Nature has cut the continent from north to south without regard to its continuity; from north to south is the same political régime; and protecting it with two great nations, nature has not wished to isolate us from the rest of the world, but on the contrary to endow us with sources of wealth and to multiply the means of easy communication with centers of civilization.
Gentlemen, in the name of Bahia, I greet the great ideal of humanity that is treading a victorious path! I greet the republic of North America, the efficient collaborator in this profoundly humane policy, the principal promoter of the Pan American Conference, in the person of its illustrious Secretary of State, Elihu Root!
Reply of Mr. Root
I beg to acknowledge with sincere appreciation your kindly and most flattering expressions regarding myself. I receive with joy the expression of sentiments regarding my country, which I hope may be shared by every citizen of the great republic of Brazil. It is with much sentiment that I find myself at the gateway of the south, through which the civilization of Europe entered from the Iberian Peninsula the vast regions of South America. I, whose fathers came through the northern gateway, on Massachusetts Bay, thousands of miles away,—where the winters bring ice and snow and where a rugged soil greeted the first adventurers,—find here another people working out for themselves the same problems of self-government, seeking the same goal of individual liberty, of peace, of prosperity, that we have been seeking in the far north for so many years. We are alike in that we have no concern in the primary objects of European diplomacy; we are free from the traditions, from the controversies, which the close neighborhood of centuries on the continent of Europe has created—free, thank Heaven, from necessity for the maintenance of great armies and great navies to guard our frontiers, leaving us to give our minds to the problem of building up governments by the people which shall give prosperity and peace and individual opportunity to every citizen. In this great work, it is my firm belief that we can greatly assist each other, if it be only by sympathy and friendship, by intercourse, exchange of opinions and experience, each giving to the other the benefits of its success, and helping the other to find out the causes of its failures. We can aid each other by the peaceful exchanges of trade. Our trade—yes, our trade is valuable, and may it increase; may it increase to the wealth and prosperity of both nations. But there is something more than trade; there is the aspiration to make life worth living, that uplifts humanity. To accomplish success in this is the goal we seek to attain. There is the happiness of life; and what is trade if it does not bring happiness to life? In this the dissimilarity of our peoples may enable us to aid each other. We of the north are somewhat more sturdy in our efforts, and there are those who claim we work too hard. We are too strenuous in our lives. I wish that my people could gather some of the charm and grace of living in Bahia. We may give to you some added strength and strenuousness; you may give to us some of the beauty of life. I wish I could make you feel—I wish still more that I could make my countrymen feel—what delight I experience in visiting your city, and in observing the combination of the bright, cheerful colors which adorn your homes and daily life, with the beautiful tones that time has given to the century-old walls and battlements that look down upon your noble bay. The combination has seemed to me, as I have looked upon it today, to be most remarkable; and these varying scenes of beauty have seemed to be suggestive of what nations can do for each other, some giving the beauty and the tender tones; some giving the sturdy and strenuous effort. May the intercourse between the people of the north and the people of Brazil hereafter not be confined to an occasional visitor. May the advance of transportation bring new and swift steamship lines to be established between the coasts of North and South America. May we hope by frequently visiting each other to make our peoples strong in intercourse and friendship. May we be of mutual advantage and help to each other along the pathway of common prosperity, and may my people ever be mindful of the honor which you have done to them, through the gracious and bountiful hospitality with which you have made me happy!
Speech of Senator Ruy Barbosa
After Mr. Root's admirable speech, after such an orator as Mr. Root, and so inspired as he has been, nobody should have the courage to speak. Nevertheless, I do not know how to resist the wishes of our amiable host, our eminent Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and of those who surround me here. This is quite an unexpected surprise for me; but it comes in so imperious a way that I cannot but submit, hoping you will be indulgent.
We have felt in Mr. Root's words the vibration of the American soul in all its intensity, in all its eloquence, in all its power, in all its trustiness. So they could not have a better answer than the applause of so brilliant an audience as has just greeted his remarkable speech. However, since the task of rendering the echo of Mr. Root's words in our hearts devolves upon me, I can only perform it truthfully by thanking him "again and still again," for his beneficent visit to Brazil.
We suppose, Mr. Root, that it does not come only from you. We are sure that you would not take this far-reaching step unless you counted, without a shadow of doubt, upon the sanction of American opinion. And knowing as we do that the United States are, from every standpoint, the most complete and dazzling success among modern nations, admiring them as the honor and pride of our continent, we rejoice, we exult, to open our homes, our bosoms, the arms of our modest and honest hospitality, to the giant of the republics, to the mother of American democracies, in the person of her own Government, one of whose strongest and noblest functions centers in the person of her Secretary of State.
Our life as an independent nation is not yet a long one. We are, as such, only about eighty years old, albeit this may not be a very brief period in these days of ours, when time should not be measured by the number of years, inasmuch as not a great deal more than a century has been enough for the United States to become one of the greatest powers in the world. Short as it is, however, our national existence has not been devoid of noble dates, of fruitful and memorable events.
Amidst them, Mr. Root, this one will stand forever as a blessed landmark, or rather as the gushing-out of a new political stream, whose waves of peace, of freedom, of morality, shall spread by and by all over the immensity of our continent.