ADDENDUM. 



401 



the Peruvian government the fulfilment of the obligations of a treaty 

 which that government had just concluded with him, by which it was 

 bound to give to the citizens of the United States all the rights and 

 privileges which it should hereafter grant to th#e of the most favored 

 nation, and by which also it guaranteed to American citizens the right 

 to "frequent with vessels all the coasts, ports, and places, at which 

 foreign commerce is or may be permitted." 



The case was too strong to admit of question. Tirado, the Peruvian 

 minister, immediately admitted the justice of the claim, and his gov- 

 ernment issued a decree throwing open to us the same ports that she 

 had thrown open to Brazil. 



Cavalcanti, the Brazilian minister in Peru, protested earnestly against 

 this decree, but was told that Peru must perform her treaty stipulations 

 as well with the United States and with England as with Brazil. 



I supposed that Clay had completely and finally triumphed ; but a 

 remarkable change, for which I am entirely unable to account, (however 

 much I may suspect,) suddenly and unexpectedly took place in the 

 aspect of the affair. The wise, liberal, and enlightened Tirado retires 

 from the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, and is succeeded in that office by 

 Don Jose Gregorio Paz Soldan, who adopts an entirely different policy ; 

 declares that the treaty of navigation concluded with Brazil on the .23d 

 of October, 1851, was a special one regarding the interior waters of the 

 republic, and induces the President to issue a decree explanatory of that 

 of April 15th, 1852, which virtually repeals the 2nd article of that 

 decree,, which 2nd article gives to our citizens and vessels the same 

 rights in the Peruvian waters of the Amazon that are given to the 

 subjects and vessels of Brazil by the treaty of 23d of October, 1851. 



Clay makes a masterly reply to the reasonings of Paz Soldan upon 

 the subject — protests against the action of the Peruvian government — 

 and declares that "his government will not be disposed to regard such 

 a course as a proof of the desire that Peru has manifested to preserve 

 friendly relations between this republic and that of the United States." 



Thus has Peru, at the instance of the Brazilian government, taken a 

 step backward, and sought to again throw over herself the dark mantle 

 of exclusiveness, thereby shutting out the improvement and advantages 

 that would accrue to her from intercourse with the great commercial 

 nations of the earth. 



But this exclusive policy does not at all affect the question of the 

 right of Brazil to close the Amazon. 



Miguel Maria Lisboa was instructed by Brazil to make a treaty with 

 Bolivia, similar to the one made by Da Ponte with Peru, but he entirely 



