Vice-Consul MacMaster to the Secretary of
State.
American Consulate,
Cartagena,
Colombia, September 26,
1906.
Sir: I have the honor of inclosing herewith two
copies of El Porvenir, the semiofficial paper of this city, of September
25 and 26, relative to the visit made to this city by the honorable
Secretary of
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State on the 24th
instant. In the last-mentioned paper appears the speech made by our
honorable Secretary, in English and in Spanish. The whole country
appears to be most pleased, and the relations between the Americans
resident here and the Colombians have improved greatly. With sentiments
of the highest consideration.
I have, etc.
M. B. MacMaster,
American Vice-Consul.
[Inclosure No. 1.]
Speech of His Excellency Vasquez-Cobo, Minister for Foreign Affairs, at a
breakfast, given to Mr. Root, at
Cartagena, September 24, 1906.
[Translation from the
Spanish.]
Mr. Secretary: Upon receiving your
excellency within the confines of our heroic and glorious Cartagena,
I present to you a cordial greeting of welcome, in the name of
Colombia, of His Excellency the President of the Republic, and in my
own.
You return to your own country to enjoy merited honors and laurels
after a long tour, giving a hearty embrace of friendship to our
sisters, the Republics of the South, and in breaking your journey
upon our burning shores we receive you as the herald of peace, of
justice, and of concord with which the great Republic of the North
greets the American Continent. I trust to God that these walls, the
austere witnesses of our glory, will serve as a monument whereby
this visit may be noted in history!
The honorable Minister Barrett, the worthy and estimable
representative of your excellency’s Government, has just finished
journeying through a large part of our vast territory; he, better
than any one, will be able to tell your excellency what he has seen
in our beautiful and fertile valleys and mountains, in our
flourishing cities and fields, and among the five millions of lusty,
high-minded, peace-loving, and hard-working inhabitants, who to-day
think only of peace and useful and honest toil.
This is the nation that greets you to-day and with loyalty and
frankness clasps the hand of her sister of the North.
Mr. Secretary, upon thanking you for the honor of this visit, I
fervently pray that a happy outcome may crown your efforts in the
great work of American confraternity, and I drink to the prosperity
and greatness of the United States, to its President, and especially
to your excellency.
[Inclosure No. 2.]
Reply of Mr. Root.
Your Excellency, and Gentlemen: Believe, I
beg you, in the sincerity of my appreciation and my thanks for the
courtesy with which you have received me, and for the honor which
you have shown me. When the suggestion was made that upon my return
from a voyage encircling the continent of South America I should
stop at Cartagena for an interview with you, sir, before returning
to my own country, I accepted with alacrity and with pleasure,
because it was most grateful to me to testify by my presence upon
your shores to my high respect for your great country, the country
of Bolivar.; to my sincere desire that all questions which exist
between the United States of Colombia and the United States of
America may be settled peacefully, in the spirit of friendship, of
mutual esteem, and with honor for both countries. Especially, also,
I was glad to come to Colombia as an evidence of my esteem and
regard for that noble and great man whom it is the privilege of
Colombia to call her President to-day—General Reyes. I have had the
privilege of personal acquaintance with him, and I look upon his
conduct of affairs in the chief magistracy of your Republic with the
twofold interest of one who loves his fellow-men and desires the
prosperity
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and happiness
of the people of Colombia and of a personal regard and friendship
for the President himself.
I have been much gratified during my visit to so many of the
Republics of South America to find universally the spirit of a new
industrial and commercial awakening, to find a new era of enterprise
and prosperity dawning in the Southern Continent.
Mr. Minister and gentlemen, it will be the cause of sincere happiness
to me if through the present friendly relations, based upon personal
knowledge acquired here, I may do something toward helping the
Republic of Colombia forward along the pathway of the new
development of South America. With your vast agricultural and
mineral wealth, with the incalculable richness of your domain, the
wealth and prosperity of Colombia are sure to come some time. Let us
hope that they will come now while we are living, in order that you
may transfer to your children not the possibility but the
realization of the increased greatness of your country. Let us hope
that some advance of this new era of progress may come from the
pleasant friendships formed to-day. While I return my thanks to you
for your courtesy let me assure you that there is nothing that could
give greater pleasure to the President and to the people of the
United States of America than to feel that they may have some part
in promoting the prosperity and the happiness of this sister
Republic.
I ask you to join me in drinking to the peace, the prosperity, the
order, the justice, the liberty of the Republic of Colombia, and
long life and a prosperous career in office to its President—General
Reyes.
