I welcome you here, my fellow-Americans; for among the many strains
that go to make up our composite race stock in this country, no strain
has given us better Americans than those who are of German birth or
blood. It is our peculiar pride as a nation that in this Republic we
have measurably realized the ideal under which good citizens know no
discrimination as between creed and creed, birthplace and birthplace,
provided only that whatever the man’s parentage may have been, whatever
the way in which he worships his Creator, he strives in good faith
to do his duty by himself and by his fellow-men and to show his
unflinching loyalty to our common country. In addition to thus greeting
you, my fellow-Americans of German birth, I wish also to greet the
German citizens present, the members of the German army, belonging to
the reserve of that army, and to welcome them here; especially Mr.
Ambassador, as they are brought here by you, yourself an old soldier,
who have endeared yourself to the American people by your hearty
friendship for this country.
The reverence a man preserves for his native land, so far from standing
in the way of his loving and doing his full duty by the land of his
adoption, should help him toward this love and the performance of this
duty. If a man is a good son he is apt to make a good husband; and the
quality that makes a man reverence the country of his birth is apt to
be the quality that makes him a good citizen in the country of his
adoption.
The ties that unite Germany and the United States are many and close,
and it must be a prime object of our statesmanship to knit the
two nations ever closer together. In no country is there a warmer
admiration for Germany and for Germany’s exalted ruler, Emperor
William, than here in America.
It is not out of place in closing for me to say a word of
congratulation both to the German people and the German Emperor upon
the work that has been accomplished in the Algeciras convention which
has just closed, a conference held chiefly because of the initiative
of Germany. It was not a conference in which we Americans as a nation
had much concern, save that it is always our concern to see justice
obtained everywhere, and, so far as we properly can, to work for
the cause of international peace and good-will. In its outcome this
conference has added to the likelihood of the betterment of conditions
in Morocco itself, has secured equitable dealing as among the foreign
Powers who have commercial relations with Morocco, and has diminished
the chance of friction between these Powers. In particular it may
not be out of place for me to say that I hope and believe that the
conference has resulted and will result in rendering continually more
friendly the relations between the mighty Empire of Germany and the
mighty Republic of France; for it is my hope and wish, as it must be
the hope and wish of every sincere well wisher of humankind, that these
friendly relations may not only continue unbroken but may ever grow in
strength.