e
conflicts and complications of European governments, and even by the
gravitation of peculiar circumstances and events, has been constituted a
separate political factor, a new and vast theater for the development of
the human race, which will serve as a counterpoise to the great
civilizations of the other hemisphere, and so maintain the equilibrium
of the world.

It is consequently our sacred duty to preserve the integrity of America,
material and moral, against the menaces and artifices, very real and
effective, that unfortunately surround it. It is not long since one of
the most eminent of living jurisconsults of Great Britain denounced the
possibility of the danger. "The enemies of light and freedom," he said,
"are neither dead nor sleeping; they are vigilant, active, militant, and
astute." And it was in obedience to that sentiment of common defense
that in a critical moment the Argentine Republic proclaimed the
impropriety of the forcible collection of public debts by European
nations, not as an abstract principle of academic value or as a legal
rule of universal application outside of this continent (which it is
not incumbent on us to maintain), but as a principle of American
diplomacy which, whilst being founded on equity and justice, has for its
exclusive object to spare the peoples of this continent the calamities
of conquest, disguised under the mask of financial interventions, in the
same way as the traditional policy of the United States, without
accentuating superiority or seeking preponderance, condemned the
oppression of the nations of this part of the world and the control of
their destinies by the great powers of Europe. The dreams and utopias of
today are the facts and commonplaces of tomorrow and the principle
proclaimed must sooner or later prevail.

The gratitude we owe to the nations of Europe is indeed very great, and
much we still have to learn from them. We are the admirers of their
secular institutions; more than once we have been moved by their great
ideals, and under no circumstances whatsoever should we like to sever or
to weaken the links of a long-established friendship. But we want, at
the same time, and it is only just and fair, that the genius and
tendency of our democratic communities be respected. They are advancing
slowly, it is true; struggling at times and occasionally making a pause,
but none the less strong and progressive for all that, and already
showing the unequivocal signs