This cordial welcome has not been a surprise to me, as I already knew of
the qualities of the Governor of Vera Cruz. By this time, I have become
accustomed to the hospitable character of the Mexicans; but
notwithstanding this, it has been very pleasing and gratifying to me to
receive these demonstrations from the people of Vera Cruz whose
frankness of disposition is well known. I appreciate your words very
highly, Mr. Governor, and I thank you for them as I do the residents of
Orizaba.
It is but right for you Mexicans to remember Washington, as it is for us
Americans to remember Hidalgo and the other heroes of Mexican history
together with our own. I firmly believe that Mexico has passed beyond
the state in which civil dissensions devastated this fortunate country,
and that in the future there will be no door open to internal strife,
thanks to the wise administration and foresight of the great statesman
Porfirio Diaz.
How true it is that the beautiful and the useful can be combined: here
in Orizaba I find the proof of this truth, as in the midst of the
natural beauty of the scenery offered by the exuberant vegetation and
the lovely peak crowned with snow--the proud sentinel of the state of
Vera Cruz--stand as signs of progress the important factories we have
just visited.
Mr. Governor, I feel grateful for the frank reception of which I have
been the object, and I hope that Mexico will continue to progress and
develop as well as the United States, and that both nations will render
mutual assistance to each other and avail themselves of the prosperous
or unprosperous occurrences adopting the one or the other as lessons of
experience for humanity in order to demonstrate to natives and
foreigners the excellences of the republican form of government.