I thank you again and still again for the generous hospitality which is
making my reception in Brazil so charming.
Coming here as head of the department of foreign affairs of my country
and seated at the table of the minister of foreign affairs of the great
Republic of Brazil, where I am your guest, I am forcibly reminded of the
change which, within the last few years, has taken place in the
diplomacy of the world, leading to a modern diplomacy that consists of
telling the truth, a result of the government of the people by the
people, which is in our days taking the place of personal government by
sovereigns. It is the people who make peace or war; their desires, their
sentiments, affections, and prejudices are the great and important
factors which diplomacy has to consult, which diplomats have to
interpret, and which they have to obey. Modern diplomacy is frank,
because modern democracies have no secrets; they endeavor not only to
know the truth, but also to express it.
And in this way I have come here as your guest; not because the fertile
or ingenious mind of some ruler has deemed it judicious or convenient,
but because my visit naturally represents the friendship which the
eighty million inhabitants of the great Republic of the North have for
the twenty million people of Brazil; and it is a just interpretation of
that friendship. The depth of sentiment which in me corresponds to your
kind reception results from the knowledge I have that the cordiality
which I find here represents in reality the friendship that Brazilians
entertain for my dear country. Not in my personal name or as
representative of an isolated individual, but in the name of all the
people of my country and in the spirit of the great declaration
mentioned by you, Mr. Minister, the declaration known by the name of
Monroe, and which was the bulwark and safeguard of Latin America from
the dawn of its independence, I raise my glass, certain that all present
will unite with me in a toast to the progress, prosperity, and happiness
of the Brazilian Republic.