The large gathering here assembled, representative of all that Buenos
Ayres has of the most notable in science, letters, industry, and
commerce, has conferred on me the signal honor of designating me to
offer this banquet to the eminent minister of one of the greatest
nations of the earth, a nation linked to us from the very beginning by
many and very real sentiments of moral and political solidarity. This
country has not forgotten that in the trying times of the colonial
emancipation, our fathers could rely on the sympathy and the warm and
disinterested adhesion of the American people, our predecessors and our
guides in the paths of liberty. The thrilling utterances of Henry Clay
defending our cause when everything appeared to threaten our revolution,
have never been surpassed in their noble eloquence; and it was due to
the generosity and foresight of their great statesmen that the United
States were the first to receive us with open arms as their equals in
the community of sovereign nations.
The spiritual affinity thus happily established has gone on
strengthening itself almost imperceptibly ever since by the reproduction
of institutions and legal customs.
Our charter was inspired by the American Constitution and acts through
the operation of similar laws. The great examples of the Union are also
our examples; and being sincere lovers of liberty we rejoice in the
triumphs (which in a certain sense we consider our own) of the greatest
of democratic nations.
George Washington is, for us, one of the great figures of history, the
tutelar personality, the supreme model, a prototype of abnegation,
honor, and wisdom; and there is an important region in the province of
Buenos Ayres bearing the name of Lincoln, as a homage to the austere
patriotism of that statesman and martyr. The names of Jefferson,
Madison, and Quincy Adams are household words with us; and in our
parliamentary debates and popular assemblies mention is frequently made
of the statesmen, the orators, and the judges of the great sister
republic.
There thus exist, honorable sir, a long-established friendship, an
intercommunion of thought and purpose which draw peoples together more
closely, intimately, and indissolubly than can be accomplished by the
formulae--often barren--of the foreign offices.
And the moment is certainly propitious for drawing closer the bonds of
international amity which your excellency's visit puts in relief, and
which have found such eloquent expression in the Pan American Congress
of Rio de Janeiro. Enlightened patriotism has understood at last that on
this continent, with its immense riches and vast unexplored regions,
power and wealth are not to be looked for in conquest and displacements,
but in collaboration and solidarity, which will people the wilderness
and give the soil to the plow. It has understood, moreover, that
America, by reason of the nationalities of which it is composed, of the
nature of the representative institutions which they have adopted, by
the very character of their people, separated as they have been from the
conflicts and complications of European governments, and even by the
gravitation of peculiar circumstances and events, has been constituted a
separate political factor, a new and vast theater for the development of
the human race, which will serve as a counterpoise to the great
civilizations of the other hemisphere, and so maintain the equilibrium
of the world.
It is consequently our sacred duty to preserve the integrity of America,
material and moral, against the menaces and artifices, very real and
effective, that unfortunately surround it. It is not long since one of
the most eminent of living jurisconsults of Great Britain denounced the
possibility of the danger. "The enemies of light and freedom," he said,
"are neither dead nor sleeping; they are vigilant, active, militant, and
astute." And it was in obedience to that sentiment of common defense
that in a critical moment the Argentine Republic proclaimed the
impropriety of the forcible collection of public debts by European
nations, not as an abstract principle of academic value or as a legal
rule of universal application outside of this continent (which it is
not incumbent on us to maintain), but as a principle of American
diplomacy which, whilst being founded on equity and justice, has for its
exclusive object to spare the peoples of this continent the calamities
of conquest, disguised under the mask of financial interventions, in the
same way as the traditional policy of the United States, without
accentuating superiority or seeking preponderance, condemned the
oppression of the nations of this part of the world and the control of
their destinies by the great powers of Europe. The dreams and utopias of
today are the facts and commonplaces of tomorrow and the principle
proclaimed must sooner or later prevail.
The gratitude we owe to the nations of Europe is indeed very great, and
much we still have to learn from them. We are the admirers of their
secular institutions; more than once we have been moved by their great
ideals, and under no circumstances whatsoever should we like to sever or
to weaken the links of a long-established friendship. But we want, at
the same time, and it is only just and fair, that the genius and
tendency of our democratic communities be respected. They are advancing
slowly, it is true; struggling at times and occasionally making a pause,
but none the less strong and progressive for all that, and already
showing the unequivocal signs of success in what may be called the most
considerable trial mankind has ever made of the republican system of
government.
In the meantime, to reach their ultimate greatness and have an influence
in the destinies of the world, these nations only require to come
together and have a better knowledge of each other, to break up the old
colonial isolation, and realize the contraction of America, as what is
called the contraction of the world has always been effected by the
annihilation of distance through railways, telegraphs, and the thousand
and one means of communication and interchange at the disposal of modern
civilization.
The increase of commerce and the public fortune will be brought about in
this way; but such results as concern only material prosperity will
appear unimportant when compared with the blessings of a higher order
which are sure to follow, when, realizing the inner meaning of things,
and stimulated by spiritual communion, these peoples meet each other as
rivals only in the sciences and arts, in literature and government, and
most of all in the practice of virtues, which are the best ornament of
the state and the foundation stone of all enduring grandeur of the human
race.
Gentlemen:
To the United States, the noblest and the greatest of democratic
nations!
To Mr. Roosevelt, the President of transcendental initiative and
strenuous life!
To his illustrious minister, our guest, the highest and most eloquent
representative of American solidarity, for whom I have not words
sufficiently expressive to convey all the pleasure we feel in receiving
him, and how we honor ourselves by having him in our midst.