And so, from the Hudson to the La Plata, from the plains to the Pampas, from the Rockies to the Andes, from the old American republic to the young American republic, from sister to sister, with the same convictions and hopes and aspirations, we send sincere and hearty greeting, congratulation and God-speed.
OUR SISTER REPUBLIC—BRAZIL
ADDRESS OF WELCOME TO DR. LAURO MÜLLER,
SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF BRAZIL, AT
A BANQUET OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE
STATE OF NEW YORK, JUNE 18, 1913
The republic of Brazil designated its minister for foreign affairs, Dr. Lauro Müller, to return officially Mr. Root's visit to that republic, and the following address was delivered by Mr. Root at the dinner given by the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York to His Excellency, Lauro Müller, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Brazil.
When in the various pathways that one treads in a long life one has made friends, has garnered the wealth of friendship, that is more the happiness of age than wealth of money or possession, I know of nothing more delightful than to help bring together distant and separated friends and complete that circuit of magnetic intercourse which, after all, above all sordid motives, above all selfish interests, above all things material, makes up the true value of life.
I cannot express the satisfaction that I feel in having you, my friends, the Chamber of Commerce, unite in taking the hand, and coming into personal contact with, my old friend and host of the southern republic. I feel that you are all paying my debt of gratitude, paying it as friends should pay it for friends.
Dr. Müller, you have come to see a people widely known throughout the world for their great material achievements, a people whose influence has been very great in the development of civilization and in the advancement of those standards of living and of action which we believe make our times better than the times that have gone before; and you see here about you at these tables, and in the portraits upon these walls, the men who, for nearly a century and a half have played a great, aye, the greatest part in the amazing material developments and in the spiritual life of this republic. Those who are living today under the inspiration and the spirit of the great citizens who have gone before are gathered to do you honor and do your country honor. What has been done in the United States of America, has been done, not by the power of money; it has been done, not under the influence of selfish motives; it has been done under the influence of noble ideals, of great minds, and of great hearts directing and guiding and leading the mighty affairs of a great people. And here are representatives, not all, but many, of the foremost representatives of that American spirit which has accomplished everything which you have seen in your journey here.
My friends of the Chamber of Commerce, some years ago when it fell to my lot to visit South America, for the purpose of carrying to the minds of our southern sisters a true message of the real feeling of our people towards them, for the purpose of getting a hearing among the peoples of South America, which could not be gained through the newspapers, which could not be gained in any other way than by direct personal contact and by the influence of one personality meeting another, for the purpose of doing away with the false and distorted ideas that our great country was possessed by ambition and the lust of conquest and the desire for dominion over other lands, I met in Brazil the most noble and generous hospitality. No nation of men could have exhibited in a higher degree all those qualities which make men love each other than the people of Brazil exhibited to me on my visit there. The noble traditions of their race, all the great-heartedness of the grandees of the Iberian Peninsula, all those sentiments which have made them par excellence the gentlemen of civilization were exhibited in the welcome they gave to you, to our people, through me as their representative.