Excerpt from Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States Concerning the Independence of the Latin-American Nations

The proposal for the publication of the Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States concerning the Independence of the latin-a merican Nations was made to the Director of the Division of International Law by Dr. Alejandro Alvarez, then and now a distinguished publicist Of Chile, in a memorandum under date of May 12, 1916. He thus explained the need for a publication of this kind, suggesting both its content and the service which it would render to the Americas: One of the necessities most strongly felt by all students of the inter national law and diplomatic history Of our continent is the knowledge of the documents relative to the glorious period of the emancipation of the latin-american nations. Among those documents, the foreign papers or papers of a diplomatic character in the files of the Department of State of the United States, as well as the correspondence of the states men who then had the honor of conducting the foreign relations of said country, occupy a preferent place. The importance of those precedents arises from the active and efficient part which the United States took in the movement of emancipation of the latin-american states and from the careful reports which, upon the political, economical and social situation of these states were sent to the Department at Washington by the agents which the former credited to the latter.

This of course is equivalent to saying that in the files of the Depart ment of State of the United States there is a considerable quantity of material for the diplomatic, political and economic history of Latin America.

While many of these documents had been published in American State Papers, Foreign Relations a great portion of them remain still unpublished and therefore are unknown to historians.

In our estimation the Carnegie Endowment would accomplish some thing of far-reaching effect, of scientific results and pan-american approximation, if it should decide to pay the expenses which the printing of all such documents should demand, and if it should solicit the acquiescence of the Government of the United States of America for the purpose.

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