be shown to you. I speak for Americans when I say that in the Argentine Republic we have found a home where absolute freedom is ours,--freedom in every walk of life; freedom for conscience; freedom to live, move, and have our being as G.o.d and our own wills may lead us. There are Argentines here tonight who are not one whit behind us in their enthusiasm for you and for all that you represent, and there is a group here of Argentines who have graduated from American colleges, who wish to say to you that next to their own country they revere the United States of America. You now know, Mr. Root, what friends you have before you, and we all bid you welcome, thrice welcome, to Buenos Ayres.

REPLY OF MR. ROOT

Mr. Chairman, my countrymen, my countrywomen, my friends from the land whence my fathers came, I need not say that I am glad to meet you. No one far away from his own land needs to be told that the looks, faces, the sound of voice, of one's own countrymen are a joy to the wanderer in strange lands. Yet I do not find this such a strange land. I find here so many things to remind me of home, so many things that are like our own country, that it seems a little like coming home. Such is the similarity in conditions, in spirit, in purpose; such is the impress of the same inst.i.tutions and the same principles, that I cannot feel altogether a stranger; and when I meet you here at home almost I feel the warmth of my own fireside.

I am glad to meet you because I think that perhaps to many of you who have been long in this distant land I may bring pleasant memories of cities and farms and homes, left behind many a year ago. But I hope that the new home you have found, the new duties you have taken up, have made you happy, prosperous, useful, full of the ambitions, activities, and satisfactions of life. There have been great changes in the United States of America--of North America, perhaps I must call it,--since most of you left your old homes. When you, Mr. President, left us, we were a debtor nation; we were borrowing money from Europe to develop our own resources, to build up our own country. Most of the money was coming from our English friends. That capital built up our railways to make possible the wonderful development that has made the United States what it is. We had no capital, no time, no energy, to devote to anything but the task before us, to conquer our West and to develop our empty lands.

In that distant day, when Henry Clay and John Quincy Adams espoused the cause of the infant republics of South America, we could have no relations with them but those of political sympathy, because we were too concentrated in the work that lay before us at home. Twenty years ago, when that far-seeing and sanguine statesman, Mr. Blaine, inaugurated his South American policy and brought about the first American Conference at Washington, and the establishment of the Bureau of American Republics, we were still a debtor nation, with no surplus capital, and engrossed in doing our work at home. It was still impossible for us to have any relations with South America, except those of political sympathy.

But since Mr. Blaine, times have changed. We have paid our debts; we have become a creditor rather than a debtor nation. We have for the first time within the last ten years begun to acc.u.mulate surplus capital, and it has acc.u.mulated with a wonderful rapidity,--a surplus capital to enable us to go out and establish new relations with the rest of the world. We now are beginning to be in a position where we can take the same relations towards other countries that England took towards us.

We have paid our debts to England; the use of her capital in developing the United States has resulted in great advantage to both of us; and with the payment of the debt there has been left a warm and, I believe, enduring friendship between England and the United States. I should like to see the same kind of friendship between the United States and South America. I should like to see the great surplus capital which we are acc.u.mulating in the United States of North America turn southwards, to see it used to develop the vast resources of this country, with mutual advantage to both, so that when the time comes in the future, as it will come, when the people of Argentina, with their resources developed, with their population increased, have acc.u.mulated all the capital they need and paid their debts, we shall have had our share both in their development and in their prosperity, and an enduring friendship may exist between us.

Now it has seemed to me, sir, that possibly the opportunity afforded by the kind and courteous invitation of the Argentine Government to visit this country might enable me to do something to this end, just at this juncture when a change in the att.i.tude of the United States toward the rest of the world is taking place, when the change from the debtor to the creditor nation, is made; from the borrower of money to develop resources, to a country with surplus capital to send out to the world;--it seemed to me possible that I might by this visit help to establish the relations which I should like to see existing. I should like to be able to qualify myself to say in the most public way that this is a land to which the poor of all the world, who have enterprise without money, can come and find homes and prosperity, so that by the thousands, by the millions, they may come from the Old World and build up Argentina as they have built up the United States. I feel able to say that this is a sh.o.r.e to which the emigrants from the Old World may come with a certainty of finding homes, occupations, and opportunities for prosperity; that it is a country to which the capital of the United States may come with the certainty that it will be secure, will be protected, and will find profitable employment. I look forward to the time when the wonderful development that is going on here now--not confined alone to this country, but progressing here with an amazing rapidity,--will be as great a wonder to the world as the advance which has taken the United States of North America, expanding from the feeble fringe of colonists along the Atlantic sh.o.r.e to a great nation of eighty millions, stretching from ocean to ocean. Argentina will take some of our markets from us, but what are they? They will be markets she is ent.i.tled to; and with her prosperity, and with the right understanding and relations between the two countries, our commercial relations with her will more than take the place of the markets she takes away from us.

We have nothing to fear in the growing prosperity of Argentina. We have no cause but for rejoicing in her prosperity; no cause but to aid her in every way in our power in her onward progress; and that I believe to be the sincere desire of the whole of the people of the United States.

Mr. President, a heavy responsibility rests upon the citizen of our country who lives in a foreign land. We can misbehave at home and it makes little difference; but every American citizen in a foreign land, every American citizen in the Argentine Republic, is the representative of his country there. He needs no commission; no power can prevent his holding a commission to represent before all the people of Argentina the character of his own countrymen. You represent our beloved land to the people of Argentina. What you are they will believe us to be. As they study your character and conduct their estimate of us rises, and it is with the greatest pleasure that I find here among this people whom I respect so highly, whose good opinion for my country I so greatly desire, a body of Americans, a body of my countrymen, so worthy, so estimable, so high in reputation, so well fitted to maintain the standard of the United States of America, high, pure, unsullied, worthy of all honor.

BANQUET AT THE OPERA HOUSE

SPEECH OF DR. LUIS M. DRAGO

PRESIDENT OF THE RECEPTION COMMITTEE

August 17, 1906

The large gathering here a.s.sembled, representative of all that Buenos Ayres has of the most notable in science, letters, industry, and commerce, has conferred on me the signal honor of designating me to offer this banquet to the eminent minister of one of the greatest nations of the earth, a nation linked to us from the very beginning by many and very real sentiments of moral and political solidarity. This country has not forgotten that in the trying times of the colonial emanc.i.p.ation, our fathers could rely on the sympathy and the warm and disinterested adhesion of the American people, our predecessors and our guides in the paths of liberty. The thrilling utterances of Henry Clay defending our cause when everything appeared to threaten our revolution, have never been surpa.s.sed in their n.o.ble eloquence; and it was due to the generosity and foresight of their great statesmen that the United States were the first to receive us with open arms as their equals in the community of sovereign nations.

The spiritual affinity thus happily established has gone on strengthening itself almost imperceptibly ever since by the reproduction of inst.i.tutions and legal customs.