Chapter 6

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 Massachusetts 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 assist 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 sturdy 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 noble 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 sturdy 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, nobody 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 noblest 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 noble 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 São 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 anticipate, 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] _Deuxième Conférence de la Paix_, Vol. II, p. 644.

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

URUGUAY

MONTEVIDEO

SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY JOSÉ 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 illustrious 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 constitute 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 illustrious 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.

These sentiments, as is well known, have been increasing with the events that have made a vigorous people of the great northern republic, capable of preponderating in the destinies of humanity on account of the enterprising genius of all its sons, on account of the irresistible force of its energies and of its abundant riches; and, very especially, on account of its redeeming influence of republican virtues, a characteristic mark of the Puritan and the other elements which organized the Federal Government on the immovable base of liberty, justice, and democracy.

The pages of history show that the ideals of its own Constitution, like every great and generous ideal, passing over the distance from the Potomac to the banks of the River Plata, penetrated immediately to the farthest corner of the American Continent. There soon afterwards arose a new world of free countries where the undertakings of Solís or Pizarro and Cortés will initiate a civilization destined to prosper in the life-giving blast of liberty and in the vigorous impulse which democracy infused into the old organizations of the colonial régime. The example of the United States and its moral assistance animated the patriots.

Put to the proof in the memorable struggle for emancipation, its fortitude and its heroism overturned all obstacles until the desired moment of the consolidation, by its own effort, of the independence of the American Continent. Indeed, the influence of the United States in the diplomatic negotiations which preceded the recognition of the new nationalities, and the chivalrous declaration which President Monroe launched upon the world, contributed efficaciously to assure the stability of the growing republic. Its development and its greatness were, from that instant, intrusted to the patriotism of its sons, to the fraternity of the American peoples, and to the fruitful labor of the coming generations.

In spite of such social upheavals, which bring with them the ready-made collisions of arms, the antagonism of interests, and the struggle of ideas--inherent factors of every movement of emancipation--the nations of the new continent should not, nor will they, ever forget that from Spanish ground Columbus's three-masted vessel--a Homeric expedition--set forth, founders of numerous peoples and flourishing colonies, leaving in our land mementos, languages, customs, sentiments and traditions, which the evolutions of the human spirit do not easily obliterate. From noble France and its glorious revulsion against the remnants of feudalism arose the declaration of the rights of man and equitable ideas, which are faithfully portrayed in our democratic institutions. Italy, Germany, and Spain send to America a valuable contingent of their emigration. The currents of commerce and progress were at one time, and they are at the present time, largely fomented by the shipping and the capital of Great Britain. From the foreign office of that nation, among all the powers of old Europe, came the first disposition toward the recognition of American independence. All these circumstances are bonds which tie us to the European countries, but which do not hinder, nor can they hinder, our relations with the great northern republic, as with all those of Latin origin, always being cordially maintained, strengthened, and increased toward the ends of highly noble and patriotic progress, developing a world policy of wise foresight, tending to consolidate the destinies of the American countries.

Difficulties, soon to disappear, due to distance and lack of rapid and direct communications, have impeded the active interchange between the United States and this country, barring which no reason exists why their social and commercial relations may not be extended with reciprocal advantages.

In giving welcome to Mr. Root on his arrival in Uruguayan territory, I consider as one of my most pleasing personal gratifications the fact of having initiated the idea of inviting our distinguished guest to visit the River Plata countries.

If, as I do not doubt, the visit of the distinguished member of the Government of the United States shall make the peoples of the north and the south know one another better; if the era of Pan American fraternity takes the flight to which we should aspire; if these demonstrations of courtesy are to tend, therefore, toward the progress of the nations of the continent and the mutual respect and consideration of their respective governments, the satisfaction of having promoted some of these benefits and the honor of a happy initiative, deferentially received by the illustrious Secretary of State, to whom the oriental people today offer the testimony of their esteem and sympathy, belong, at least in part, to the Uruguayan foreign office.

I drink, ladies and gentlemen, to Pan American fraternity, to the greatness of the United States of North America, to the health of His Excellency President Roosevelt, to the happiness of Mr. Elihu Root and of his distinguished family.

REPLY OF MR. ROOT

I have already thanked you for that welcome message which greeted my first advent in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. I have now to add my thanks, both for the gracious invitation which brings me here and for the surpassing kindness and hospitality with which I and my family have been welcomed to Montevideo. It is most gratifying to hear from the lips of one of the masters of South American diplomacy, one who knows the reality of international politics, so just an estimate of the attitude of my own country toward her South American sisters. The great declaration of Monroe, made in the infancy of Latin American liberty, was an assertion to all the world of the competency of Latin Americans to govern themselves. That assertion my country has always maintained; and my presence here is, in part, for the purpose of giving evidence of her belief that the truth of the assertion has been demonstrated; that, in the progressive development which attends the course of nations, the peoples of South America have proved that their national tendencies and capacities are, and will be, on and ever on in the path of ordered liberty. I am here to learn more, and also to demonstrate our belief in the substantial similarity of interests and sympathies of the American self-governing republics.

You have justly indicated that there is nothing in the growing friendship between our countries which imperils the interests of those countries in the Old World from which we have drawn our languages, our traditions, and the bases of our customs and our laws.

