Impressed  by  these  views,  the  President
extends  to  all  the  independent  countries  of
North  and  South  America  an  earnest  in
vitation  to  participate  in  a  general  Con
gress,  to  be  held  in  the  city  of  Washing
ton,  on  the  22d  of  November,  1882,  for  the
purpose  of  considering  and  discussing  the
methods  of  preventing  war  between  the
nations  of  America.  He  desires  that  the
attention  of  the  Congress  shall  be  strictly
confined  to  this  one  great  object;  and  its
sole  aim  shall  be  to  seek  a  way  of  per
manently  averting  the  horrors  of  a  cruel
and  bloody  contest  between  countries
oftenest  of  one  blood  and  speech,  or  the
even  worse  calamity  of  internal  commotion
and  civil  strife;  that  it  shall  regard  the
burdensome  and  far-reaching  consequences
of  such  a  struggle,  the  legacies  of  exhausted
finances,  of  oppressive  debt,  of  onerous
taxation,  of  ruined  cities,  of  paralyzed  in
dustries,  of  devastated  fields,  of  ruthless
conscriptions,  of  the  slaughter  of  men,  of
the  grief  of  the  widow  and  orphan,  of  em
bittered  resentments  that  long  survive
those  who  provoked  them  and  heavily
afflict  the  innocent  generations  that  come
after.
THE  MISSION  OF  THE  CONGRESS.
The  President  is  especially  desirous  to
have  it  understood  that  in  putting  forth  this
invitation  the  United  States  does  not  as
sume  the  position  of  counseling  or  attempt
ing,  through  the  voice  of  the  Congress,  to
counsel  any  determinate  solution  of  exist
ing  questions  which  may  now  divide  any
of  the  countries.  Such  questions  cannot
properly  come  before  the  Congress.  Its
mission  is  higher.  It  is  to  provide  for  the
interests  of  all  in  the  future,  not  to  settle
the  individual  differences  of  the  present.
