OUR SECOND ALLIANCE 



B y J- J- JUSSERAND 



Ambassador from France to the United States 



The following impromptu address by Ambassador Jusserand was delivered 

 at the reception by the United States Congress to M. Viviani, President of the 

 French Commission, and Marshal Joffre, in the House of Representatives on 

 May 5, The occasion was unique in that it was the first and only time that a resi- 

 dent ambassador of any foreign country iias addressed the United States Congress. 



Mr. Speaker and Gentlemen oE 

 the House oe Representa- 

 tives: I might repeat only the 

 words of Marshal Joffre, though I have 

 not the same excuse for not making a 

 longer speech ; but the words interpret my 

 feelings as well as his and those of all my 

 compatriots. Gentlemen, I thank you. 



This occasion is a very great one, and 

 I am sure that those two men whose por- 

 traits adorn this Hall — Washington and 

 Lafayette — those two friends who fought 

 for liberty, would, if they could, also ap- 

 plaud, and say to their descendants, their 

 American and their French ones, "Dear 

 people, we thank you." 



What you have been doing, the laws 

 you have passed, the decisions you have 

 taken, touch us deeply, and touch the 

 French people in a very particular fash- 

 ion, because what you have done is a sort 

 of counterpart of what we did long ago. 



What we did was to come to the rescue 

 of men who wanted to be free, and our 

 desire was to help them and to have no 

 other recompense than to succeed, and 

 that liberty should be established in this 

 new continent. 



What we did was unique then in the 

 history of the world. We expected noth- 

 ing for ourselves but your friendship, and 

 that we got. We did not know that ever 

 a time would come when the same action 

 would be taken by another of the nations 

 of the world ; and yet that time has come, 

 the same action has been taken, with the 

 same energy, the same generosity, the 

 same disinterestedness that characterized 

 the conduct of those other men many 

 years ago. It has been taken by the 

 United States. 



What you do now is to come to Eu- 

 rope to take part in the fight for liberty, 

 a fight in which you expect no recom- 

 pense, no advantage, except that very 

 great advantage, that in the same way 

 that we helped to secure liberty — -human 

 liberty, individual liberty, national lib- 

 erty — on this continent, you will fight to 

 see that liberty be preserved in the broad 

 family of nations. 



Thanks to you, we shall see the calam- 

 ities of this struggle shortened, and a 

 new spirit of liberty grow greater and 

 stronger, pervade all countries and in- 

 deed fill the world. 



ffi?^^ 



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