The Sun.
London, England, 1854-08-16 00:00:00

UNITED STATES POLICY IN SOUTH

AMERICA.

If we are to judge from accounts recently pub-
lished in the United States papers, the designs of
our enterprising and go-a-head cousins on the other
side of the Atlantic are enlarging with success and.
opportunity-. It is not merely that they are re-
solved either to purchase or to take Cuba k or
that, halting first absorbed Texas and then acquiredee
_ California, they are now buying another
great theirli
of Mexico on the north, and pushingforward at
scheme of a route across that flounderingstate
Tehuantepec on the south, thus stripping
Mexico
as artichokes are eaten, leaf by leaf
;or that they
frivolous have been destroying Greyt
pre-
texts, and are overthrowing
nthoen
independence
and native government of the Sandwich Islands,
and about to annex them also. All these things
are plain sad patent enough ; he
greatwho runs may
sea theta. An European war is a
opportunity ; and of that opportunity our relatives
are making the most in Cuba, Mexico, and the
Sandwich Islands, after their own unscrupulous
way. That is clear enough. But it is by no means
to the northern hemisphere of America that their
designs are limited ; they
Spani
policy and intrigue round
sh ing a web of
Amerioan republics of South America, and sowing
the seeds of ill-will and unfriendliness with the
only Americs.n r2narchy, to be hereafter cultivated
Into qliarr4e'e3 et
us try to explain what it is
,-4-1
they, are about in this quarter of the world.
If our readers will look at a map, they will find the
republic of New Grenada stretching on one side into
the Carribean sea, and on the other side along the
Pacific. Next to New Grenada in the former direc-
tion comes the state of Venezuela ; after which the
Guiana plantation!,• of- England,. Holland, and
Frances-flank away into the Atlantic. On the
side-bf the Pacific, Ecuador adjoins New Grenada ;
then Peru stretches far along that coast ; and next
to it Bolivia, with( only one Pacific port, pene-
t; Crates into the interior. Now, between these re-
publics and the Atlantic intervenes the immense
ss. empire of Brazil ; and the peculiarity of all five
-republics is, that they are drained, not into the
-I`s- Pacific,. but into the Atlantic ocean, through
v)sfr.',Drazil, by means of the river Amazon and its
:hundred-tribu.taries, all more or less navigable,
to within sixty miles, it is said, of the Pacific.
Naturally; then, the Alazon is the route by which
European and North American trade with them
and the northern portions of Brazil can be most
readily carried on ; its navigation is consequently
a question of first-rate importance for these repub- I
lies, and even more so for Brazil ; and, as it is
through Brazil that the Amazon for some 1,500
miles runs into the Atlantic, the best mode of pro-
moting navigation thereon is obviously a cordial
understanding and good relations between Brazil
and these five republics.
During the early years of its independence
and the minority of the present Emperor, Brazil
was far too constantly engaged in solving domes-
.a tic difficulties to pay that attention to its foreign
relations with conterminous states which they de-
served, and the internal condition of its re-
publican neighbours wholly precluded any chance
of useful negotiations. At last, however, great
financial prosperity and domestic tranquillity placed
the Government of Brazil in a position to take a
large and comprehensive view of South American
affairs, and about the year 1850 it began to seek
the co-operation of the Spanish American republics
in closing all those open questions which might, by
continuing in their open state, lead to irritation,
misunderstandings, and perhaps hostilities. For
example, their several and respective boundaries
" still remained unsettled and undefined. So long
ago as 1777, the treaty of San Ildefonso at-
tempted to lay down the basis of a settlement of
the frontiers between the Spanish and Portu-
guese possessions in South America; but it was
negotiated in great geographical ignorance of the
countries it affected to deal with, and the mixed
commissioners appointed under it wholly failed to
work out the provisions and objects of the treaty.
The war between Spain and Portugal in 1803,
which led to large acquisitions by the latter in
South America at the expense of the former, of
course terminated this treaty, and it was not re-
newed by the peace of Badajoz. From the time of
independence down to 1850 scarcely anything had
'ibeen done to define the boundaries between the
new Portuguese monarchy and the Spanish repub-
lics, or between the republics themselves ; and as
undefined boundaries are amongst the most ugly
(se) and endless of all State controversies, Brazil now
fl4A..proposed to arrange them on the principles of the
uti possidetis. At the same time Brazil ;offered to
place the commercial relations between herself and
these various states on the simple and secure foot-
ing of free trade., and to exchange with them the
right of navigating their respective rivers.
• Just as the upper tributaries of the Amazon, as
they run through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, New
oriT Grenada, or Venezuela, belong to the states which
possess oth banks, so the lower course of the
Amazon to the Atlantic belongs to Brazil ; and by
the old treaties between the Spanish and Portu-
guese Crowns, the right of the latter to exclude
the Spanish colonies from its navigation was ac- I
knowledged. Thus situated, Brazil had of course
more to offer the Spanish republics than they
had to give her. She had complete 'possession
over their route to the Atlantic, and could deny
them access to the ocean thereby, without
offending against any principle of public law.
Brazil, however, took no advantage of this supe-
riority. On the contrary, she offered to exchange
the freedom of her waters against theirs, and
to co-operate with them in establishing steam
navigation on the Amazon and its tributaries. On
this basis a treaty was concluded in 1851 between
Brazil. and Peru, to which the adhesion of the other
states was agreed to be sought. In conformity
with this treaty, Brazil has established steam navi-
gation on the Amazon, and has now boats running
between Para and Barra, its frontier ports, once a
month ; while Peru, on its part, declared the ports
of its affluents free, and has purchased smaller-
sized vessels to navigate the Uycuyali.
And now the United States began to interfere,
and to stir up jealousy of, and ill-will against,'
Brazil in these republics. As a monarchy,
the United States of course bear no love to
Brazil ; and in these very natural proceedings
of the Imperial Government, they affected to
see efforts to extend monarchical influences
in South America, which they deemed them-
selves bound to oppose. So, accordingly, their diplo-
macy became unusually active in New Grenada and
Ecuador, and with considerable success ; for there,
in point of fact, United States' influence prevails
in the government. In Peru also they were suc-
cessful ; and though not perhaps to the same ex-
tent in Bolivia and Venezuela, nevertheless to some
extent. First of all came expressions of North Ame-
rican sympathy with, and support of, Republican

