erson of him who was then its representative
in Washington.

The Mexican people, from the very moment in which you set foot on their
soil, and our Government from the time it tendered you the invitation
that your visit to Latin America should have in Mexico its fitting end
and crowning point, have proved to you, in abundant measure, by
manifestations of every kind, that their earnest desire is that the ties
which have for so many years bound us to your country, united by common
interests and strengthened by common ideals, should every day grow
closer and closer. They have also applauded the constant zeal shown by
your Government in fostering relations more and more cordial with the
republics of America, so that, inspired by the same spirit and guided by
the same policy, they should make this western continent of ours the
arena of the peaceful struggle of human effort. Nor do we deny you the
enthusiastic and universal praise of which your labor as Secretary of
State of the United States of America is deserving, since the program of
your international policy, later incorporated by President Roosevelt
into his last message to Congress, found a sympathizing echo in every
Mexican heart; that program which you made known to the world when,
having the Pan American conference for your tribune and the whole of
America grouped around you for your audience, we were all welcomed on
the hospitable soil of the noble and heroic Brazilian people.

Nevertheless, the Mexican Academy of Legislation and Jurisprudence,
while recognizing your merits as a statesman, has desired to confine
itself to honoring the lawyer who has brought fame and glory to the
American bar, the jurisconsult who has won the unstinted admiration of
all the nations ruled by democratic institutions, and the orator whose
eloquence takes us back to the times of the Latins, be his voice
resounding in the courts of justice, or heard in the academies and
universities, or pealing forth clear and inspired in the popular
tribune.

You, honored sir, we regard as the perfect type of the lawyer who has
known how to perform the sacred task commended to him by modern society.
The lawyer is a priest whose duty it is, in the bitter battles of life
waged by human conflicting interests, to fulfill a mission of peace and
harmony. He is indeed, the champion of homes when persecuted by human
cruelty; he who strengthens the bonds of love which maintain the family
union untainted, when