Daily Richmond times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1849-1850, 1850-05-20
MOND, VA.
Monday Morning, May 20, 1850.
Postponen,em of the Nashville Convention.

poSeS and urges very cogent reasons Tor, the post
ponement of the Convention, until it shall have
been seen whether Congress will adopt any salts
factory settlement of the sectional question:
The Enquirer, of Friday last, in publishing Mr..
Ghoson's letter, informs us that the friends of
the Convention in Richmond, including of course
the two gentlemen appointed delegates for the
district, approve this course:
at will be seen lit says that Mr. Gholson advises the
ter period, when it is highly probable the whole South
will be represented in council. 1t is proper that
should state that the friends OF the Convention here
in favor Of the same policy which was limited at in the
action of the District Convention Wednesday, Very
little time is left, but friends in Congress may
yet take the matter in consideration and give public
tce OF the postponement should they deem advisable
1t cannot justly be regarded in any quarter king
out-but rather giving vitality and force to the
movement. 1t the Convention is to be postponed at
all, would it not be better to save the delegates the
trouble and expense of going to Nashville now merely
to postpone it to later day. We respectfully throw
out the suggestion to our friends in Congress-"
The ''acion of the District Convention" to
which the Enquirer makes allusion, consists in
the following resolution:
"Resoloed, That should the delegates, appointed to
attend the Nashville Convention, cause to adjourn
said Convention to future day. or to recommend to
the people OF the South the holding of another Conpen
t1on our delegates hereby authorised to vote for
such adjournment or recommendation"
The postponement of the Convention would
doubtless be effected by the concurrent recon-
mendation of its friends at Washington, as sug-
gested by the Enquirer; and, with such recon-
mendation, the delegates of the more distant
States would feel themselves authorized to decline
undertaking the journey to Nashville and to leave
the formal proceeding of an adjournment over to
the few delegates that might be in attendance
from convenient districts
The policy of postponement seems to u.s. un-
der the circumstances, to be eminenty judicious.
The fact is obvious and undenable, that whilst the
South is united in the resolution to resist the diff
ferent measures of aggression, upon the possible
enactment of which the resolutions of our Legis-
lature were predcated, the expediency of holding
the Nashville Convention at tine time suggested
by Mississippi Ghe first Monday in June) is
doubted by large majority of the Southern peo-
ple This doubt has been caused chiefly by the
general confidence which has prevailed that some
satisfactory adjustment of the slavery question,
| would be carried through Congress. But, if the
Convention be postponed to time when it will
have been ascerained what we have to expect
from Congress, full opportunity will be afforded
to convince the minds of all Southern men, either
that it is Indispensable or that it is unnecessary
to hold Convention. Nor does the adoption of
this course, in our judgment, involve any hazard
of our cause 1t is now very certain that no one
of the measures which the Legislature declared
the purpose of Virginia to resist, will be passed
at the present session of Congress. The une-
quvocal declarations of several Northern Sena-
tors place it beyond question, that neither the Will
mot Proviso, nor the abolition of slavery in the Dis
trict of Columbia, nor interference with the slave
trade between the States, can pass the Senate, as
it is now constituted. The greatest evil to be ap
pretended is the failure of Congress to adopt
some settlement and the consequent continuance
Of sectional agitation This evil, however, it can
scarcely be expected that partially constituted
Southern Convention will tend to avert; whilst
the reference ofthe subject of controversy to flu
ture full Convention may serve an important pur-
pose in convincing Northern Statesmen that the
| Southern States are not in the humour for tri-
fling. If Congress shall fail, at its present ses-
sion to settle the slavery question satisfactorily,
we believe there will be throughout the South a
general concurrence in the adjourned Convention,
and its recommendations will have force of po-
puar sanction which it will be impossible not to
respect.
We make these remarks in good faith, and with
the most earnest desire to secure unanimty in the
South, as the best means of securing the preser-
walton of our rights. With great reluctance we
have been constrained to adopt the belief that the
Nashville Convention, if held at the time first pro-
posed, would be failure, and would, therefore,
do more harm than good. But if it be postponed
according to Mr.. Gholson's suggestion, and Con-
gress shall not have adopted satisfactory plan of
Compromise, we shall heartily concur in all pro-
per efforts to enable it to speak the voice of the
South
The following is the concluding portion of the
reply of Mr.. THos. S. GHoLsoN to the letter of a
committee advising him of his appointment as
delegate to the Nashville Convention for the
Brunswick district:
Butwhile, gentlemen. these have been my views, it
seems to me that the meeting of the Convention should
be postponed Tor the present think SO, because at
the time it proposed and agreed upon, there was
prospect OF compromise OF the distracng questions
which agltaed the country. There is such pros
pect The Senate of the United States presents cheer
ing an eevating spectacle Senators who have grown
old in the service of their country-whose patriotism
none can doubt, and whose fame extends wherever ci
vlzauon exists-are buryng their party differences
sacrlcng sectional prejudices and aborng together
hamonously in the great work of saving the Union
animated oy this holy DESIRE and invoking spirit of
mutual Cancellation and forbearance thew have pro-
posed terms OF compromise deemed Just and honorable
to ALL Every patriot ardently desires that this noble
effort may be crowned with success thousand voices
coming up from every section Of the land cheer them
and there are unmistakeabe evidences that they
have the feelings and sympahes the great body Of the
people with them. Let US, therefore, shew our deyo
ton to the Union, by orbearing as long as there is
that snnS our RIGHTS will respected
clined, it is believed, appointing delegates That thew
have done so, because Of the hope that Congress viii
settle the agtating questions nave no doubt con-
always exert powerful influence; but one in which
several of the States are not represented, would of