It is my happy fortune to reap where others have sown and enter into the
fruits of others' labors. When Mr. Seward and General Grant visited
Mexico, your people, sir, were little known to the people of the United
States. The shadow of a war still recent in the memory of men hung over
the relations that existed between the two countries, the shadow of a
war which, thank Heaven, would now be impossible. The commanding
personality of General Grant made his warm friendship for Mexico the
beginning of a new era of feeling and appreciation on the part of the
people of the United States; and now I come in response to the kind and
hospitable invitation of your distinguished President, not to mark out
the pathway to friendship, but as the representative of an existing
feeling of friendship on the part of my countrymen.
I have been deeply appreciative of all the delicate courtesy, the warmth
of friendship and hospitality which have welcomed me and my family here.
But I was not surprised. It is but in conformity with all the relations
which have existed between the department of foreign affairs of Mexico
and the department of foreign affairs of the United States, since you,
sir, have held your present eminent position.
I wish not merely to express grateful appreciation for the kindness I
have received here, but to express the same sentiment for all that you
have done and all you have been in the relations between the two
countries. The unvarying courtesy, the genuine and sincere desire for
the reasonable and friendly disposal of all questions that have arisen
between the two countries, which have characterized the office of
foreign affairs of Mexico have been a great factor in bringing about the
happy relations that now exist. And we may say, with gratification, that
there are no questions between Mexico and the United States which can
give the slightest apprehension or cause the slightest concern as to
their easy and satisfactory adjustment.
Of course, between two countries with so long a common boundary, whose
citizens are passing to and fro, whose citizens are investing money,
each in the country of the other, questions are continually arising; but
the all-important element for the decision of every question, the good
understanding, kindly feeling, and the habit of conducting relations
upon the basis of reason and friendship, practically disposes in advance
of all questions which can arise.
I suppose it is impossible to read the history of any country without
feeling that the mistakes in its history have been the result of a
shortsighted, narrow view on the part of its statesmen, its rulers, its
legislators, under the influence at a particular time of particular
local conditions.
We can all of us look back in the history of our own country and of
other countries and see how we now, with a broader view and free from
the prejudices of the hour, would settle questions and solve
difficulties in a far more satisfactory way.
I suppose that the true object which should be held before every
statesman is so to deal with the questions of the present that the
spirit in which they are solved will commend itself to the generations
of the future.
I think, sir, that the government of Mexico has attained that high
standard of statesmanship to an extraordinary degree. It certainly has
done so in its relations with the government of the United States; and
as a result of the reasonable and kindly way in which we have been
treating each other for these past years we behold not merely the fact
that of your $240,000,000 of foreign trade, two-thirds of your exports
are purchased by the United States and two-thirds of your imports are
purchased from the United States; not merely that of your vast exports
to the United States, notwithstanding our high protective policy,
nine-tenths are free from all duty; not merely that $700,000,000 of
capital of the United States has been invested in your thriving and
progressive enterprises, so that, while for three centuries and a half
the people of Mexico were hiding their wealth under the ground to keep
it from being taken away from them, now for a quarter of a century you
have been taking out from under the ground a wealth far surpassing any
dreams of avarice in the days of old. But more than all that, there has
grown up and is continually developing between the people of the two
countries a knowledge of each other, an appreciation of each other, a
kindly feeling toward each other, which make for the perpetuity of good
government in both countries and for the development of all the finer
and better qualities of citizenship in both countries; which will help
both of us to advance along the pathway of progress; which will make
every school in Mexico in which the future government and rulers of this
vast land are being trained a better school, and make every school in
the United States a better school; which will make every officer
conscious of being one of a community of nations, conscious of having in
his charge the good name of the country which is known to the people of
the whole continent, a better officer than he would be if he were
responsible only to his narrow community. As the result of these kindly
relations we see two happy, progressive, prosperous nations; and, sir,
it is my sincere hope that following the footsteps of the great
Americans you have named, through your kindness and hospitality I may be
able to add my little contribution toward this great work of national
benefit and of international advancement in the cause of liberty,
justice, and humanity.