It is beneficial from time to time to ascend the currents of history in order to gather the lessons of the past which may serve us as a guide in our constant march into the future. When we study in its annals the action of the Government of the United States in the epoch of Argentine independence, we encounter demonstrations of a solicitude, of an affection, of a solidarity, of a participation in the struggles of those heroic times, so marked that the Argentine spirit necessarily feels itself impressed with the sentiment of intense gratitude and the necessity of repaying in some way those manifestations now somewhat forgotten. It is of importance, Mr. President, that our people should know well the other peoples with whom they exchange products, manufactures, and ideas, especially when, in respect to the latter, those that they receive surpass in quantity those they give. And if there is any country that the Argentine people need to know well, any people, in its history, in its methods, in its sentiments, and in its intentions, it is the United States of America, the elder sister, the forerunner, and the model. In the epoch of our independence, Mr. President, the public life of the United States was constantly interested in the vicissitudes of the struggle that these peoples waged for their independence on both slopes of the Andes and in the regions of Venezuela. If you read the messages of the Presidents of the United States you find in them, year after year, words that prove the interest of that country in the destiny of these countries. At a date as early as 1811, a message of President Madison contained phrases full of sympathy for the great communities which were struggling for their liberty in this part of the world; and the attention of Congress was called to the necessity of being prepared to enter into relations of government to government with them, as soon as their independence should be sanctioned. From the time in which Monroe, the author of the famous doctrine, assumed the presidency of the republic, in all the messages at the opening of Congress, there is a distinct reference to the struggle of these nations for their independence, and in particular to the conflict that developed in the Rio de la Plata and the victorious progress of the arms of Buenos Ayres on this and on the other side of the mountains and on the plateau of Bolivia. In all these documents reference is made to independence as a probable fact, which must necessarily at that time have exerted an influence in favor of the cause of the patriots; and often the declaration was repeated that, the colonies being emancipated, the United States did not seek and would not accept from them any commercial advantage that was not also offered to all other nations. These manifestations which emanated from the Government and reflected the movement of public opinion, found eloquent exponents in Congress also.