Latin America and the United States: Addresses by Elihu RootRoot, Elihu
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Latin America and the United States: Addresses by Elihu Root
Root, Elihu
America -- Foreign relations; Latin America -- Foreign relations -- United States; United States -- Foreign relations -- Latin America
It does not follow from this that the declaration of the principle of
arbitration is not of value; it does not follow that governments and
congresses are not advancing the cause of international justice; a
principle recognized and declared always gains fresh strength and force;
but for the accomplishment of the results which all of us desire in the
substitution of arbitration for war, we must not be content with the
declaration of principles; we must carry on an active campaign of
universal national and international education, elevating the idea of
the sacredness of the exercise of the judicial function in arbitration
as well as in litigation between individuals. Still deeper than that
goes the duty that rests upon us. Arbitration is but the method of
preventing war after nations have been drawn up in opposition to each
other with serious differences and excited feelings. The true, the
permanent, and the final method of preventing war, is to educate the
people who make war or peace, the people who control parliaments and
congresses, to a love for justice and regard for the rights of others.
So we come to the duty that rests here--not in the whims or the
preference or the policy of a monarch, but here, in this university, in
every institution of learning throughout the civilized world, with every
teacher--the responsibility of determining the great issues of peace and
war through the responsibility of teaching the people of our countries
the love of justice, teaching them to seek the victories of peace rather
than the glories of war; to regard more highly an act of justice and of
generosity than even an act of courage or an act of heroism. In this
great work of educating the people of the American republics to peace,
there are no political divisions. As there is, and has been since the
dawn of civilization, but one republic of science, but one republic of
letters, let there be but one republic of the politics of peace, one
great university of the professors and instructors of justice, of
respect for human rights, of consideration for others, and of the peace
of the world.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Mr. Everett to Señor Osma, November 16, 1852.
PANAMA
THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
SPEECH OF HIS EXCELLENCY RICARDO ARIAS
SECRETARY OF GOVERNMENT AND FOREIGN RELATIONS
In the National Assembly, at Panama, September 21, 1906
You have just visited the wealthiest capitals of South America, real
emporiums of its richness; there you have been received with great
magnificence. Our outward manifestations of joy on the occasion of your
visit may, therefore, appear to you very humble; but you can rest
assured that none of them will surpass us in the intensity of
sympathetic feeling toward your person and toward the noble American
people that you so worthily represent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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