eet 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