Speech of His Excellency Don Manuel Araujo, President of Salvador, welcoming Mr. Knox at San Salvador, March 11, 1912.
Your Excellency: In the name of the people of Salvador and of the Government over which I preside I extend a most cordial welcome to your excellency. Your presence here, at this time, will establish an epoch of note in the history of Central America. You bear to us on your visit of courtesy the good will of a great nation, one of the most powerful peoples of the world. We acknowledge your visit as an act of regard, and I, especially, at this moment, feel the spirit of the American, the Latin and the Indian stirring upon my lips to enable me to render a complete testimony of affection to your great nation, your Government, and to your excellency. Your country exhibits before the world, as a great and sovereign nation, the glowing example of the liberty and wisdom of your privileged race, forming an attractive and enviable standard for all other peoples. We, though constituted as small nationalities, possess the nobility and loftiness of purpose engendered by honor and faith in our destinies; and your excellency may feel assured that in Salvador, as throughout all Central America, there burns brightly, exceeding brightly, that noble ambition which is the objective point of all cultured peoples to occupy a prominent position in the concert of the civilized and free nations of the globe. Welcome, most honored Mr. Secretary, as also your distinguished family and your brilliant suite. It is our desire that the time spent by you in this section of Central America may be agreeable, and that the benefits of this visit may, at no distant day, flower into the peace, liberty, and progress of our country’s ensign.