Gentlemen, it is to confirm these sentiments which every Brazilian feels, to proclaim the national aspirations of harmony, conciliation, and union, that I arise to thank, in behalf of the Chamber of Deputies, the representatives of the popular will, Mr. Elihu Root, for his presence among us, and to greet in his person the great and glorious republic of the United States of North America, greater for the example it gives us of liberty, energy, and order than for its extraordinary material strength. Glory to the Stars and Stripes! REPLY OF MR. ROOT I beg you to believe in the depth of sensibility with which I have received the honor you do me, and the honor you do my country. The similarity of our institutions is such that I come into the presence of this august body with full appreciation of its dignity and its significance. I feel that I am in the presence of the great lawmaking body to which is intrusted, by its representation of the separate states of Brazil, the preservation of local self-government throughout this vast empire; so that the people of each one of your twenty states, and each one of the many states to be erected hereafter, as your population increases, may govern itself in its local affairs without the oppression which inevitably results from the absolute rule of a central power, ignorant of the necessities and of the feelings of each locality; and so that also, consistently with that local self-government, the nationality of Brazil shall be preserved and the principle of national power, the dignity and power of the nation that protects all local self-governments in their liberty, shall never be decreased. I feel also that I am in the presence of the body from which must come, not only in the present but in the great future of Brazil, that conservative force which is so essential to regulate the action of a democracy. By your constitution, by the necessities of your existence, it will be your function to prevent rash and ill-considered action, to see that all the expedients of government, all the theories that are suggested, are submitted to the test of practical experience and sound reason. And so, with the deepest interest in the continued success of the Brazilian experiment in self-government, I am most deeply impressed with the honor you have done me. The encomiums which have been passed here upon my country are such that to know of them must in itself be an incentive to deserve them. I hope that every word which has been spoken here about that dear republic from which I come, may go to the knowledge of every citizen of the United States of America, and may lead him to feel that it is his duty to see that this good opinion of our sister republic is justified.