Statement by the President on the 100th Anniversary of the Death of General Jose de San Martin.

THE PEOPLE of the United States are honored to join the citizens of the other American republics in observing the 100th anniversary of the death of General Jose de San Martin, founder of Argentine independence, who led a liberating army across the Andes and gave freedom to Chile and Peru.

It has been said of San Martin that rather than a man he was a mission. His name represents the American ideal of democracy, justice, and liberty. His deeds have earned him a proud place in history. His memory is part of the spirit of freedom and independence in North and South America alike.

The solidarity of the Americas rests upon firm foundations. Not the least of these is the faith we inherited from San Martin and the other great figures of our past in the future of a free and enlightened humanity. It is no exaggeration to say that one of the warmest features of inter-American friendship and understanding is our mutual appreciation of the men who shaped our destinies.

San Martin was such a man.

While he is hailed today in Argentina as the first among his country's heroes, his memory is equally revered throughout the rest of the continent whose future was shaped in good part by his spectacular triumphs on the field of battle. In the United States, we honor him as much for his humanitarianism as for his achievements in action.

It does not detract from the other great heroes of the independence of the Americas to say that his impersonal devotion to the cause of freedom and his rejection of material honors make San Martin the personification of unselfish idealism.

It is fitting that we honor San Martin at a time when our sympathies and support go out to a new and far-off republic which is struggling for existence as it enters the third year of its life. The spirit of the "Great Captain," who placed his life at the service of liberty, is very much with us.