After Mr. Root's admirable speech, after such an orator as Mr. Root, and
so inspired as he has been, nobody should have the courage to speak.
Nevertheless, I do not know how to resist the wishes of our amiable
host, our eminent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and of those who
surround me here. This is quite an unexpected surprise for me; but it
comes in so imperious a way that I cannot but submit, hoping you will
be indulgent.
We have felt in Mr. Root's words the vibration of the American soul in
all its intensity, in all its eloquence, in all its power, in all its
trustiness. So they could not have a better answer than the applause of
so brilliant an audience as has just greeted his remarkable speech.
However, since the task of rendering the echo of Mr. Root's words in our
hearts devolves upon me, I can only perform it truthfully by thanking
him "again and still again," for his beneficent visit to Brazil.
We suppose, Mr. Root, that it does not come only from you. We are sure
that you would not take this far-reaching step unless you counted,
without a shadow of doubt, upon the sanction of American opinion. And
knowing as we do that the United States are, from every standpoint, the
most complete and dazzling success among modern nations, admiring them
as the honor and pride of our continent, we rejoice, we exult, to open
our homes, our bosoms, the arms of our modest and honest hospitality, to
the giant of the republics, to the mother of American democracies, in
the person of her own Government, one of whose strongest and noblest
functions centers in the person of her Secretary of State.
Our life as an independent nation is not yet a long one. We are, as
such, only about eighty years old, albeit this may not be a very brief
period in these days of ours, when time should not be measured by the
number of years, inasmuch as not a great deal more than a century has
been enough for the United States to become one of the greatest powers
in the world. Short as it is, however, our national existence has not
been devoid of noble dates, of fruitful and memorable events.
Amidst them, Mr. Root, this one will stand forever as a blessed
landmark, or rather as the gushing-out of a new political stream, whose
waves of peace, of freedom, of morality, shall spread by and by all over
the immensity of our continent.
This is our wish, I will not say our dream, but our hope. You must have
felt it, and will continue to feel it, at the throbbing of our national
arteries, in Recife, in Bahia, now in this capital, and tomorrow in Sao
Paulo.
Do not see in my words the looming of a momentous sensation. No! They do
not tell my own impressions as an individual. They convey truthfully the
voice of the people through the lips of a man who does not serve other
interests. They only anticipate, I believe, what you shall hear from our
legislative representation, in the highest demonstration of public
feeling possible under a popular government; may the historic scene of
Lafayette, the liberal French soldier, the fellow-helper in American
independence, being received in the American House of Representatives,
find a worthy imitation in the reception of the great American Minister,
the daring promoter of union in the American continent, by the two
Houses of our National Congress.
So let us raise our cup to the northern colossus, the model of liberal
republics, the United States of America, in their living and vigorous
personification, in their image visible and cherished among us, Mr.
Elihu Root.