I thank you, sir, for your kind welcome and for your words of
appreciation. I thank you for myself; I thank you for that true and
noble gentleman who holds in the United States of America the same
exalted office which you hold here. I thank you in behalf of the
millions of citizens in the United States. When your kind and courteous
invitation reached me, I was in doubt whether the long absence from
official duties would be justified; but I considered that your
expression of friendship imposed upon me something more than an
opportunity for personal gratification; it imposed upon me a duty. It
afforded an opportunity to say something to the Government and the
people of Argentina which would justly represent the sentiments and the
feelings of the people of the United States toward you all. We do not
know as much as we ought in the United States; we do not know as much as
I would like to feel we know; but we have a traditional right to be
interested in Argentina. I thought today, when we were all involved in
the common misfortune, at the time of my landing, that, after all, the
United States and Argentina were not simply fair-weather friends. We
inherit the right to be interested in Argentina, and to be proud of
Argentina. From the time when Richard Rush was fighting, from the day
when James Monroe threw down the gauntlet of a weak republic, as we were
then, in defense of your independence and rights--from that day to this
the interests and the friendship of the people of the United States for
the Argentine Republic have never changed. We rejoice in your
prosperity; we are proud of your achievements; we feel that you are
justifying our faith in free government, and self-government; that you
are maintaining our great thesis which demands the possession, the
enjoyment, and the control of the earth by the people who inhabit it. We
have followed the splendid persistency with which you have fought
against the obstacles that stood in your path, with the sympathy that
has come from similar struggles at home. Like you, we have had to
develop the resources of a vast unpeopled land; like you, we have had to
fight for a foothold against the savage Indians; like you, we have had
conflicts of races for the possession of territory; like you, we have
had to suffer war; like you, we have conquered nature; and like you, we
have been holding out our hands to the people of all the world, inviting
them to come and add to our development and share our riches.
We live under the same constitution in substance; we are maintaining and
attempting to perfect ourselves in the application of the same
principles of liberty and justice. So how can the people of the United
States help feeling a friendship and sympathy for the people of
Argentina? I deemed it a duty to come, in response to your kind
invitation to say this, to say that there is not a cloud in the sky of
good understanding; there are no political questions at issue between
Argentina and the United States; there is no thought of grievance by one
against the other; there are no old grudges or scores to settle. We can
rejoice in each other's prosperity; we can aid in each other's
development; we can be proud of each other's successes without hindrance
or drawback. And for the development of this sentiment in both
countries, nothing is needed but more knowledge--that we shall know each
other better; that not only the most educated and thoughtful readers of
our two countries shall become familiar with the history of the other,
but that the entire body of the people shall know what are the relations
and what are the feelings of the other country. I should be glad if the
people of Argentina--not merely you, Mr. President; not merely my
friend, the minister of foreign affairs; not merely the gentlemen
connected with the Government, but the people of Argentina--might know
that the people of the United States are their friends, as I know the
people of Argentina are friends of the United States.
I have come to South America with no more specific object than I have
stated. Our traditional policy in the United States of America is to
make no alliances. It was inculcated by Washington; it has been adhered
to by his successors ever since. But, Mr. President, the alliance that
comes from unwritten, unsealed instruments, as that from the convention,
signed and ratified with all formalities, is of vital consequence. We
make no political alliances, but we make an alliance with all our
sisters in sentiment and feeling, in the pursuit of liberty and justice,
in mutual helpfulness; and in that spirit I beg to return to you and to
your Government and the people of this splendid and wonderful country my
sincere thanks for the welcome you have given me and my country in my
person.