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416 ADDENDUM. 



nations — the right to navigate the seas drawing after it that of passing 

 the straits.'' 



"And this is the doctrine upon which the people represented in the 

 Memphis convention, and who are again, in the persons of their repre- 

 sentatives, about to assemble in the city of Charleston for the further 

 consideration of this and other great questions, found their hopes. 

 They believe it just, and desire to see it endorsed and to hear it pro- 

 claimed from the chambers of the Capitol. 



"If it be urged, in the case put by the United States, the waters con- 

 templated were in the shape of great lakes, whereas, in the case of the 

 Amazon, they are in the shape of rivers only, and that, therefore, the 

 comparison cannot be fairly drawn : if it be urged that neither can 

 comparison be drawn with regard to the Dardanelles and Black sea, 

 because, in that case, it is a real strait and salt water that are con- 

 cerned, — whereas, in this, it is really a river, and fresh water only : if 

 it be urged that this government, not having dominion over any of these 

 South American waters and their littorals, has, therefore, no right to 

 interfere with Brazil in any policy she may choose to adopt with regard 

 to the Amazon, its navigation, and riparian States, — the reply is both 

 ready and plain. 



" Neither shape of water-way, nor the sweetness of its fountains, has 

 anything to do with its free use by man. Lake Titicaca is salt. Lake 

 Titicaca, its waters, and its shores, lay within the dominions of both 

 Peru and Bolivia. Now, suppose it were connected with the headwaters 

 of the Amazon through navigable channels, and that Peru and Bolivia 

 were to proclaim the freedom of the seas for Lake Titicaca, as they 

 have done for the water-courses of the Amazon, should we not have 

 the case of the Black sea and the Baltic, with the sound and the Dar- 

 danelles, and their bitter waters, all repeated here upon the Amazon 

 over again ; and would not the great powers of the earth have the 

 same right to interfere, with regard to the passage of their citizens and 

 vessels through the Amazon, in Brazil, to Titicaca, in Peru, that they 

 have had in the case of the sound and the Dardanelles; or that they 

 would have in case Turkey or Denmark should attempt, arbitrarily, to 

 close either the one or the other ? 



"The Amazon presents a case in which the commercial nations have 

 as much right to interfere as the riparian States themselves. It is a 

 question of navigation which is as broad as the sea ; it is a question of 

 commerce, of civilization, of human progress, advancement, and improve- 

 ment, and never before did the free navigation of any river or strait 



