Mr. Loomis to Mr.
Bunau-Varilla.
Department of State,
Washington, November 12,
1903.
No. 1.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your note of the 11th instant, in which you advise me that
the Republic of Panama has appointed you to fill, near this Government,
the post of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, with full
powers to negotiate.
You further ask that this information may be communicated to the
President and that he will kindly fix a date at which you may present
your letters of credence.
In reply I have the honor to say that the President will be pleased to
receive you for the purpose mentioned to-morrow, Friday, at 9.30
a.m.
If you will be good enough to call at this Department shortly before the
hour mentioned, the Secretary of State will be pleased to accompany you
to the White House.
Accept, etc.,
Francis B. Loomis,
Acting Secretary of State.
Remarks made by the minister of Panama on the
occasion of the presentation of his letters of
credence.
Mr. President: In according to the minister
plenipotentiary of the Republic of Panama the honor of presenting to
you his letters of credence [Page 246] you admit into the family of nations the weakest and the last
born of the republics of the New World.
It owes its existence to the outburst of the indignant grief which
stirred the hearts of the citizens of the Isthmus on beholding the
despotic action which sought to forbid their country from fulfilling
the destinies vouchsafed to it by Providence.
In consecrating its right to exist, Mr. President, you put an end to
what appeared to be the interminable controversy as to the rival
waterways, and you definitely inaugurate the era of the achievement
of the Panama Canal.
From this time forth the determination of the fate of the canal
depends upon two elements alone, now brought face to face,
singularly unlike as regards their authority and power, but wholly
equal in their common and ardent desire to see at last the
accomplishment of the heroic enterprise for piercing the mountain
barrier of the Andes.
The highway from Europe to Asia, following the pathway of the sun, is
now to be realized.
The early attempts to find such a way unexpectedly resulted in the
greatest of all historic achievements, the discovery of America.
Centuries have since rolled by, but the pathway sought has hitherto
remained in the realm of dreams. To-day, Mr. President, in response
to your summons, it becomes a reality.
The President’s reply to the remarks made by
Señor Bunau-Varilla on the occasion of the presentation of his
letters of credence.
Mr. Minister: I am much gratified to
receive the letters whereby you are accredited to the Government of
the United States in the capacity of envoy extraordinary and
minister plenipotentiary of the Republic of Panama.
In accordance with its long-established rule, this Government has
taken cognizance of the act of the ancient territory of Panama in
reasserting the right of self-control and, seeing in the recent
events on the Isthmus an unopposed expression of the will of the
people of Panama and the confirmation of their declared independence
by the institution of a de facto government, republican in form and
spirit, and alike able and resolved to discharge the obligations
pertaining to sovereignty, we have entered into relations with the
new Republic. It is fitting that we should do so now, as we did
nearly a century ago when the Latin peoples of America proclaimed
the right of popular government, and it is equally fitting that the
United States should, now as then, be the first to stretch out the
hand of fellowship and to observe toward the new-born State the
rules of equal intercourse that regulate the relations of
sovereignties toward one another.
I feel that I express the wish of my countrymen in assuring you, and
through you the people of the Republic of Panama, of our earnest
hope and desire that stability and prosperity shall attend the new
State, and that, in harmony with the United States, it may be the
providential instrument of untold benefit to the civilized world
through the opening of a highway of universal commerce across its
exceptionally favored territory.
For yourself, Mr. Minister, I wish success in the discharge of the
important mission to which you have been called.
