412 



ADDENDUM. 



Asiatic and American shores, which brought that ocean within the 

 category of a closed sea. 



"This claim was contested in limine, and successfully resisted by the 

 statesmen of America. 



"In like manner, the American doctrine with regard to navigable 

 water-courses owned by two or more nations is well understood, for it 

 has been often proclaimed touching our own Mississippi, as well as the 

 St. Lawrence. 



"In each of these cases there were but two riparian States; but with 

 regard to the Amazon there are no less than six. This complicates the 

 question, and makes any special arrangement among them with regard 

 to the navigation of that river very difficult, if not impossible. Two 

 the riparian republics are already at war, and, owing to this circum- 

 stance, one of them is excluded from the proposed Amazonian Congress. 

 Inaction, the statu quo, the sealed river and closed strait, and unsubdued 

 wilderness — these are what Brazil wants. And, therefore, after having 

 exhausted argument, there is no way left for the adjustment of this 

 question by the United States — and the United States ought to adjust 

 it, for it is an American question — but that which the laws of nations 

 suggest. 



" In such a case — in cases where the riparian States, desiring to confine 

 the navigation of their own waters to their own citizens and subjects, 

 cannot agree among themselves as to the terms and conditions, then, 

 according to Puffendorf, the sovereign rights 'are distributed according 

 to the rules applicable to neighboring proprietors on a lake or river, 

 supposing no compact has been made.' 



"It would, therefore, appear that this government would have the right 

 on its side, were it, without further ado, to yield to the entreaties of its 

 citizens, and give safe conduct up and down the Amazon to those who 

 desire to penetrate through it up into Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador, with 

 the river steamer, and to push their enterprise into these remote regions 

 in search of that commerce and those important privileges which the 

 liberality and laws of these governments guaranty to them. 



"Brazil has no treaty of commerce and navigation, or of amity and 

 friendship, with this government ; the quarter of a century has elapsed 

 since the last one was made, and she has steadily, for the last fifteen or 

 twenty years, refused to renew it. Therefore, if she be dealt with now 

 strictly according to the law of nations in this matter of the Amazon, 

 she could not rightfully complain. 



"But your memorialists love peace, and value exceedingly the relations 

 of amity and friendship that have ever existed between this country 



