The American republics are at this moment tightening their traditional bonds at a congress of fraternity whose importance has been indicated by the presence of our illustrious guest, who passes across the continent as the herald of the civilization of a great people.
The world's conscience being awakened by the progress of public thought, the members of the family of nations are trying to draw closer together for the development of their activities, without fetters or obstacles, under the olive branch of peace and the guaranty of reciprocal respect for their rights.
International conferences are a happy manifestation of that tendency, because, in the contact of representatives of the various states, hindrances and prejudices are dissipated, and there is shown to exist in the collective mind a common aspiration for the teachings of liberty and justice.
America gives a recurring example of such congresses of peace and law. As each one takes place it is evident that the attributes of sovereignty of the nations which constitute it are displayed more clearly; that free government is taking deeper root, that democratic solidarity is more apparent, and that force is giving way more freely to reason as the fundamental principle of society.
The congress of Rio de Janeiro has that lofty significance. Its material, immediate consequences will be more or less important, but its moral result will be forever of transcendent benefit—a new departure and a step in advance in the development of liberal ideas in this part of the American Continent.
Mr. Secretary of State, your country has taken gigantic strides in the march of progress until it occupies a position in the vanguard. It has set a proud and shining example to its sister nations.
As in the dawn of their emancipation it recognized in them the conqueror's right to stand among the independent states of the earth, so likewise it later stimulated the high aspiration to establish a political system representing the popular will, now inscribed in indelible characters in the preambles of American legislation.
The Argentine Republic, after rude trials, has completed its constitutional régime, gathering experience and learning from the great republic of the North.
The general lines of our organization followed those of the Philadelphia convention, with the modifications imposed by circumstances, by the irresistible force of tradition, and by the idiosyncrasies peculiar to our race. The forefathers who drafted the Argentine constitution were inspired in their work by those who, to the admiration of the world, created the Constitution of the United States.
Many of our political doctrines are derived from the writings of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay; the spirit of Marshall and Taney are seen in the hearings of our tribunals; and even the children in our schools, where they learn to personify the republican virtues, the love and sacrifice for country, respect for the rights of man, and the prerogatives of the citizen, speak the name of George Washington with that of the foremost Argentines.