The name is absent

168        Hispanic America

We are convinced that there has sprung up here an in-
tellectual movement devoted to the study of phases of
political law, to pointing out the influence of psychic factors
in sociology and to establishing the paramount position of
ideal values in philosophy. We shall ever remember, above
all, that there arose from the midst of this people, moulded
of its clay, nourished upon its sap, one of the most com-
pletely rounded statesmen that ever lived, in whom intelli-
gence and creative will were thrown into relief by their
morality, and, we could almost say, by their sanctity: a
figure that can only be compared in human history with that
of Marcus Aurelius and Saint Louis the Just of France:
Abraham Lincoln.

It is true that amid a population so large as that of the
United States, life is extraordinarily complicated and rich;
and it is possible to find here different currents of ideas and
the sources of contradictory policies; but it is interesting
to know what are the ideals and the orientations that accord
with the deep and essential soul of the United States; and
we of Spanish America must know that these ideals and
these orientations are those required by democratic tradi-
tion, by respect for human freedom and the equality of
peoples. The soul of the United States is the soul of
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The people
of our countries have nothing to fear, but much to hope for,
from the America of Washington and Lincoln.

Since our history is less well known than yours, the preju-
dices disseminated throughout the United States in respect
of Spanish America have taken deeper root; and it is
necessary to struggle against them with earnestness. I can-
not deny that Spanish America has suffered economic crises
and political outbreaks, but I hold that in Spanish America
economic development and political culture were forced to

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