Reply of Mr. Knox.

Mr. President and Gentlemen: It is indeed fortunate for me that the burdens and responsibilities of the office I hold are tempered by the enjoyment of privileges and advantages which would not other [Page 1358] wise have been within my reach. Not the least of these is the opportunity now vouchsafed to me of coming among you, my fellow countrymen of the Western World, with a message of fraternal good will from the Government and people of the northern Republic, I prize this privilege beyond measure, and the more so as in this historic land, favored by nature to be the fitting cradle of the new birth of occidental empire under the proud Castilian banner of its first explorers, I feel myself among friends. The obstacles of distance, of diverse ancestral origin, and of dissimilar language disappear with the warmth of your greeting. The Saxon North and the Hispanic South meet as associates in the common cause of progress and peace, alike devoted to the common duty of promoting the good will and the mutual confidence and esteem which draw the democratic commonwealths of America into relations of true brotherhood.

The auspicious occasion of my present visit is the proximate opening of the great canal. This stupendous work, the dream of centuries, since Balboa first trod the solitudes of Darien, is far more than a commercial enterprise. It is a great humanitarian achievement, fraught with endless possibilities of good for all the nations of the continent. It opens an avenue by which the peoples of the eastern and western coasts of the northern and southern continents are brought into closer relation. The barrier of ages becomes the highway of the future, not for the devastating advance of conquering hosts but for the beneficial movement of progress and development, in which Venezuela can not but take an important part. The diversion of a vast share of the commerce of Europe and America to the new channel must necessarily bring benefit to the neighboring countries. The already intimate intercourse of my country with yours can not retrograde. The volume of incoming and outgoing commerce between Venezuela and the United States is now relatively larger than that between Venezuela and any other nation. Good will and mutual confidence will make it actually larger. It is to the interest of Venezuela that it should increase. The augmentation of the exports of a vast and as yet but partly developed country like yours is a stimulus to the expanding development of its natural resources and the growth of economic prosperity. The increase of its imports is the natural reflex action due to domestic prosperity. It is, indeed, an index of national well being, Moreover, advancement of home interests makes for the material and moral uplifting of the country and is the surest step to the firm assurance of domestic peace and stable government, which all good citizens desire and for which they should strive whole-heartedly.

In coming to you with an earnest message of peace and good will, I am especially mindful of the historical fact that the political and traditional sympathies of the United States and Venezuela are in singularly close accord. If we have our Washington, you have your Bolívar, happily styled by Henry Clay as the Washington of the South, who bore upon his breast during his life the miniature of Washington, presented to him through Lafayette in 1825, more proudly than he wore the insignia of rank, a sentiment you have respected and recorded upon the imperishable and noble statue erected to Bolívar’s memory. Bolívar was the pioneer in the noble work of upbuilding, in the northern region of South America, a free commonwealth like ours of the North; and I can not forget that the vast [Page 1359] territory which Bolívar liberated embraced the broad reaches of the Caribbean and the Pacific, including the very Isthmus through which we are now, as appointed agents for the benefit of all the Americas and of all the nations of the earth, opening a world highway. Bolívar, his noble work achieved, regarded the isthmian barrier with regretful eyes, feeling in his great heart a keen longing for the accomplishment of the century-old dream of Latin America that the Atlantic and Pacific might in time be joined by a pathway through the land whose freedom he had won. It was one of the objects brought before the Pan-American Congress of Panama in 1826, but the intelligent, although fruitless and perhaps premature, efforts of your great Liberator failed to mold the project into practical shape. Let us believe that the spirits of Bolívar and Washington are sharing our mutual felicitations over the approaching realization of the unparalleled task, and inspiring us all, Venezuelans and Americans alike, with the glad resolve to know each other better, to strengthen the ties of mutual confidence that happily exist between us, and to give lasting expression to that sentiment of disinterested helpfulness which moves the two peoples to live in amity and essential harmony, each rejoicing when more of peace, of prosperity, of happiness, and 01 security comes into the life of its brother people.