guides in the paths of liberty. The thrilling utterances of Henry Clay
defending our cause when everything appeared to threaten our revolution,
have never been surpassed in their noble eloquence; and it was due to
the generosity and foresight of their great statesmen that the United
States were the first to receive us with open arms as their equals in
the community of sovereign nations.

The spiritual affinity thus happily established has gone on
strengthening itself almost imperceptibly ever since by the reproduction
of institutions and legal customs.

Our charter was inspired by the American Constitution and acts through
the operation of similar laws. The great examples of the Union are also
our examples; and being sincere lovers of liberty we rejoice in the
triumphs (which in a certain sense we consider our own) of the greatest
of democratic nations.

George Washington is, for us, one of the great figures of history, the
tutelar personality, the supreme model, a prototype of abnegation,
honor, and wisdom; and there is an important region in the province of
Buenos Ayres bearing the name of Lincoln, as a homage to the austere
patriotism of that statesman and martyr. The names of Jefferson,
Madison, and Quincy Adams are household words with us; and in our
parliamentary debates and popular assemblies mention is frequently made
of the statesmen, the orators, and the judges of the great sister
republic.

There thus exist, honorable sir, a long-established friendship, an
intercommunion of thought and purpose which draw peoples together more
closely, intimately, and indissolubly than can be accomplished by the
formulae--often barren--of the foreign offices.

And the moment is certainly propitious for drawing closer the bonds of
international amity which your excellency's visit puts in relief, and
which have found such eloquent expression in the Pan American Congress
of Rio de Janeiro. Enlightened patriotism has understood at last that on
this continent, with its immense riches and vast unexplored regions,
power and wealth are not to be looked for in conquest and displacements,
but in collaboration and solidarity, which will people the wilderness
and give the soil to the plow. It has understood, moreover, that
America, by reason of the nationalities of which it is composed, of the
nature of the representative institutions which they have adopted, by
the very character of their people, separated as they have been from th