Chapter 8

In the conference between Lord Castlereagh and Minister Rush, the latter positively declared that the United States could never contribute to such retrogression, and that the aims of their Government favored the recognition of the complete independence of America. This was in 1818.

It would occupy much time, Mr. President, but would not be without interest, to review in detail all the negotiations entered into by the North American representative in London, from the time of Lord Castlereagh to that of Canning, who succeeded him.

In February, 1819, Rush notified Castlereagh that the Washington Government considered that the new South American states had established the position obtained by the victory of their arms, and that President Monroe had given an _exequatur_ to a consul from Buenos Ayres, and was resolved at all hazards to recognize Argentine independence. Lord Castlereagh declared himself openly at variance with the views of the Government of the United States, and said that Great Britain had done all that was possible to terminate the strife between Spain and her colonies, but always on the basis of the restoration of the dominion of the former. In 1819, then, the United States were the only nation that insisted upon asserting the independence of our country.

Thanks to their attitude, all the attempts begun by the Holy Alliance to suppress the movement for emancipation failed.

The death of Lord Castlereagh did not change the situation. Even the acts of Canning, if examined, and if the negotiations of the then American minister are analyzed, leave an impression of opposition, because that great British Minister, who, according to history, clinched as it were the independence of this country with his celebrated declaration, was not always of the same way of thinking; and it was necessary for the minister of the United States to inculcate in him the policy of his country in order that he should decide to adopt a policy openly favorable to South American independence. Such is the finding of the most accurate of Argentine historians.

On March 8, 1882, President Monroe sent to the Congress of the United States his celebrated message proposing the recognition of the Argentine independence. In that message the President renewed his assurances of sympathy for the cause of Buenos Ayres, and confirmed the entire disinterestedness with which his Government espoused the cause of the political integrity of the youthful nation. The House of Representatives voted the recognition of Argentine independence unanimously, except for one vote--that of Representative Garnett, who declared that he did not object to the recognition, but that he considered it unnecessary, and he cited in support of his view an opinion of Rivadavia. The United States was, then, the first country after Portugal (which through motives of special interest had recognized our independence), to make a similar recognition; and England, which followed the United States, did not do so until three years later, January 1, 1825.

Even after the recognition of Argentine independence by the United States, conferences continued to be held in Europe to establish the régime of the dominion of the mother country over the already independent colonies. Then new conferences took place with Canning, in which the minister of the United States confirmed anew the policy of his country in the matter of the final recognition of the independence of this republic. During that period, a document appeared that emanated from John Quincy Adams, addressed to Rush, in which he declined to enter into the plan for convoking a congress intended to treat of the questions of South America, and stated that the United States would never attend such a congress unless the South American republics were first invited.

To accentuate the attitude of his Government, Mr. Adams adds that if the congress were to take place, with intent hostile to the new republics, the United States would solemnly protest against it and its calamitous consequences.

The systematic and persistent action of the United States ended by determining in Canning a policy favorable to South American independence, and opposed to the intervention of any foreign power in the destinies of the new republics.

Great Britain and the United States once in accord, after negotiations in which Jefferson and Madison united their counsel to that of President Monroe, these two patriots expressing themselves in terms of moving eloquence in favor of the cause of emancipation, the question was settled forever.

Some months afterward, December 2, 1823, President Monroe consummated his action by sending to Congress the message that contains the enunciation of his famous doctrine. "America for the Americans", Mr. President, was a formula that, as I understand it, meant the final consecration of the independence of the American nations; it was the voice of the most powerful of them all, proclaiming to the world that conquest in the domain of this America was at an end; it was notification to the conquering powers of Europe that they should not extend themselves to these continents because this extensive territory was all occupied by free nations, outside of whose sovereignty not an inch was vacant.

The independence of these republics having been settled on the field of battle by the sole force of the republics, the declaration of the American President was the culminating act of that grand epic. For the United States it is a record of honor; for Europe it is an ultimatum.

The Monroe Doctrine exists today with all the force of a law of nations, and no country of Europe has dared to dispute it.

It is fitting, Mr. President, to appreciate exactly the meaning of this great act, of the splendid attitude, more fertile for the peace of the earth and for its progress than all the conventions that European nations have arranged from time to time in order to determine their quarrels. The American President, in formulating this doctrine, decreed peace between Europe and America, which seemed destined, the former to assault always for conquest, the latter to fight always to defend its frontiers. In short, the Monroe Doctrine has been the veto on war between Europe and America; in its shadow these youthful nations have grown until today they are sufficiently strong to proclaim the same doctrine as the emblem on their shield. And the most glorious characteristic of this doctrine is that it is a dictate of civilization, in the nature of a magnificent hymn of peace, which can be chanted at the same time by the European and the American nations, because it avoided that permanent contention which would have subvened if the system of conquest that Europe has developed in regard to certain nations had been implanted here in the territory of South America.

Well, Mr. President, he who is coming to visit us is a conspicuous citizen of that nation, and brings, as it is said--and I believe the Foreign Office already is informed in regard thereto--a message of peace and fraternity of utmost interest to our progress. We ought to take advantage of this opportunity to give this envoy a reception worthy of his people and worthy of himself.

I have privately communicated to the Minister for Foreign Affairs the idea of this project, and I have had the pleasure to hear from his lips the most complete adherence to my declaration that in addition to a bill authorizing the expenses, there was the intention of preparing for Mr. Root a manifestation emanating spontaneously from the Argentine Congress. The Minister believes this demonstration to be the necessary complement of the demonstration the national government is preparing for this envoy from the great republic.

The historic facts I have recalled are a brief synthesis of an epoch sufficient to warrant the Argentine people in associating themselves with the Government and lending to the event their warm interest. I am doubly pleased to have recalled this noble history on the Fourth of July, the anniversary of the independence of the great republic of the North.

I believe that for these reasons, gentlemen, you will lend your support to this idea and fulfill the purpose for which it is presented.

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 illustrious guest, who passes 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 constitute 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 emancipation 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 constitutional régime, 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 circumstances, by the irresistible force of tradition, and by the idiosyncrasies peculiar to our race. The forefathers who drafted the Argentine constitution were inspired in their work by those who, to the admiration of the world, created the Constitution 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 institutions 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 institutions.

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 noble object will be realized, inspired as it is by the convenience of mutual interests and the sharing of noble 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 illustrious 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 noble 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 constitution 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 constitutions 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 constitution, 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 assist 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 attitude 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 assure 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 attitude 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 assistance.

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 God 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