408 



ADDENDUM. 



It is a perfectly well-known and universally admitted fact that no na- 

 tion holding the strait that connects two seas, has the right to block up 

 that strait, and prevent the free passage of commerce. Turkey has no 

 right to block up the Dardanelles. Did England own both sides of the 

 straits of Gibraltar, she would have no right to shut up that strait. 

 Denmark has no right to close the Belts ; nor Denmark and Sweden 

 together the Sound. 



I have read with great interest, a memorial addressed to this Con- 

 gress by the Commercial Convention that met at Memphis, in June 

 1853, through Lieut. Maury. Its arguments appear sound and just* 

 I think it important that they should be read and considered as widely 

 as possible, and I therefore quote its concluding pages. It is speaking 

 of the Spanish American Republics of the Amazon. 



" They have established the freedom of the seas upon their navigable 

 tributaries of the Amazon. They have invited the world to come and 

 use these waters — to settle upon their banks — to subdue the wilderness 

 there, and replenish the solitary places — to make those lovely countries 

 their homes, and to enjoy perfect freedom of trade for all time. 



" Here is a boon to the world ; therefore, neither Brazil nor any other 

 Nation has the right to oppose that world in the enjoyment of a common 

 good, nor to throw herself in the way of civilization nor of human pro- 

 gress, nor to adopt any policy adverse to the rights of man. 



" By these decrees, and the enlightened course of policy which dic- 

 tated them, the riparian republics have removed the navigation of the 

 Amazon from the condition of a diplomatic question with Brazil, and 

 placed it in the category of a great international question, to be decided 

 and settled, regulated and adjusted, not according to the selfish policy 

 of any government, but according to the enlightened principles which 

 sanctify, give strength to, and make binding the law of nations. 



" These decrees have, to all intents and purposes, converted the navi- 

 gable tributaries of the Amazonian republics into arms of the high seas. 

 Bolivia not only gives all friendly nations the right to navigate these 

 waters for the purposes of commerce, but she gives them the right to 

 send there their men-of-war also. And all the republics offer homes to 

 the immigrant. He is invited to come, and is promised a homestead in 

 fee simple if he will come. The homestead bill has been enacted there 

 upon a grand scale, for whoever will come is to be supplied gratis with 

 land, seeds, and farming utensils. The Congress of Peru has voted 

 half a million of dollars, to encourage settlement and cultivation upon 

 the Amazon. 



" This masterly, humane, and wise action, on the part of these repub- 



