Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-10-03
ALL-AMERICA.
First Meeting Of the Inter-
national Congress.
PREMIER BLAINE'S ADDRESS.
The Delegates Made Warmly Wei
eome-Reception and Lunch
at the White House.

ecme-Reception and Lunch
at the White House.
Associated Press Dispatches to the HEEALD.l
WASHINGTON, October 1.-THE dele
gates to the International American Con-
gress assembled at the State Department
today, and proceeded in a body to the
diplomatic reception-room, where they
were presented to Secretary Blaine, who
delivered felicitous address of welcome.
Mr.. Blaine said:
"Geistlsssess Of the International Confer-
ence:
sSpeaking for the Government of the
United States, I bid you welcome to this
capital. Speaking for the people of the
United States, bid you welcome to
every section and to every State of the
Union. You come in response to an in
vitation extended by the President, on
the special authorization of Congress.
Your presence here is no ordinary event.
1t signifies much to the people of all
America today. 1t may signify far more
in days to come. No conference of ma.
tions ever assembled to consider the well
fare of territorial possessions 80 vast, and
to contemplate possibilities of the future
30 great and so inspiring. Those now
sitting within these walls are empowered
to speak for nations whose borders are
on both great oceans, and whose
northern limits are touched by Arc
tic waters for thousands of miles
beyond the Straits of Boring; whose
southern extension furnishes human hah-
itations farther below the equator than is
elsewhere possible on the globe. While
considerations of this character must in
epire Americans, both South and North,
with the liveliest anticipations of future
grandeur and power, they must also i'm
press them with a sense of gravest re-
eponsibility touching the character and
development of their respective nation
alities. The delegates whom l am ad-
dressing can do much to establish per-
manent relations of confidence, respect
and friendship between the nations which
they represent. They can show to the
world an honorable, peaceful conference,
of seventeen independent American pow
ers, in which all shall meet together on
terms OF absolute equality; conference
cree a single delegate against his own
. conference which will permit no secret
will frankly publish to the world
all its conclusions; conference
which will tolerate no spirit of
conquest, but will aim to cultivate
an American sympathy as broad as both
continents; q conference which will from
no selfish alliance against the older
nations from which we are proud to
claim Inheritance; conference, in fine,
which will seek nothing, propose moth.
ing, endure nothing that is not in the gen.
ersl sense of all the delegates timely and
wise and peaceful.
And yet we cannot be expected to
forget that our common fate has made
us inhabitants of two continents which
at the close of four centuries are still re-
garded beyond the seas as new world.
Like situations beget like sympathies
and impose like duties. We meet in the
firm belief that the nations Of America
ought to, and can be, more helpful each
to the others than they now are, and that
each will find advantage and profit from
an enlarged intercourse with the others.
"We believe that we should be drawn
together more closely by the highways of
the sea, and that at no distant day the
railway systems of North and South
America will meet upon the Isthmus
and connect by land routes the political
and commercial capitals of all America.
We believe that hearty cooperation
based on hearty confidence, will save all
the American States from the burdens
and evils which have long and cruelty
afflicted the older nations Of the world.
We believe that the spirit of justice of
q common and equal interest between
the American States will leave no room
for an artificial balance of power
like unto that which has led
to wars abroad and drenched Europe in
blood. We believe that friendship
avowed with candor and maintained with
good faith, will remove from the Ameri-
can States the necessity of guarding the
boundary lines between themselves with
Notifications and military force. We
believe that standing armies, beyond
those which are needful for public order
and the safety of internal administration
should be unknown on both American
continents. We believe that friendship,
and not force, the spirit of just law, and
not the violence of the mob, should be
Inc T0COXulZou Iul0 VI AumlulbtIdtlOu
between American nations and in Ameri-
can nations.
"To these subjects and those which
are cognate thereto, the attention of this
conference is earnestly and cordially in
vited by the Government of the United
States. 1t will be great gain when we
shallsacquire that common confidence on
which all international friendship must
rest. 1t will be greater gain when we
shall be able to draw the people of all
the American nations into closer &C.
quaintance with each other, an end to be
facilitated by more frequent and
more rapid INSTRUMENTATION. 1t
will be the greatest gain when
the personal and commercial rela-
tions of the American States South
and North, shall be 80 developed and
regulated that each shall acquire the
highest possible advantage from the en-
lightened and enlarged intercourse of all.
Before the conference shall formally
enter upon the discussion of the SUBJ
iects to be submitted to it, am in
structed by the President to invite all
the delegates to be the guests Of the
Government, during proposed visit to
various sections of the country with the
double view Of showing to our friends