The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-06-14

at large, trust that you will allow us to express
our sentiments to you more freely in person, by
uniting with US in social dinner in our city on
the Goth June, or at such other time as you may
prefer.
With high appreciation of your abilities as
statesman and your qualities as a man, we
shall anxously await your c6min e.
A. C. Kingsland, w. F. Havemeyer, Brown,
Bros. T. Co.. Isaac Townsend, Rowland Il AS
pinwall. J. d. P. Ogden, and others.
Hon. r. NJ. II. HUurER,
Chairman Finance Committee, Senate u S.
LoYDs, Essex Co., Va, May %, 1851.
GENTLEMEN: ! had the honor to receive by
the last ma letter of invitation toa dinner ten
dered to me by yourselves and others on the
26th of next June. No personal compliment
could have been more acceptable to me than the
honor you have offered me, upon such consider
atoms as you were pleased to assign in your
letter Of invitation. Ishould be especially graft
fed to believe that / had contributed 4 Any de-
gree to promote the great interests of the coun-
try, and regret to be constrained to say that
the estimate you have placed upon my poor SER
vices is greater than they deserve.
If supposed it to be necessary in order to
testify my grateful sense of your kindness, |
would lay aside almost any occupation to meet
you when you propose; but as believe you
will give me full credit for sincerity in my CRATE
full Acknowledgements, and as have pressing en-
gagements at home, am constrained to beg
most respectfully to be excused from attending
the dinner to which you have invited me. feel
Az e l.. Al. Al L. ..,:1
be mine, not yours. It would have given me
the greatest pleasure to have awaited myself Of
such an opportunity to extend my personal ac-
quaintance in your city, and TO study from ac-
tual observation the operation of the machin-
cry Of commerce in the great emporium of
American trade. Whatever is connected with
the marvels of your progress hitherto, ard what
ever concerns the future development Of your
great commercial resources, are matters Of deep
interest to me. You do me no more than JUS
tice in attributing to me desire to promote, as
far as can, the prosperity of all the great inter
ests of the country. believe if you touch one
you affect them all, and that all are concerned
in the prosperity of each. Especially do hold
II to be a matter Of duty, as it ought to be Of
pride with the American States, to afford New
York all proper facilities to win the place which
she is probably destined to hold as the great
centre of the commerce of the world.
1t is, perhaps, not extravagant to say that the
tendencies of nations are changing, and their
contests nre destined hereafter to consist more
in the rivalries of the arts than in opposition of
arms. Certainly there has been no period inhu-
man history when commercial affairs occupied
go large a portion of the attention Of mankind,
and none in which commercial men played 80
important and prominent part. Great Britain,
with that sbrewdnees of interest which charac-
terizes her conduct towards other nations, seems
to have given early evidence of her sense of the
change which was taking place in the theatre OF
human rivalry and strife. She is preparing, If
not already prepared, for the conflict. She has
thrown down the glove in open and manly de-
fiance to the rest of the world and challenged
the nations of the earth to contest for the EN-
pire of trade and the supremacy of the seas To
all appearance, never were fairer terms of COM
bat proposed. She has laid aside the whole PAN
Oply of her defensive armor, and stripped her
productive interests of everything which they
have hitherto worn by way Of defence or protec-
ton she has provided her manufacturers with
cheap material upon which to operate and cheap
food to consume she has given her shipowner
cheap timber with which to build, and in oppo-
sition even to some Of the oldest usages of her
colonial policy, has relieved the producer from
the pressure Of heavy taxation, whenever it was
practicable to do So She has shown, too, the
utmost skill and anxiety in making the machin-
cry of her commerce work smoothly and easily.
fla screw was loose, it has ben adjusted; if a
spring gave evidence of a loss Of elasticity from
undue pressure, the burden, if possible, was d.
minished or removed; and having done all this
she has thrown down the walls which were built
to guard her commerce, and invited the rest OF
the world to participate in the struggle for its
prize The challenge which has thus been giver
will, as trust, be accepted and / suppose
may say, without having imputed to me nm un
due share of national vanity, that if anybody is
able to take up John Bulls glove in such con
test as this, it is his Brother Jonathan Nor dc
disparage the just claim of other cities wher
say that in this conflict we must look to New
York for the lead. She herself is already Civ
ing evidence that she accepts her destiny, and is
preparing for the conflict. Her lines of magnif
cent steamers, if fhcy do not girde the earth, al
least spangle the ocean in more directions thar
nno hav cOmm crcial nnfprnrisp and am hilton are