I am highly appreciative of the very great honor which you have now
conferred upon me. It is all the more grateful to me that in the
ceremony which makes me an associate of this distinguished body, so
prominent a part should be taken by a gentleman who, as the
representative of Mexico in the capital of the United States, has not
only taught me to admire his rare intellectual ability, but has won from
me, by the grace and purity of his character, the warmth of friendship
which adds especial pleasure to every new association with him into
which I can enter. I feel, sir, that the compliment which you have paid
to this little work of mine, produced without any idea that it should
receive so distinguished an honor or find its way so far from home, I
must ascribe rather to friendship than to any intrinsic merit of the
work; but I thank you, and I am most appreciative of the honor that you
do me in causing it to be translated into Spanish and making it the
subject of your resolution.
Circumstances have not permitted, and do not permit, that I should
present to the Academy any thesis or discussion adequate to be
associated with the admirable and well-considered papers which have been
read by Mr. Casasus and yourself. I wish, however, in addition to
expressing my thanks, to indicate in a few words the special
significance which this academy and my new association with it seem to
me to have. We are passing, undoubtedly, into a new era of international
communication. We have turned our backs upon the old days of armed
invasion, and the people of every civilized country are constantly
engaged in the peaceable invasion of every other civilized country. The
sciences, the literature, the customs, the lessons of experience, the
skill, the spirit of every country, exercise an influence upon every
other. In this peaceful interchange of the products of the intellect, in
this constant passing to and fro of the people of different countries of
the civilized world, we find in each land a system of law peculiar to
the country itself, and answering to what I believe to be a just
description of all laws which regulate the relations of individuals to
each other, in being a formulation of the custom of the civil
community. These systems of law differ from each other as the
conditions, the customs of each people differ from those of every other
people. But there has arisen in recent years quite a new and distinct
influence, producing legal enactment and furnishing occasion for legal
development. That is the entrance into the minds of men of the
comparatively new idea of individual freedom and individual equality.
The idea that all men are born equal, that every man is entitled to his
life, his liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; the great declarations
of principle designed to give effect to the fundamental ideas of liberty
and equality, are not the outcome of the conditions or customs of any
particular people, but they are common to all mankind.
Before the jurists and lawyers of the world there lies the task of
adapting each special system of municipal law to the enforcement of the
general principles which have come into the life of mankind within so
recent a time, and which are cosmopolitan and world-wide and belong in
no country especially. These principles have to be fitted to your laws
in Mexico and our laws in the United States and to the French laws in
France and the German laws in Germany; and the task before the jurists
and lawyers of the world is to formulate, to elaborate, to secure the
enactment and the enforcement of such practical provisions as will weld
together in each land the old system of municipal law, which regulates
the relations of individuals with each other in accordance with the
time-honored traditions and customs of the race and country, and these
new principles of universal human freedom.
Now, that task is something that cannot be accomplished except by
scientific processes, by the study of comparative jurisprudence, by the
application of minds of the highest order in the most painstaking and
practical way. In the adaptation of these new ideas common to all free
people, the best minds of every people should assist every other people
and receive assistance from every other people. The study of comparative
jurisprudence, apparently dry, purely scientific, is as important to the
well-being of the citizen in the streets of Mexico or Washington, as
those scientific observations and calculations which seem to be purely
abstract have proved to be to the mariner on the ocean or the engineer
of the great works of construction which are of such practical value;
and we ought to promote by the existence of societies of this character
in every civilized land and the free intercourse and intercommunication
of such societies, the existence of such a spirit of comradeship between
them that they can freely give and take the results of their labors, of
their experience, and of their skill.
This is of immense practical importance in the administration of
government and the progress of ordered liberty in the world; for, after
all, the declaration of political principles is of no value unless laws
are framed adequate to bring principles down to the practical use of
every citizen, and the framing of such laws in every land is the work of
the jurists of the land. It is because I may be associated with you in
doing what little a lawyer can do toward helping to the accomplishment
of this great, beneficent, and necessary work for civilization, that I
find the greatest pleasure in accepting your election as a member of
this Academy, and find cause for gratification beyond that of mere
personal vanity or personal feeling.
Permit me to express the warmest good wishes for the continued activity,
prosperity, and usefulness of this distinguished body which has so
greatly honored me by this election.