New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1852-12-20
THE B.LrMORE CONVENTION.

serve President from his triends'
THE BALrrMORE CONVENTION.
We give in another column brief report
of the doings of the Southern Convention held
at Baltimore on Saturday. Its avowed pur-
nose was to devise measures TO render that
city the commercial metropolis of the country
and to free Southern trade from the contami-
nation of freedom, to which it is exposed at
New-York, as the recent liberation of the
Lennon slaves so clearly demonstrates. The
reasons why Baltimore should be the great
central mart of the South and West were set
forth and enforced throughout the proceedings;
her more central position, her smaller distance
and more convenient access from the Ohio, the
mineral and manufacturing resources in the
State of which she is the chief town, were all
presented with force aud earnestness, SO were
the considerations drawn from Southern inter-
est in the security of slave property. In fact,
if speeches and resolutions, followed by costly
bauquets and social good times, were all that
is necessary, she would at once assume the
position claimed for her.
We have heard before of attempts to inhu-
ence trade by abstract considerations, but have
yet to see one crowned with permanent sue.
cess Anti.Slavery people resolve not to use
tie products Of slave labor, nor to traffic
therein, but cotton and sugar still find a ready
sale. Some Of our Irish friends have at times
determined to consume no British manuiac-
lures, but Manchester and Sheffield are busy
as ever Nor are apparent advantages for
commerce always sufficient to draw it away
from its established channels. Our friends at
Baltimore should remember that the palpablo
dictates of COED sense are overruled by the ne
cessities ofestablished dependence, the attrac-
tiCn of capital, the force of habit, and above
all, by the resistless influence Of the CONNER
cial legislation of the country. For instance
excellent cotton sheetings, made in Georgia,
are sent to New.York to be sold, and Georgia
merchants come to buy them This is absurd
enough, but no rebellion of Georgia or of Bal
tmore against the fact can alter it, except by
altering the commercial legislation Of which it
is q result.
One phrase in the Address of the Convention
is worthy of particular notice. Appealing to
the South to stop at Baltimore with thor
trade, ii says:
I'VE are disposed-nOtin a sectional sprit-not with
desire TO weaken the Unonto join you in freeing the
timer .Uiu
colonial obedience-rhich is 90 rapidly making Us depend
81. on the North"
This is certainly curious suggestion to
come from Convention representing that part
Of the country which has forced upon US the
policy OF free trade, and which has renewed
and confirmed for the entire republic that CO.
lonial subsection which the Revolution aimed to
destroy. Pretty fellows are these to talk of un-
manly subserviency, when they have done their
utmost and have succeeded, in deprivng the
nation of that independence and power which
it would have gained long ago had it's manufac-
turing industry been steadily protected against
foreign competition. Pretty fellows to hold
Conventions against Capitalization, they, the
authors and advocates Of centralization, who,
in the tariff Of 1916, achieved triumph from
whose logical and necessary consequences they
now inconsistency attempt to escape. Of
course we do not refer to the many very re-
spectacle protectionist members of the Con.
yentiOn, but to the great fact that it is to the
South, which thus blubbers about colonial SUBJ
seryiency, that We owe the overthrow of
policy under which the industry of every por.
ton of the country would have risen to vigor-
GUS maturity, and which would have given to
every town, every county and every State, that
best of all trade, the exchange of its own pro-
ducts, raised and manufactured upon it's own
SOIL Then there would have been no absorb
ing central emporium and Baltimore need not
have held this Convention. But the South
has made its bed, and will have to lie on it, no
matter how uncomfortable it may prove.
The address attributes to the press of !
New-York and Boston a very mean spirit of /
jealousy and unfairness toward rival CONNER.
cid places. For one, we repel the petty