Governor Landa, your welcome now is as it has been from the first
instant of my visit, both graceful and grateful. I have been most
delighted by the many interesting things I have seen here.
Above all things, I feel impelled to say that the most interesting thing
in Mexico, so far as my knowledge goes, is your President. It has seemed
to me that of all the men now living, Porfirio Diaz, of Mexico, is best
worth seeing. Whether one considers the adventurous, daring, chivalric
incidents of his early career; whether one considers the vast work of
government which his wisdom and courage and commanding character have
accomplished; whether one considers his singularly attractive
personality, no one lives today whom I would rather see than President
Diaz. If I were a poet, I would write poetry; if I were a musician, I
would compose triumphal marches; if I were a Mexican, I should feel that
the steadfast loyalty of a lifetime could not be too much in return for
the blessings that he had brought to my country. As I am neither poet,
musician, nor Mexican, but only an American who loves justice and
liberty and hopes to see their reign among mankind progress and
strengthen and become perpetual, I look to Porfirio Diaz, the President
of Mexico, as one of the great men to be held up for the hero worship of
mankind.