Latin America and the United States / Addresses by Elihu Root

by Elihu Root

It is proper to state, in this connection, that all the American republics were invited to attend and to participate in the Second Hague Peace Conference and that the Conference was set for 1906. Mr. Root was unwilling that either conference should interfere with the other, and through his intervention with the European Powers the Second Hague Peace Conference was postponed to the summer of 1907, in order not to interfere with the Pan American Conference held at Rio de Janeiro in the summer of 1906, and the participation of the American republics in that conference. Only three American republics were invited to the First Hague Peace Conference, namely, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States. Through the efforts of the United States, and particularly through Mr. Root's efforts as Secretary of State, all of the American republics were invited to the Second Hague Peace Conference.

The noble passage in Mr. Root's address as honorary president of the conference, proclaiming the equality of American states, and quoted by President Roosevelt in his message to Congress, reproduced in the preface to this volume, was constantly referred to by Latin American delegates in the Hague Peace Conference, and was quoted by Mr. Ruy Barbosa, the Brazilian delegate, who added, "These words reverberated through the length and the breadth of our continent, as the American evangel of peace and of justice."[1]

Speech of His Excellency Joaquim Nabuco

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from the United States of Brazil to the United States of America, President of the Conference

You do not come here tonight as a stranger to take your place as an honorary president of this conference. You were the first to express a desire that the conference should meet this year; it was you who, in Washington, brought to a happy conclusion the difficult elaboration of its program and of its rules. Neither can we forget that at one time you expected to be one of us, a plan you abandoned in order that you might divide your time among all the republics that claimed the honor of your visit. The meeting of this conference is thus to a great extent your own work. In nothing else since you came to your high post have you taken a more direct and personal interest. You seem to divine in the spirit that animates you with regard to our continent the mark that your name will leave in history.

I believe that you and the conference understand each other fully. The periodical meeting of this body, exclusively composed of American nations, assuredly means that America forms a political system separate from that of Europe—a constellation with its own distinct orbit.

By aiming, however, at a common civilization and by trying to make of the space we occupy on the globe a vast neutral zone of peace, we are working for the benefit of the whole world. In this way we offer to the population, to the wealth, and to the genius of Europe a much wider and safer field of action in our hemisphere than if we formed a disunited continent, or if we belonged to the belligerent camps into which the Old World may become divided. One point specially will be of great interest for you, who so heartily desire the success of this work. The conference is convinced that its mission is not to force any nation belonging to it to do anything she would not be freely prepared to do upon her own initiative; we all recognize that its sole function is to impart our collective sanction to what has already become unanimous in the opinion of the whole continent.

This is the first time, sir, that an American Secretary of State officially visits a foreign nation, and we all feel happy that the first visit was to Latin America. You will find everywhere the same admiration for your great country, whose influence in the advance of moral culture, of political liberty, and of international law has begun already to counterbalance that of the rest of the world. Mingled with that admiration you will also find the sentiment that you could not rise without raising with you our whole continent; that in everything you achieve we shall have our share of progress.

There are few rolls of honor so brilliant in history as that of men who have occupied your high position. Among them any distinction on the ground of their merits would be fated to be unjust; a few names, however, that shine more vividly in history, such as those of Jefferson, Monroe, Webster, Clay, Seward, and Blaine—the latter the creator of these conferences—suffice to show abroad that the United States have always been as proud of the perfection of the mould in which their Secretaries of State have been cast and as zealous in this respect as they have been in the case of their Presidents. We fully appreciate the luster added to this conference by the part you take in it tonight. It is with sincere gratification that we welcome you. Here, you may be sure, you are surrounded by the respect of our whole continent for your great nation; for President Roosevelt, who has shown himself during his term of office, and will ever remain, whatever position he may choose to occupy in public life, one of the leaders of mankind; and for yourself, whose sound sense of justice and whose sincere interest in the welfare of all American nations reflect the noblest inspiration that animated the greatest of your predecessors.

This voyage of yours demonstrates practically to the whole world your good faith as a statesman and your broad sympathy as an American; it shows the conscientiousness and the care with which you wish to place before the President and the country the fundamental points of your national external policy.