of friendship and hospitality which have welcomed me and my family here.
But I was not surprised. It is but in conformity with all the relations
which have existed between the department of foreign affairs of Mexico
and the department of foreign affairs of the United States, since you,
sir, have held your present eminent position.

I wish not merely to express grateful appreciation for the kindness I
have received here, but to express the same sentiment for all that you
have done and all you have been in the relations between the two
countries. The unvarying courtesy, the genuine and sincere desire for
the reasonable and friendly disposal of all questions that have arisen
between the two countries, which have characterized the office of
foreign affairs of Mexico have been a great factor in bringing about the
happy relations that now exist. And we may say, with gratification, that
there are no questions between Mexico and the United States which can
give the slightest apprehension or cause the slightest concern as to
their easy and satisfactory adjustment.

Of course, between two countries with so long a common boundary, whose
citizens are passing to and fro, whose citizens are investing money,
each in the country of the other, questions are continually arising; but
the all-important element for the decision of every question, the good
understanding, kindly feeling, and the habit of conducting relations
upon the basis of reason and friendship, practically disposes in advance
of all questions which can arise.

I suppose it is impossible to read the history of any country without
feeling that the mistakes in its history have been the result of a
shortsighted, narrow view on the part of its statesmen, its rulers, its
legislators, under the influence at a particular time of particular
local conditions.

We can all of us look back in the history of our own country and of
other countries and see how we now, with a broader view and free from
the prejudices of the hour, would settle questions and solve
difficulties in a far more satisfactory way.

I suppose that the true object which should be held before every
statesman is so to deal with the questions of the present that the
spirit in which they are solved will commend itself to the generations
of the future.

I think, sir, that the government of Mexico has attained that high
standard of statesmanship to an extraordinary degree. It certainly has
done so in its relation