Senor Ramon Corral, Vice-President of the Republic, made the
following response to this farewell address:
Since you have set foot on our soil we have had occasion to observe the
high and well-merited opinion which you entertain of our president,
General Porfirio Diaz, and of his splendid and statesmanlike
achievements, and if to this be added your own well-known merits, your
lofty character, and the sagacious, yet kindly notice you have taken of
all that you have seen, no wonder that you have won, not our admiration,
not our respect, not our good-will, for all these were yours already,
but something more intimate, something that dwells deeper in the
recesses of the heart--our affection.
Henceforth, sir, in addition to your high claims as an illustrious
statesman and wise administrator, you have from us the endearing title
of friend, a friend who appreciates us with fairness, who will rejoice
at our future triumphs in the arena of progress, who will lament our
misfortunes, who will applaud our victories and will encourage us in our
discomfitures.
For some time past, especially since you undertook the noble task of
proclaiming justice and righteousness as the basis for the relations of
the republics of America with one another, we have followed with the
liveliest interest your glorious career, of which the goal is the
promotion of ideals of human fraternity. We have admired you, we have
applauded you as one applauds the eloquence of wise and good men. But
henceforth a current of profound sympathy will flow between you and us,
and our admiration and applause will reach you, quickened by the
vibrations of our enthusiasm.
Soon you will return to your own country, that splendid country where
everything is great from the cataclysms of nature to the manifestations
of freedom. Our most fervent desire is that you may take away an
impression of Mexico and of her people as agreeable and affectionate as
that which you leave behind, and that, in justice toward us, you will
tell those among your countrymen who do not yet know us, that ours is a
civilized nation, working out its greater welfare, educating itself
intellectually, living and desiring to remain in peace with itself and
in peace with all who respect its rights,--in a word, living up to its
mission as a free and honorable community. Tell your President that in
Mexico we appreciate and applaud his great and noble efforts in behalf
of his country and in behalf of the peace of other nations, and that
when his name is pronounced by us, it is pronounced with expressions of
respect and homage for his good qualities.
Receive, sir, these words, which are the expression of sentiments that
are sincere, as a new demonstration to yourself and to your
distinguished family of our feelings of esteem and our desire for your
happiness.