I am honored in meeting the men entrusted by Brazil with the most exalted function in the gift of organized society. One great test of civilization is the ability to produce and designate men to safeguard justice itself, who, free from self-interest, above partisanship, and skilled in jurisprudence, are dedicated to truth and reason.
In our western organization of democracy, the supreme courts are not only the final tribunal in the determination of justice, but they are the guardians of our democratic organization itself. And the task of our supreme tribunals is ever increasing. You face new and more difficult problems each year with the advance of science and the growing complexity of our civilization, and you have to constantly formulate the fundamental concepts of justice to meet these new forces and agencies. That our supreme courts throughout the world have met these new problems with courage and skill is the greatest of tributes to their character and traditions. And as our international trade increases, the relations of our citizens in foreign countries constantly expand. The whole great fabric of international commerce upon which the world is today dependent for its very existence rests in the end upon the sanctity of contract honestly entered upon under the laws of each country. But for confidence in the courts of different nations, the whole of our international economic relations would become hazardous and weakened. And the just decisions of the courts remove the friction of our respective citizens out of the field of diplomatic relations into the field of abstract justice.
Both of our countries have attained an enviable success in this great institution. Therefore, am I most deeply sensible of the great compliment you have paid my country and myself in that your body which so truly represents these ideals and traditions should confer this great dignity upon me on this occasion.
NOTE: President-elect Hoover spoke before the Supreme Court of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro in response to remarks by Dr. Godofredo da Cunha, Minister President of the Court. Dr. da Cunha's remarks follow:
Mr. Hoover:
Thanking Your Excellency in my own name and in that of the Court over which due to the unforgettable generosity of my illustrious colleagues I preside, for the honor of your visit, I frankly confess that I can add nothing to the many tributes which so deservedly and brilliantly have been rendered, here and in other countries, to your personality, to the high hopes we entertain from the pledge of your past, to the esteem which links us to your country, to the American spirit which has been our inspiration from our first hopes of independence and our first attempts to form a nation to our almost integral adoption of the political and judicial institutions of the United States of America.
It has been said, and the facts bear it out, that your entire life may be summed up in four words: science and altruism, work and will; these are the shining gems which adorn your brow, the solid foundations of the eminence to which the people of the United States have exalted you, in your election to rule the destinies of the richest and most powerful country in the world.
In every declaration of the founders of our independence there is found the same American spirit. This is amply demonstrated by history, as one of the most influential members of the Brazilian press pointed out a few days ago when referring to Jose Joaquim da Maia, who had the opportunity of conferring in France with Jefferson, then Minister of the North American Republic, with respect to the implantation of the republican form of government in our country. History also affirms that Tiradentes, another of those who struggled for the independence of this country, died with a copy of the Constitution of the United States in his pocket.
The traditional international policy of Brazil, which had its beginnings in 1822, has suffered no interruption, as between your country and ours. This tradition of friendship, harmony, cordiality, and mutual confidence between the two governments and the two peoples will become even stronger, if it were necessary or possible to do so, in your coming administration, which all expect to be both brilliant and fruitful, a guarantee of peace—that condition so indispensable to continued progress and to undisturbed general prosperity.
So far as we are concerned, and particularly as guardians and supreme interpreters of the Constitution by which we are governed and which differs but slightly from your own, we can assure you that we apply it in the light of the teachings and lessons garnered from North American writers and jurists with whose works we are familiar. And as among us, at present, there are but few expounders of constitutional doctrine, and our incipient and hesitant jurisprudence can give but little help, we have found it necessary, as Lessa says, to have recourse to the commentators and judgments of the country whose political institutions served us as models— the United States of America. Moreover, I may add that our law of judicial organization stipulates that Brazilian judges shall use, as subsidiary legislation, not only the statutes of cultured peoples in general but, also, and "especially," those which govern juridic relations in the Republic of the United States of America, and the cases of "common law" and "equity."
Thanking Your Excellency once more for your courtesy, I take this opportunity of expressing my sincere desire for greater political solidarity between the two nations, for the increasing approximation of our reciprocal interests, and for the greatness and prosperity of your country.
Herbert Hoover, Address Before the Supreme Court of Brazil in Rio de Janeiro Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/372883
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