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!