264 Presidential Addresses 



this assurance was kept with an honorable good 

 faith which merits full acknowledgment on our part. 

 At the same time, the existence of hostilities in a 

 region so near our own borders was fraught with 

 such possibilities of danger in the future that it was 

 obviously no less our duty to ourselves than our 

 duty to humanity to endeavor to put an end to that. 

 Accordingly, by an offer of our good services in a 

 spirit of frank friendliness to all the parties con 

 cerned, a spirit in which they quickly and cordially 

 responded, we secured a resumption of peace the 

 contending parties agreeing that the matters which 

 they could not settle among themselves should be 

 referred to The Hague Tribunal for settlement. 

 The United States had most fortunately already 

 been able to set an example to other nations by 

 utilizing the great possibilities for good contained in 

 The Hague Tribunal, a question at issue between 

 ourselves and the Republic of Mexico being the 

 first submitted to this international court of arbi 

 tration. 



The terms which we have secured as those under 

 which the Isthmian Canal is to be built, and the 

 course of events in the Venezuela matter, have 

 shown not merely the ever growing influence of the 

 United States in the Western Hemisphere, but also, 

 I think I may safely say, have exemplified the firm 

 purpose of the United States that its growth and in 

 fluence and power shall redound not to the harm but 

 to the benefit of our sister republics whose strength 

 is less. Our growth, therefore, is beneficial to hu- 



