Address of the Brazilian Ambassador, Senhor Nabuco, at 
 the Laying of the Corner-Stone of the New Building of 
 the American Republics in Washington on May 11, 1908 
 
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Address 
 
 of the 
 
 Brazilian Ambassador 
 
 You have spoken, Mr. President, of the other States 
 of this Continent in a manner that shall cause intense 
 satisfaction among them, and for which they certainly 
 will feel greatly indebted to you. You can well see 
 that, with their admiration for your mighty race and 
 the pace of its progress never equalled before, they all 
 bring into this Union their pride of their Latin inher- 
 itance, of which there is no higher testimonial than the 
 English language itself. Only when future comes to 
 each of them and they will be able to develop, as this 
 Nation has done with hers, the portion each received on 
 her cradle, shall the world realize the greatness of the 
 Columbus estate. May your happy auguries meet with 
 your usual good fortune ! Together with those gener- 
 ous greetings, your address breathes the soul of a peo- 
 ple that never allows a difference in its treatment of 
 powerful and of weak Nations. 
 
 We were glad to acclaim the high praise you be- 
 stowed on the present Secretary of State, while con- 
 ferring to him the laurea insignis in this, the day of 
 his triumph. His visit to South and Central America 
 was one of those inspirations that characterise the 
 statesman who will live in the hearts of many peoples. 
 By the loftiness of his ideals, his fairness, his broad 
 
s^Tupathies, his ability to weigh the imponderables of 
 international sensibility, he won the hearts of all our 
 Nations, and could send you one of the most brilliant 
 Veni, vidi, vici of Diplomacy. In their turn they cap- 
 tur ed him and shall ever keep his image as a friendly 
 hostage of peace and good will from this great Ee- 
 public. 
 
 You can well afford to be generous, Mr. President. 
 No President of the United States will leave in the 
 history of Pan- Americanism a deeper mark than the 
 one you are cutting from ocean to ocean, to change 
 the sea routes of the world so as to bring nearer to- 
 gether the peoples and cities on the two fronts of our 
 Continent. 
 
 We give you our thanks, Mr. Carnegie, for your 
 munificent donation. In selecting this City for the per- 
 manent seat of our Union, the Latin Eepublics of 
 America have shown in the most striking way their 
 pride in the Nation that has been the leader of our 
 Continent, and which made it one of the leaders of 
 civilisation. You recollected that your Country, while 
 onr associate, is also our host, and that never has 
 a higher tribute than ours been paid to that American 
 Democracy, which your book has so much endeared 
 to our present generations. You must, also, have been 
 moved by the thought, which caused already so many 
 of your works : that of contributing throughout poster- 
 ity to the cause of Peace. You rightly believe that 
 Peace is Universal Charity. Ours, indeed, is a wholly 
 peaceful alliance, and it shines outside the American 
 orbit only to show that this Continent can already be 
 called the Hemisphere of Peace. 
 
 Gentlemen, there has never been a parallel for the 
 sight which this ceremony presents: that of twenty- 
 
one Nations, of different languages, building together 
 a house for their common deliberations. The more 
 impressive is the scene as these Countries, with all pos- 
 sible differences between them in size and population, 
 have established their Union on the basis of the most 
 absolute equality. Here the vote of the smallest bal- 
 ances the vote of the greatest. So many sovereign 
 States would not have been drawn so spontaneously 
 and so strongly together, as if by an irresistible force, 
 if there did not exist throughout them, at the bottom 
 or at the top of each national conscience, the feeling 
 of a destiny common to all America. It seems, indeed, 
 that a decree of Providence made the Western shore 
 of the Atlantic appear late in History as the chosen 
 land for a great renewal of mankind. From the early 
 days of its colonisation the sentiment sprung in the 
 hearts of all its children that this is really a new World. 
 That is the sentiment which unites us together in this 
 auspicious day. We feel we are all sons of Columbus. 
 And if we meet here, it is because we feel also that we 
 all are sons of Washington. Rising on the plain of the 
 Potomac, in the sight of the Capitol, the new House of 
 the American Republics shall be another monument to 
 the founder of modern Liberty. That one is his na- 
 tional, this his continental, Memorial. 
 
 Gentlemen, hearing still the voice of Ms Eminence 
 Cardinal Gibbons invoking upon this Union the bless- 
 ings of Heaven, our one prayer is that our mutual 
 pledges may grow ever and ever stronger, so that we 
 all come to feel the full inspiration of the undissolv- 
 able partnership of the two Americas. 
 
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