The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-10-26
BLAINE'S ADDRESS BEFORE THE AM
ERICAN INTERNATIONAL
CONGRESS,

Gentlemen OF the international
Conference: Speaking
for the Government of the United
States, I bid you welcome to the
capital; speaking for the people of
the United States, I bid you well
come to every section and every
state in the Union. You came in
response to an invitation extended
by the President on the special au-
thorization of Congress. Your pre-
sence here is no ordinary event. It
signifies much to the people of Am
erica to-day; it may signify far more
in the days to come. No conference
Of nations has ever assembled to
consider the welfare of territorial
possessions SO vast, and to contem-
plate the possibilities of future so
great and inspiring. Those now sit
ting within these walls are empow-
cred to speak for the nations whose
borders are on both the great oceans;
whose northern limits are touched
by the Arctic waters for a thousand
miles beyond the Straits of Behr-
ing, and whose southern extention
furnishes human habitations farther
beyond the Equator than is elsewhere
possible on the globe. The aggre-
gate territorial extent of the nations
here represented falls but little short
of 100000 of square miles, more
than three times the area of all
Europe, and but little less than one
fourth part of the globe, while in re-
spect to the power of producing arti-
cles which are essential to human
life and those that minister to life's
luxury, they constitute even larger
proportion of the entire world
These great possessions to-day here
aggregate population approximate
ing 120,0O0,000, but if the people
were as densely settled as the average
population of Europe the total num-
Der would exceed 1,000,000.000.
While considerations of this char
acter must inspire Americans, both
South and North with the liveliest
ant1cipations of future grandeur and
power, they must also impress them
with sense of the gravest respon-
sibility touching the character and
development of the respective ma
tlonalities. The delegates whom [
am addressing can do much to es-
tablish permanent relations of conf
dence, respect and friendship be-
tween the nations which they repre-
sent. They can show the world an
honorable and peaceful conference
of seventeen independent American
Powers in which all shall meet to-
gether on terms of absolute equality :;
a conference in which there can be
no attempt to coerce a single dele
gate against his own conception of
the interests of his nation; a confer
ence which will permit no secret
understanding on any subject. but
will frankly publish to the world all
its conclusions; conference which
will tolerate no spirit of conquest,
but will aim to cultivate American
sympathy as broad as both Contin-
ents; conference which will form
no selfish alliances against other
nations from which we are proud to
claim Inheritance; a conference, in
fine, which will seek nothing, pro-
pose nothing, endure nothing that is
not, in the general sense of all the
delegates, timely and peaceful.
And yet we cannot be expected to
forget that our common fate has
made US the inhabitants of two Con
tinents which, at the close Of four
centuries, are still regarded beyond
the seas as a new world. Like Stu
atoms beget like sympathies and i'm
pose like duties. We meet in the
firm belief that the nations of Am
erica ought and can be more helpful
each to the other than they now are,
and that each will find advantage
and profit from enlarged intercourse
with the others. We believe that we
should be drawn together more
closely than by the sympathies of
the sea, and that at no distant day
the railway systems of the North
and South will meet upon the 18th
mus and connect by land routes the
political and commercial Capitals of
all America; we believe that hearty
cooperation, based on hearty conf
dence, will save all the American
States from the burdens and evils
which have so long and cruelty
afflicted the older nations of the
world; we believe that the spirit of
justice, of common and equal interests
between the American States will
leave no room for an artificial bal
ance of power like unto that which
has led to wars abroad and drenched
Europe in blood; we believe that
friendship. ayOWed with candor and