The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-05-27
TUE MEMPHIS CONVENTION.

-, .,. in the affairs of the entire South
IT,, :, il regarded in this light by all the
son,bern States may easily be seen by the
-s.d;ness with which they have responded TO
the call. and by the long list OF distinguished
names selected without regard to party, which
forms the delegation of each. There can, in
truth, be no mistake about it. The steam whis
tie has walked up the whole South, from Ma.
ryland to Texas, from long slumber, during
which its commerce departed from it, its indus
try langaished, and the power which was legi-
timately its own, was transferred TO hands
which nature never designed to hold it. The
South has, at last, been made aware OF the i'm
por,ance of attending to its own domestic con
Germs, and of securing every thing at home, be-
fore attending exclusively to the affairs Of the
General Government. Ii has felt power Creep
ing away from j! from year TO year, and IT has,
at length, found out the hole through which ii
has escaped. 1t will be its business, as II is
its interest and its duty, in future, to stop the
breach, and regain the loss it has already sus-
tanned.
AllF6 as Inc SOutuSIu StdkCc uOW obC W
their own true interests, we are induced to hope
the most magnificent results from the Memphis
Convention-to hope that il will inaugurate
revolution in the entire policy by which it has
been guided ever since the confederation Of
States was formed under the Constitution
which binds them all in enc body. Virgin
seems TO be fast giving up her peculiar depen-
dence upon the Federal Goyernment-her dis.
tinguished sons are looking at home for the
initiate step in that restoration of her once i'm
periai greatness-they feel that she cannot
maintain even her present position without
becoming great and powerful at home. She
has sent a delegation of men who are, for the
most part, sound thinkers and hard workers.
She is discarding as fast as she can, the an
cient ideas which have kept her SO long in a
dependent condition, and is rapidly preparing
to take her stand again where she stood in the
revolution.
Her next neighbor, the Old North State,
most unjustly stgmatised by great orator as
the Rip Van Wrinkle of the Union, is anything
but asleep. We doubt, indeed, whether any
State in the whole Union is more thoroughly
awake upon the great question ofilternal i'm
provements. Prejudices her more enlightened
sons have, doubtless, to encounter she is too
much like her neghbor, Virginia, not 10 abound
in men of old ideas and contracted views. But
she is getting rid Of them as fast as she posi-
bly, can. A new set of opinions, and new
of dpolIu ok;po he nj of
these venerable theories, and their authors,
and we may expect that North Carolina will
be found behind none her sister States when
they come to the end of the great race on
which they are entering.
If there was any State in the Union which
we supposed would be more welded to the old
system than another, it was South Carolina.
The fiery spirit of her sons-the general air of
aiistocratic elegance which is perceptible 10
the least ebservant sojourner in any of her
citas-the refinement of her manners-her at
tachment to elegant literature, and her prof
cheney, too, therein-all seemed to indicate an
aversion to change, an adherence of contact
with the loom and spindle, and an instructive
dread Of the locomotive and the steam engine.
Arlstocracy is always slow in receiving new
ideas. DIR. Lardner said, in one ofhis lectures
which we attended, that Grosvenor Square
was the last quarter in London which condos.
cended to take the gas. Yet South Carolina
is fairly reused and isbuttipg forth all the
energies which her patriotic xhd high.soued
population can exert. She will not be behind
the foremost IN the great race.
Georgia comes next. Georgia, Justly called
by the New York Herald, the Empire State
OF the South, though we hope Virginia does
not intend to allow her to retain that proud
tltle-Georgia has, from the FIRST, manifested
more zeal, and more proper appreciation oil
the immense advantages which her position
gives her, than any other Southern State
whatever. While we were sleeping here
while all the rest of the South was sleeping
Georgia was wide awake, silently, unostenta'
tiously, but powerfully and effectually labor
ing to make herself the queen among her sis
tiers. All credit to that noble State. We
hope we shall NOT be suspected of envy when
we express the hope that Virginia may yet
prove herself her equal in the important con,e 6,
for supremacy now about to commence.
Tennessee and Mississippi might have laid
still, with their arms folded, and said to the
other States, "come and take our weal,h-,be
wealth of an empire ~ But they would heal
of no such inglorious repose. They would
not be idle, while oil around were working
for their advantage. They met their neighbor
halfway. They took upon themselves full
proportion of the labor, and more than a du
proportion of the expense. With such a Dor
H!ation as each Of them possesses, 80 full =
lie and energy, so perfectly aware of the;
eva true interests, SO careless of er,ers
where the object is so vast, il is imDoss;b,o ;,
estimate the rank which they are destined :,
hold IN the great assemblage of States.
Old Kentucky, too, might have ken, or;.,
and without wagging finger in her own h.
nall she would have found neignbors eno,a
u have done her great lines for her. and
Jake her products to the ocean, without a do
lar from her. But she is as proud and ma !;
dependent now, as she was when she sen, !,
flower OF her population to the Nor,hweste
army, and led il with her -four ana marx. q