ens of war. The position of the United
States as the leading power of the New World might well give to its
Government a claim to authoritative utterance for the purpose of
quieting discord among its neighbors, with all of whom the most friendly
relations exist. Nevertheless, the good offices of this Government are
not and have not at any time been tendered with a show of dictation or
compulsion, but only as exhibiting the solicitous good will of a common
friend.

For some years past a growing disposition has been manifested by certain
States of Central and South America to refer disputes affecting grave
questions of international relationship and boundaries to arbitration
rather than to the sword. It has been on several such occasions a source
of profound satisfaction to the Government of the United States to see
that this country is in a large measure looked to by all the American
powers as their friend and mediator.

The just and impartial counsel of the President in such cases has never
been withheld, and his efforts have been rewarded by the prevention of
sanguinary strife or angry contentions between peoples whom we regard as
brethren.

The existence of this growing tendency convinces the President that the
time is ripe for a proposal that shall enlist the good will and active
cooperation of all the States of the Western Hemisphere, both north and
south, in the interest of humanity and for the common weal of nations.

He conceives that none of the Governments of America can be less
alive than our own to the dangers and horrors of a state of war, and
especially of war between kinsmen. He is sure that none of the chiefs
of Governments on the continent can be less sensitive than he is to the
sacred duty of making every endeavor to do away with the chances of
fratricidal strife. And he looks with hopeful confidence to such active
assistance from them as will serve to show the broadness of our common
humanity and the strength of the ties which bind us all together as a
great and harmonious system of American Commonwealths.

Impressed by these views, the President extends to all the independent
countries of North and South America an earnest invitation to
participate in a general congress to be held in the city of Washington
on the 24th day of November, 1882, for the purpose of considering and
discussing the methods of preventing war between the nations of America.
He desires that the attention of the congress shall