Mr. Hay to Mr. Seeger.
Washington, February 17, 1903.
Sir: The Department has received your unnumbered dispatch of January 20 in relation to the obstruction to commerce on the Amazon River fry the decree of the Brazilian Government, with which you inclose copy of your note to the Brazilian minister for foreign affairs, representing the injury to American commerce; copy of an opinion on the question of transit by Mr. Louis Renault, legal adviser of the minister of foreign affairs, etc.
The Department notes Mr. Renault’s opinion that the Brazilian Government has, by its own constitution, established free navigation on the Amazon. There would seem to be foundation for this opinion in the provisions of the Brazilian Federal constitution of 1890, articles 6, 7, and 13, and especially in the first section of article 10, which reads as follows:
Article 10. It is forbidden to the States as well as to the Union—
1. To impose duties on the products of the other States, or of foreign countries, in transit through the territory of any State, or from one State to another, as also on the vehicles, whether by land or water, by which they are transported.
In view of your recent report of the signing of the agreement between the Governments of Brazil and Bolivia and the removal of transit restrictions, present discussion of this point is of merely academical interest.
I am, etc.,