ADDENDUM. 



407 



nation, if they desired to come, to demand of that country the right of 

 way to and from these ports. 



Although the opening of the navigation of the Amazon would re- 

 dound greatly to our advantage, I am very far from desiring that we 

 should enter into controversy, far less into hostile controversy, with 

 Brazil. She is an American nation ; she is a friendly nation ; she is 

 next to ourselves in power and wealth on this continent. There are 

 great reciprocal advantages in the trade between the two countries, 

 though far the greatest on her side ; and there is a sort of bond between 

 us, in the fact that we are both slaveholding nations. Yet, I do think 

 that in her broadly and openly expressed fear of us, she is doing us a 

 wrong, standing in the way of our just rights, and I think that this 

 sentiment should be strongly expressed by our people and our government. 



It is true that she does a greater wrong to herself; that she bars the 

 way to her advancement and her glory ; but that is her own business, 

 and she has a right to judge for herself. 



I have heard it said, and Paz Soldan uses the argument in his cor- 

 respondence with Clay, that we are exclusive and jealous in this respect, 

 and that we keep the navigation of our rivers to ourselves. This is 

 not so. A Brazilian vessel, or the vessel of any foreign nation, passi 

 ing through the formalities of the custom-house at New Orleans, may 

 carry her cargo under her own flag to St. Louis, to Memphis, to Cincin- 

 nati, ports of delivery, discharge it there, and take in a return cargo 

 for her own country. This is the case on the Hudson, the Potomac, 

 the James, the Rappahannock, and I have no doubt that, whenever a 

 town on navigable waters may desire to be made a port of delivery, the 

 boon will be instantly granted by Congress, unless there be special 

 reasons against it, and foreign vessels will be permitted to load and 

 unload there. 



This, too, is on waters belonging exclusively to us. Little, then, would 

 we be disposed to follow the lead of Brazil, and undertake, contrary to 

 right and the laws of nations, to interpose obstacles to foreign nations 

 trading with each other, because the way of this trade was along rivers 

 passing through our territories. Did Great Britain own a navigable 

 tributary of the Mississippi, and were she to declare a port situated on 

 this tributary free and open to the commerce of the world, we would 

 not think of closing the Mississippi, and shutting out that trade. This 

 matter has been discussed, and our ablest statesmen have allowed that 

 we would have no riffht to do so. It is a bad rule that won't work both 

 ways ; what we demand we should always be ready to give, and what 

 we are ready to give, we ought, if just and necessary, to demand. 



