The enthusiastic and cordial welcome you have received in Brazil must
certainly have convinced you that this country is a true friend of
yours.
This friendship is of long standing. It dates from the first days of our
independence, which the Government of the United States was the first to
recognize, as the Government of Brazil was the first to applaud the
terms and spirit of the declarations contained in the famous message of
President Monroe. Time has but increased, in the minds and hearts of
successive generations of Brazilians, the sympathy and admiration which
the founders of our nationality felt for the United States of America.
The manifestations of friendship for the United States which you have
witnessed come from all the Brazilian people, and not from the official
world alone, and it is our earnest desire that this friendship, which
has never been disturbed in the past, may continue forever and grow
constantly closer and stronger.
Gentlemen, I drink to the health of the distinguished Secretary of State
of the United States of America, Mr. Elihu Root, who has so brilliantly
and effectively aided President Roosevelt in the great work of the
political _rapprochement_ of the American nations.