"We cannot fail, gentlemen, to be admonished by the many failures which have been made by the people of Central America to establish agreement among themselves which would be lasting, that the task you have before you is no easy one. The trial has often been made and the agreements which have been elaborated, signed, ratified, seem to have been written in water. Yet I cannot resist the impression that we have at last come to the threshold of a happier day for Central America. "It would ill become me to attempt to propose or suggest the steps which you should take, but I will venture to observe that the all-important thing for you to accomplish is that while you enter into agreements which will, I am sure, be framed in consonance with the most peaceful aspirations and the most rigid sense of justice, you shall devise also some practical methods under which it will be possible to secure the performance of those agreements. {77} The mere declaration of general principles, the mere agreement upon lines of policy and of conduct are of little value unless there be practical and definite methods provided by which the responsibility for failing to keep the agreement may be fixed upon some definite person, and the public sentiment of Central America brought to bear to prevent the violation. The declaration that a man is entitled to his liberty would be of little value with us in this country were it not for the writ of _habeas corpus_ that makes it the duty of a specific judge, when applied to, to inquire into the cause of his detention, and set him at liberty if he is unjustly detained. The provision which declares that a man should not be deprived of his property without due process of law would be of little value were it not for the practical provision which imposes on specific officers the duty of nullifying every attempt to take away a man’s property without due process of law. "To find practical definite methods by which you shall make it somebody’s duty to see that the great principles you declare are not violated, by which if an attempt be made to violate them the responsibility may be fixed upon the guilty individual—those, in my judgment, are the problems to which you should specifically and most earnestly address yourselves." The address of Secretary Root was followed by one of excellent counsel from the Mexican Ambassador, and a reply to both was made, on behalf of the Conference, by Señor Don Luis Anderson, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Costa Rica. The Conference then elected its officers, choosing Minister Anderson for its President, and proceeded to the transaction of business. Fourteen sessions were held between November 14 and December 20, resulting from which eight conventions were agreed to and signed on the latter date. These conventions are: