great in manifest power to fulfill
the promise.

Far away to the southward, beyond the great empire of the Amazon, beyond
the equatorial heats, there stretches a vast land, from the latitude of
Cuba on the north to the latitude of Hudson Bay on the south, and from
the Andes to the Eastern Sea. In this land mighty rivers flow through
vast forests, and immeasurable plains stretch from ocean to mountains,
with a soil of inexhaustible fertility, under every variety of healthful
and invigorating climate.

All this we know; but we must not forget, and we cannot forget tonight,
that this great land, capable of supporting in plenty all the teeming
millions of Europe, is possessed by the people of a free constitutional
republic, of all the sisterhood of nations, in form, in feature and in
character, the most like to ourselves.

For forty years the Argentine Republic has lived and governed itself
under a constitution in all material respects the exact counterpart of
the Constitution of the United States. Its constitution was avowedly
modelled after ours. For forty years, in fourteen separate states like
our own, the people of Argentina have preserved the sacred right of
local self-government. For forty years they have maintained at the same
time the sovereignty of their nation; and by the constancy of their past
they have given a high and ever-increasing credit to their promise that
for the future, under Southern Cross as under Northern Star, government
by the people, of the people, and for the people, shall endure.

Under this constitutional system they have framed for themselves wise
and liberal laws. They have constructed extensive works of internal
improvement; and waterways, and railroads, and telegraph lines, all
invite to the development of their vast natural wealth. They have
established universal religious toleration. They have protected the
rights of private property and of personal liberty. They have created
and maintained a great system of public education. In more than three
thousand public common schools over a quarter of a million children are
today learning how to be good citizens. Grading up from these common
schools through lyceums in every state and two great universities, the
pathway of higher education is open to all the people of the republic.

Under such a constitution and such laws, Argentina has made greater
material progress and greater advance in the art of self-government,
during our generation, t