Page:Our Sister Republic - Mexico.djvu/232

226 : I pray you, my dear sir, to accept in this form my grateful acknowledgment for the generous words of welcome, which on my arrival at this place you addressed to me, on behalf of the officers and agents of the Federal Government residing in the city of Queretaro. Republicanism on this continent, my dear sir, is not the cause of the United States of America, or of the United States of Mexico, only, but it is the common cause of both countries, and, as I believe, of all the nations which now exist on the American Continent. It will be a happy consequence of my present travel in Mexico, if it shall enable me, in any degree, to cultivate and mature this sentiment, either in your interesting country, or in my own".

The legislature of the state of Queretaro, presented by one of its members, an address of welcome, of which the following is a translation:

The Legislature of the State has the honor to felicitate Mr. W. H. Seward, giving him the welcome. It is the true interpreter of the people of Queretaro with regard to the expressions of its gratitude. Meanwhile, history does not efface off its pages the unjustified invasion of France in Mexico; likewise, will not be effaced the important services which Mexico received of the Hon. Minister of America, in 1866.

Queretaro, Nov. 11th 1869.

(Signed,)

President.

In reply Mr. Seward wrote a letter, concluding:

"The Legislature will scarcely need to be assured that I appreciate the legendary and historical character of the state of Queretaro. While its capital will be forever celebrated, as the scene of the earliest and most pious labors of the humble founders of Christianity in Mexico, it will be even more distinguished, as the scene of those mighty events, which concluded the last and most desperate attempt of all, to establish European monarchial domination on the American Continent. Peace, harmony, and sympathy among the several American Nations, is now the