Speeches of Former Amb. Chaveas

4th July 2004

July 2, 2004

228th American Independence Speech By Chargé D'Affaires, Larry E. André, Jr Friday, July 2 2004, at the U.S. Embassy

Honorable Ministers, Excellencies Heads of Diplomatic Missions, SpecialRepresentative of the Secretary General of the United Nations, Members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

We gather today in recognition of the 228th anniversary of the independence of the United States of America from Britain — to celebrate the birth of a nation and to reflect on the meaning of Patriotism.   

We are also reminded today of the historic and continuing ties between the United States and Sierra Leone.   Our most prominent historical linkages are often cited:  the Amistad slave ship which underwent mutiny by Mende captives who eventually gained their freedom after a legal struggle led by former President John Quincy Adams before the U.S. Supreme Court;  the Gullah culture of South Carolina, whose traditions, crafts, folklore and agricultural techniques are directly descended from this country; and, as we are all aware, the founding of the Freetown settlement itself stemmed in part from ties between this land and the United States, for it was American-born Nova Scotians who gave Freetown its name.

More recently our ties have been strengthened by frequent professional, cultural, and personal exchanges between Sierra Leone and the United States.  Thousands of Sierra Leonean professionals have been educated in the United States, and many have returned to share their learning and expertise.  In turn, many Sierra Leoneans make their residence, temporarily or permanently in the United States, and in so doing offer valued contributions to our nation’s rich diversity of cultures, peoples and traditions.

However, less frequently discussed are the historical parallels between are two nations, and it is one of these that I would like to highlight today.    Like Sierra Leone, America once found itself embattled by civil war, and at the conclusion of that dreadful conflict, struggling to put the pieces back together and move forward as a nation.  

On the occasion of his second inaugural address, President Abraham Lincoln reflected on the colossal events of the preceding years, and set the course for the future.  His address was delivered to a crowd of thousands standing on Pennsylvania Avenue, which had been turned into a mess of mud and standing water from days of rain.  (You probably didn’t think that Washington D.C. had a rainy season like Sierra Leone, but I assure you it does!)  His words encouraged a frightened, exhausted and shattered nation.  He concluded his address with a call to the leaders and people of America:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

The words he spoke at this crucial turning point in our history set the course for our nation to reconstitute our will and push onward.  The challenges ahead were great, to create a just and lasting peace, but not insurmountable.   Likewise, his words could be a call for any nation who have overcome the horror and destruction of war, but face the equally difficult tasks of reconstruction and development.

Please join me in a toast to the President, the Government and to the people of the Republic of Sierra Leone.  May those who govern, govern justly and may the people of this country know too, a just and lasting peace.