Speech of Señor Don Mariano Vásquez, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Honduras, at a luncheon given to Mr. Knox at Amapala, March 8, 1912.
Mr. Secretary: The people of Honduras feel a very great satisfaction at your arrival in its national territory.
We, the members of the Government, delegates of the National Congress, and representatives of the judiciary, have come to offer you most cordial reception and to state to you that the visit that you are making to our country gives us pleasure.
We esteem it an honor to our small Republic to have here the illustrious Secretary of State of the great Republic of America.
The American Nation has always attracted the attention of the world by the tremendous progress it has made in advancing civilization. [Page 627] We have learned, from childhood up, to admire it; every triumph which it has won in its phenomenal march has a grateful echo in our little republics and makes us feel proud to be, like it, sons of the New World.
We have learned likewise to pronounce with veneration and affection the names that render illustrious the history of your nation, the model of republican virtues.
Washington, the glory of America, will always be recognized as one of the greatest leaders of the nations; his words are maxims of political morality. He who said “the best and only road that leads surely to honor, glory, and true dignity is justice” is, indubitably, not only the father of the American people but of all humanity. His wise counsel will continue to resound through future ages.
We honor Franklin, the genius that imprisoned the destructive lightning, the apostle who preached the gospel of peace to all nations; Lincoln, the liberator, and all the founders of America; and we admire, too, those who, continuing the great work, are likewise benefactors of humanity.
We honor Elihu Root, who, from the high tribune of Rio de Janeiro in the Third American Conference, declared, to the glory of the great Republic, the universal principle of the equality of the nations, when he said:
We deem the independence and equal rights of the smallest and weakest member of the family of nations entitled to as much respect as those of the greatest empire.
We honor Roosevelt, President Taft, and his worthy Secretary of State, Mr. Knox, who, in the midst of their wise and fruitful labors in their own country, began yesterday and will to-morrow terminate so colossal an undertaking as the Panama Canal, which will fill the world with admiration and will open new and broader highways for the civilization and progress of the American Continent.
Accept, sir, from the Government of Honduras expressions of keenest appreciation of the cordiality shown by you in coming to our territory accompanied by your distinguished family and prominent persons of your country, and permit me, on this happy occasion, to extend in the name of the Government of Honduras most sincere wishes for the increasing prosperity of the great Republic and for the personal welfare of President Taft and his illustrious Secretary of State.