Latin America and the United States / Addresses by Elihu Root

by Elihu Root

I am doubly sensible of the high honor which you have conferred upon me by this audience today. I am sensible also of the great mark of friendship to my country involved in the reception of one of her officers in this distinguished manner by the lawmaking—the popular lawmaking—body of this great republic. I sincerely hope, not merely that I personally may never do aught to show myself unworthy of your consideration, but that my country may forever, in its attitude and conduct toward the people of Mexico, justify your kindness.

You will gather from my words, which your president has been good enough to quote in the admirable and graceful address he has just made, that I am one of those who believe that the old days when nations sought to enrich themselves by taking away the wealth of others by force, ought to pass and are passing. I believe, and I am happy to know that the great mass of my countrymen believe, that it is not only more Christian, not only more honorable, but also more useful and beneficial for all nations, and especially all neighboring nations, to unite in helping each other create more wealth, so that all may be rich and prosperous, rather than to seek to take it away from each other.

I find here in this sanctuary of laws, in this body charged with making the laws, the most interesting, the most important, and the most sacred thing in the republic of Mexico. I am not unmindful of the difficulties which confront you, gentlemen of the Chamber of Deputies, in the task that you perform for your country. The discussion of public questions, the reconciliation of differing opinions, the adjustment of different local interests all over this vast country, the reaching of just conclusions, the compromises necessary so often between different interests, present to the members of a legislative body of a republic difficulties little understood by the people at large and requiring for their solution the highest order of ability, self-denial, and love of country. I beg you to take my testimony, coming from another land long engaged in grappling with the same kind of difficulties; I beg you to take my testimony that the troubles of your body in legislating for your country, and those which you are to encounter in the future, are not peculiar to your country, to your race, to your institutions, to your customs. They inhere in the task before every legislative body representing the vastly differing interests, opinions, sentiments, and desires of a people.

Mr. President and gentlemen of the Chamber of Deputies, it is my sincere desire and the desire of my countrymen, that in the performance of this task for the republic of Mexico you may be guided in wisdom and in peace. May you possess that self-restraint which is so necessary to the preservation and security for property, for enterprise, and for life, guarding you always from unwise extremes, leading you always to test every question of legislation by sound principles taught by history. May you always, and every one of you, be so inspired by love of country, that you may be able to sink all personal ambitions and interests, to do only that which is for the benefit of your country; so that through your actions and inspired by your example the spirit of nationality which I see growing among the people of Mexico, may continue to increase until it is the living and controlling spirit of all the people from the Gulf to the Pacific. May you have in your deliberations and your action something of the self-sacrificing spirit of the humble priest Hidalgo, which, without ambition on his part, with no other motive but the love of his country, has written his name among the great benefactors of humanity. May you have something of the patriotism and genius of Benito Juárez, which enabled him with his strong hand to take Mexico out of the conditions of warring factions when individual ambition rose above the love of country. May you have something of that constancy and high courage which has made for the soldier and the statesman who now sits in the chair of the chief magistrate of Mexico, a place in history above scores and hundreds of emperors and kings with high-sounding title and no record in life but the desire for personal advancement.

And so, members of the Chamber of Deputies—may I say, my friends—brothers in the work of seeking by law to advance the peace and prosperity of mankind—may you be able to bring in the rule of justice, of ordered liberty, of peace, of happy homes, of opportunity for children to rise, of opportunity for old age to pass its days in peace. My brother workers in the cause of popular government, of human rights and human happiness, I thank you for the opportunity to say, "God bless you in your labors", which will always have my sympathy and the sympathy of my people.

LUNCHEON BY THE AMERICAN COLONY

Speech of General C. H. M. y Agramonte

At the Mexican Country Club, October 4, 1907

As chairman of a committee of the American colony, the pleasant duty devolves upon me to welcome, in behalf of the colony, an illustrious countryman, and a prominent member of the official family of the President of the United States, the Secretary of State.

The opportunity has been afforded us through one of those many acts of exquisite courtesy for which the Government of Mexico is noted in its intercourse with those of us from north of the Río Grande, and to which unfailing courtesy we can all bear witness.