Reply of Mr. Knox.
Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen:
On behalf of the Government and people of the United States permit me to express my sincere appreciation and thanks for your kindly greeting. I have come to Nicaragua to express to you the keen feeling of neighborly sympathy entertained by my Government for the Government and people of Nicaragua, and it is indeed a pleasure to meet you here and be privileged to speak to you face to face.
Thanks to the frank and most cordial relations which happily exist between our respective countries our people are rapidly becoming more deeply interested in the welfare and development and consequent prosperity of Nicaragua, and are more than ever before manifesting a desire to cultivate even closer and more intimate relations. Movements toward closer association and truer friendship between the peoples of different countries are not arbitrarily created by outward efforts; they spring from within. Their primary impulse is the growing conviction of neighboring countries that the development and prosperity of each is in harmony with the advancement of the welfare of all. Such movements are tremendously facilitated by the confidence and friendship that follows acquaintance, and that fact is the inspiration of my mission.
Although the interest of the people of the United States in the welfare of your country is keen there is not and never has been any desire either on the part of the American Government or people to mix unduly or unbidden in the internal affairs of Nicaragua, but to the request for assistance in the regeneration of Nicaragua my Government was happy promptly to respond.
The political and economic situation that had arisen, due to many years of misrule, rendered the task of reorganization of your Government [Page 1115] exceedingly difficult, and your leaders, because of the frank friendship and good faith of the United States toward the Nicaraguan people as a whole, naturally turned to the American Government for council and assistance in the arduous task before them,. My Government was glad to send to Managua a special commissioner to aid in making a fixed program which the leaders pledged themselves to carry out and in which was contemplated loyal cooperation in the rehabilitation of Nicaragua. The Government of the” United States was glad to suggest, upon the invitation of Nicaragua, a competent financial adviser who should make a careful study of the economic conditions of the country and counsel the Government of Nicaragua as to the best methods to be pursued in dealing with this most difficult and important problem, and also to assist you in devising means to be adopted to deal with the claims against Nicaragua and to dispose in an adequate and just manner of the outstanding and legally or economically unsound and ruinous concessions.
The United States was likewise, upon your invitation, glad to conclude a convention with Nicaragua which will provide a sufficient measure of security for a new foreign loan, essential for your financial reorganization and internal public improvements. While this convention is still pending before the United States Senate it has become necessary for Nicaragua to make some provision for the immediate reformation of the local currency, and in order to accomplish this a short-time loan has been negotiated and my Government has gladly approved the name of an American collector general of customs, who has been appointed by the Government of Nicaragua.
The Nicaraguan people are to be congratulated that they have at the head of the nation a man quick to realize the necessities of the country and of courage sufficient to expeditiously set on foot the best and surest means of meeting the country’s needs.
It must here be remembered that the progress already made and the continuance of Nicaragua along the path to national regeneration depend almost entirely upon the preservation of peace and contentment in the country, and that the surest means of reaching this end is the faithful observance of the pledges made by the leaders of all parties.
In the zone of the Caribbean the responsibilities of the United States are becoming increasingly great as the opening of the great waterway which is to change the trade routes of the world draws nearer and the desire of the United States to see order and prosperity becomes even more intensified. We are especially interested in the prosperity of all the people of Nicaragua. Their prosperity means contentment and contentment means repose. The United States have always cherished sentiments of the warmest regard and most cordial esteem for the people of Nicaragua, and from the very commencement of the independent existence of Nicaragua the Government of the United States has steadfastly adhered to the traditional policy that found expression in the words of President Monroe and, which indicated a sympathetic interest in seeing this country develop and progress unrestricted and unfettered by the interference of foreign nations. Encouraged by that sympathy Nicaragua was able to add to its jurisdiction a strip of territory [Page 1116] along the Atlantic coast which, with the establishment of better means of communication between the eastern and western portions of the country, will add greatly to the resources and the political prestige of the Republic. The people of the United States most earnestly desire that Nicaragua should steadily advance to that place in the family of nations to which its situation, its wealth, and the capacity of its people for self-government justly entitle it, and in that spirit of cordial good will and warm friendship the Government of the United States stands prepared to lend such counsel and assistance as may be requested and as may be proper in the establishment of a government calculated to maintain order, enforce law, discharge its international obligations, and promote peace, progress, and prosperity.
I was much impressed, sir, by the lofty standard Nicaragua has set for herself, so eloquently expressed by you in your gracious words of welcome to our Minister, whom you have so recently received. When you assured him that Nicaragua “had established as a firm base of government the respect for human life, the absolute right to property, the suppression of the odious system of forced contributions, the complete independence of the courts, the freedom of the press, and the observance of all individual guaranties”, you justly concluded that these facts were “eloquent testimony of the unvarying purpose that animates the Government of Nicaragua to be faithful to its international obligations and to the promises of liberty and justice given to its citizens.”
It has probably never happened that neighboring countries, which have been more or less afflicted with international and internal troubles of frequent recurrence arising from similar causes, have adopted such radical and effective means for their prevention as did the five Central American republics in the three treaties signed at Washington in 1907 under the friendly counsel and sympathy of the United States and Mexico.
By the convention for the establishment of a Central American Court of Justice they bound themselves to create and maintain a permanent tribunal and to submit to it all controversies and questions which may arise among them of whatever nature. By the general treaty of peace and amity they agreed to the maintenance of peace in their mutual relations, and to that end, taking into consideration the central geographical position of Honduras, they stipulated for its complete neutrality in event of conflict between the other republics, and, in order to remove one of the most frequent sources of trouble, provision was made calculated to suppress revolutionary activity on the part of the residents in adjacent republics. By the addition to that convention, and for the purpose of further discouraging and preventing internal disturbances in the five republics, they agreed to refuse to recognize revolutionary governments in each other’s countries until first constitutionally recognized in the country where occurring; they agreed not to intervene in any country in case of civil war; and they agreed to constitutional reform. The mere fact that these high resolutions may not have been strictly observed in particular cases should by no means discourage the signatory parties, the important fact being that these five republics have indicated their sincere desire for international peace and domestic tranquility, and have devised complete and adequate means to that end, the faithful [Page 1117] adherence to which will become more and more habitual as the excellent example of the more advanced republics continues to prompt it.
Mindful of the part the United States took in encouraging the making of these treaties and the moral obligations arising therefrom it is not the intention of our Government or our people to refrain from lending every possible proper aid and encouragement to the parties to these conventions to constantly carry into effect their wise and beneficient provisions.
If this or any other government is to endure in this or any other land it is necessary that wisdom, vigilance, patience, and loyalty should abide in its halls of legislation, its chambers of justice, in the centers of executive power, and with the dominating mass of its people.
The establishment and preservation of the institutions of free government, here as elsewhere, depend not upon those who think first of serving themselves and to that end would sacrifice their country; not upon those who think only of defeating the opposition and to that end would sacrifice the world; but upon those who think only of the welfare of their country and to that end would sacrifice themselves.
In Nicaragua there is to-day present the opportunity and the acute necessity for a display of the very highest and most enduring type of patriotism. There is now a call to her true sons to give the best that is within them to anxious and concerted effort for the public weal, to execute the compromises, adjustments, and concessions essential for the general welfare, and, by consistent and loyal adherence to the understandings and agreements that have been reached for the rehabilitation of their Government, to place their names first upon their country’s enduring roll of fame.