I think it may be safely said that those nations who planted their feeble colonies on these shores, from which we have spread so widely, have profited far more from the independence of the American republics than they would have profited if their unwise system of colonial government had been continued. In the establishment of these free and independent nations in this continent they have obtained a profitable outlet for their trade, employment for their commerce, food for their people, and refuge for their poor and their surplus population. We have done more than that. We have tried here their experiments in government for them. The reflex action of the American experiments in government has been felt in every country in Europe without exception, and has been far more effective in its influence than any good quality of the old colonial system could have been. And now our prosperity but adds to their prosperity. Intercourse in trade, exchange of thought in learning, in literature, in art--all add to their power and their prosperity, their intellectual activity, and their commercial strength. We still draw from their stores of wealth commercially, spiritually, intellectually, and physically, and we are beginning to return, in rich measure, with interest, what we have got from them. We have learned that national aggrandizement and national prosperity are to be gained rather by national friendship than by national violence. The friendship for your country that we from the North have is a friendship that imperils no interest of Europe. It is a friendship that springs from a desire to promote the common welfare of mankind by advancing the rule of order, of justice, of humanity, and of the Christianity which makes for the prosperity and happiness of all mankind. It is not as a messenger of strife that I come to you; but I am here as the advocate of universal friendship and peace.

ADDRESS OF HIS EXCELLENCY JOSÉ BATLLE Y ORDÓÑEZ

PRESIDENT OF URUGUAY

At the Banquet given by him at the Government House, August 11, 1906

We celebrate an event new to South America--the presence in the heart of our republics of a member of the Government of the United States of the North. That grand nation has wished thus to manifest the interest her sisters of the South inspire in her and her purpose of strongly drawing together the links that bind her to them.

Born on the same continent and in the same epoch, ruled by the same institutions, animated by the same spirit of liberty and progress, and destined alike to cause republican ideas to prevail on earth, it is natural that the nations of all America should approach nearer and nearer to each other, and unite more and more amongst themselves; and it is natural, also, that the most powerful and the most advanced amongst them should be the one to take the initiative in this union.

Your grand republic, Mr. Secretary of State, is consistent in confiding to you this mission of fraternity and solidarity with the ideas and intentions manifested by her at the dawn of the liberty of our continent. The same sentiment that inspired the Monroe Doctrine brings you to our shores as the herald of the concord and community of America.

We welcome you most cordially. You find us earnestly laboring to make justice prevail, enamored of progress, confident in the future. Far removed from the European continent, whence emerges the wave of humanity that peoples the American territories and becomes the origin of nations so glorious as yours, the growth and organization of the peoples in these regions have been slow; and public and social order has been frequently upset in our distant and scarcely populated prairies. But in the midst of these disturbances that have likewise afflicted, in their epochs of formation, almost all the present best constituted nations, sound tendencies and true principles of order and liberty prevail, nationalities are constituted in a definite manner, and republican institutions are consecrated.

Your great nation, Mr. Secretary of State, is not new to this work. She has had important participation in it. I do not refer to the Monroe Doctrine that made the elder sister the zealous defender of the younger ones. I speak of the radiant example of your republican virtue, your industrial initiative, your economic development, your scientific advances, your ardent and virile activity that has reënforced our faith in right, in liberty, in justice, in the republic, and has animated us--as a noble and victorious example does animate--in our dark days of disturbance and disaster.

Yes, the epoch of internal convulsions is drawing to its close in this part of America, and the peoples, finding themselves organized and at peace, are dedicating themselves to all those tasks that exalt the human mind and originate, in modern times, the greatness of nations. You tread upon a land that has recently been watered abundantly with blood--upon one in which, nevertheless, the love of liberty, within the limits of order, the love of well-being, and the love of progress under legal governments is intense; upon one in which we live earnestly dedicated, in all branches of activity, to the labor that dignifies and fortifies, certain that for us has commenced an honorable era of internal peace. You have said it, Mr. Secretary of State: Out of the tumult of wars strong and stable governments have arisen; law prevails over the will of man; right and liberty are respected.

But this progress of public reason must be complemented. It is not sufficient that internal peace should be assured; it is necessary to secure external peace also. It is necessary that the American nations should draw near to each other; should know, should love each other; it is requisite to drive away, to suppress the danger of distrust, of rivalry, and of international conflicts; that the same sentiment that repudiated internal struggles should rise within as against the struggles of people against people, and that these should also be considered as the unfruitful shedding of the blood of brethren; that the calamitous armed peace may never appear in our land, and that the enormous sums used to sustain it on the European and Asiatic continents shall be employed amongst us in the development of industries, commerce, arts, and sciences.

The work may be realized by determination and constancy. The republican institutions that everywhere prevail on our continent are not propitious to the Caesars who make their glory consist in the sinister brilliancy of battles and in the increase of their territorial domains. These same institutions give voice and vote in the direction of public affairs to the multitudes, whose primordial interest is ever peace, the sparing of their own blood, so unfruitfully shed in the great catastrophes of war.

America will be, then, the continent of peace, of a just peace, founded on respect for the rights of all nations, a respect which--as you, Mr. Secretary of State, have said in tones that have resounded all over the surface of the earth, deeply moving all true hearts--must be as great for the weakest nations as for the most powerful empires. This Pan American public opinion will be created and will be made effective, a public opinion charged to systematize the international conduct of the nations, to suppress injustice, and to establish among them relations ever more and more profoundly cordial.

Your country and your Government fulfill the part, not of the false friend that incites to anarchy and weakens her friends that she may prevail over them and dominate them, but that of the faithful and true friend who exerts herself to unite them; and, that they may become good and strong, concurs with all her moral power in the realization of this work of the Pan American Congresses, destined to become a modern amphictyon to whose decisions all the great American questions will be submitted, already giving prestige thereto by such words as you have spoken to the Congress of Rio de Janeiro, which present to the American world new and grand perspectives of peace and progress.

Mr. Secretary of State, ladies and gentlemen, in the presence of deeds of this magnitude, inspired and filled with enthusiasm by them, let us pour out a libation to the United States of the North, to its vigorous President, to you and to your distinguished family, the herald of continental friendship, and to the American fatherland, from the Bering Straits to Cape Horn.

REPLY OF MR. ROOT