Rufino Barrios to the natives of Guatemala:, August 4, 1883

J. Rufino Barrios, general of division and constitutional President of the Republic of Guatemala, to the natives of Guatemala:

Fellow-citizens: The decree issued on this date informs you of the resolution which I have adopted, with the object of carrying into effect, with the proper resources of the country, the most important work of the railway which should open to the public for its prosperity and enlargement the road to the north, which, is called for to give a quicker exit for our products; called for to promote and sustain the cultivation of immense tracts of land, to-day abandoned; called for, in fine, to bring to us over the currents of the Atlantic the progress of civilization on a grand scale.

In taking this resolution, and imposing upon you the small sacrifice of making a little annual saving, which will be returned to you with interest by the same works to which it is destined, I believe I have interpreted the national feeling which oh various occasions has shown itself in favor of this thought, which frees the country from costly sacrifices which the privileged concessions to foreign companies regularly give rise to.

The work which is going to be undertaken is not beyond our resources, and, executed for our own account, must appear to us excessively cheap when it is accomplished and we find ourselves enjoying its unappreciable benefits.

This work is the best inheritance which we can leave as a legacy to our sons, because on it depends the richness of the future, and it will be within a short time a flattering reality of the spirit and conviction which lead me to undertake it, encounter, as I hope they will, the aid and efficacious co-operation of my fellow-citizens.

The form adopted to collect the capital which the construction of the Northern Railway requires, distributing over large areas the small sum which must be paid for by subscription, is combined with the view that the poorer classes may be able to cover it easily, and at the same time that they may without effort go on forming with those small sums a saving which, on the accomplishment of the work, will be of great profit to them. The same combination is offered, so that the wealthier classes may contribute to the enterprise according to the scale of their fortunes.

To each class, therefore, I make a most urgent appeal; in the name of the future of our country, that we being inspired with the desire for its greathess and happiness, may resolutely work on this undertaking of the Northern Railway, which contains most beautiful expectations for our beloved Guatemala, of being justly blessed by generations to come, when history reminds them that they owe to the patriotic spirit of the natives of Guatemala the first passage of the locomotive from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Fellow-citizens, it will be a day of great glory and joy when the resounding whistle of steam coming from the north calls at the gates of our beautiful capital. Let us then hasten the coming of that great day by the union of our wills, of our efforts, and of our work.

Your fellow-citizen and friend,