THE THIRD CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLICS
RIO DE JANEIRO, JULY 31, 1906
As Secretary of State Mr. Root was _ex-officio_ chairman of
the Governing Board of the Bureau of American Republics, now
called the Pan American Union. As chairman, he took a very
great interest in considering and arranging the program of
the third conference which was to meet in Rio de Janeiro on
July 23, 1906. Indeed, he was so deeply interested in the
conference of the American republics upon the eve of the
meeting of the Second Hague Peace Conference, that he
decided to visit Rio de Janeiro during the meeting of the
conference. The American republics welcomed this decision as
soon as it was made known and urged him to visit them, and
it was with great regret that Mr. Root found himself unable
to visit all of the republics. He was made honorary
president of the conference and in that capacity delivered
the following address.
It is proper to state, in this connection, that all the
American republics were invited to attend and to participate
in the Second Hague Peace Conference and that the Conference
was set for 1906. Mr. Root was unwilling that either
conference should interfere with the other, and through his
intervention with the European Powers the Second Hague Peace
Conference was postponed to the summer of 1907, in order not
to interfere with the Pan American Conference held at Rio de
Janeiro in the summer of 1906, and the participation of the
American republics in that conference. Only three American
republics were invited to the First Hague Peace Conference,
namely, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Through the
efforts of the United States, and particularly through Mr.
Root's efforts as Secretary of State, all of the American
republics were invited to the Second Hague Peace Conference.
The noble passage in Mr. Root's address as honorary
president of the conference, proclaiming the equality of
American states, and quoted by President Roosevelt in his
message to Congress, reproduced in the preface to this
volume, was constantly referred to by Latin American
delegates in the Hague Peace Conference, and was quoted by
Mr. Ruy Barbosa, the Brazilian delegate, who added, "These
words reverberated through the length and the breadth of our
continent, as the American evangel of peace and of
justice."[1]