lam in South America ; and to these scenes of
hugging and fraternisation succeeded insinuations
and suspicions of monarchy and Brazil. In offering
to exchange the right of navigating the Lower
Amazon, Brazil was described as putting forth pre-
tensions of exclusive sovereignty over it which
had no foundation in public law. The Lower
Amazon, it was asserted, was free to all flags
without any concession ; it was not a river,
but an arm of the sea, a strait ; and as such
even North America had a right to navigate it,
and was
Wag
prepared to enforce that right. Such
the lawless doctrines American diplomacy j
preached in these republics, thereby retarding,
and disarranging, and unsettling negotiations for
their
4 .common benefit. Concurrently, too, the
.....mericaunerGnoaveetzTent sent an expedition, under
Lieut.
explore the valle 0
of the
thence to descend and
the Amazon. wag) of course, fully and This policy
home. La jun,
13,85 and eagerly responded to at
at a convention held at
. . -MemPliis, resol'utio' 3'
tank and replenish the Were passed "to sub-
Atlantic slopes of South
America," and Lieutenant nt -Maury, an officer of too
.4 distinguished merit to%ve been employed in such
task ) Wa.•s.,'esPecially printed the mouthpiece l
and agent of this piratical
style of fi
up a memorial, in the mosta hectoringyeirient• He drew
arch last to
busterism, which was presentedi
tee on foreign
Congress, and referred to the Corarluit
. zaffitim ..11Thr- was even this all. _
,iitifm Lo,flie, flie'n;iyigiation of the Altkrrtin,ecl exPe-
, the Esind4l:o*n 61`,Irene,itielan flag „a`.-°e"e'l6i '
-1 s actu.-11',
,:.-'i-tcl/ig;014.5-_,When. news. arrived that the Brazil' ..in ooye,vjumt had-stationed a naval Squadron at tialt-e
~,,
mouth GO-treat the buCeaneers as
,they deserved,
and it eras abandoned for the present. Not, how-
ever, without
loud threats of future vengeance
froUi • Liettt. Maury, whom it is really pi tie.ble to
see ea;;L:el in such a cause.
to be actuated by the
And While professing
highest tuutives in these proceedings, and to aim
at throwing open the internal waters of South
America to ail the world, Lieut. Herndon's work.
- teems, with passages to show that the real object of
this, movement is to monopolise for the United
States that very navigation ; and there is evidence '
before us while we write, that Lieut. Maury him-
self, tee loudest exponent of free navigation of the
Amazon, has actually sou ,lit from the State of
Ecuador the exclusive right to establish steam navi-
gation on its rivers : thus laying bare the hypocrisy
and the selfishness of the policy so grandiloquently
stated in his memorial to Congress.
No doubt the valtetny ()tithe Amazon and the /Wan- i
.._ tic slopes of South ~
cenizaretemptingacquisitions I
----asrauvlawasTexa,
or the Sand wich
--1-shulds' 'lBat'i,bpor
se:ellstge,rie:alN'ti.hel4coh,ave been appro-
priated tiic rind possessed eY a civilised state, cap-
able of defending and preserving them ; and so
il
mig as 4636i2i1 can protect and
gua,,,rd
,the mouth of
Ar
the Amason, its territories ecTiali trotn the filli-