Semi-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1853-18??, 1857-07-22

SOUTHERN CONvENTIoNs-WHAT Is WAITED p
meeting of citizens was held last evening to ap-
point delegates to the Commercial Convention, soon
to assemble in the City of Knoxville, Tennessee
We trust that delegation will be formed who may
worthy represent city and in part our State in
the Convention. : This is desirable, not because
anticipate much profit from the assembly, but be-
cause We are unwilling that so publicspirited city
should even have the appearance of abandoning or
discountenancing any honest effort, however fruit
less the prospect to secure the commercial ndepen
dence of the Southern States. We may speculate
as we please in offices and parlors, about
tional peace and the return of period Of justice
and moderation with the Northern States, but it is
truth craven upon the life and legislation of Amer
lea for eighty years. that peace security and right
we will never have, until we can demand them with
confidence based upon consciousness of the abil-
ity to enforce them if they denied. That COM
mercal independence is the first and greatest step
towards this desirable end is fact too patent to
have escaped attention. and the people of the South
cannot fail to appreciate any honest attempt to en-.
sure the object.
Six conventions, we believe have already assem-
bled, charged with the duty of devising some plan
for the attainment of this end and we ask. far more
in sorrow than in anger" schat haze they done?
Have they built mile of railroad erected one
mandatory, established one new branch of trade
or freighted single ship? Have they advanced by
the slightest degree love for the South have they
stimulated one useful enquiry in the South, devel-
oped one unknown resource for the South? Does
there for all these conventional there grow,
now in all this fair domain single blade of grass
where none grew before? Let us not deceive our
selves; we must answer all these questions in the
negative, if would respond truly. To disguise it
is idle; to deny it, folly. Southern Commercial
Conventions huge failure humbug, sinaul
dcrum, shadow, deception, heartess cheat
They have cost the South the price of twenty rier
chantmen, and have never constructed one. They
have cost her the price of fifty factories, and have
built the first. They have cost her the price
of many long mile of railroad and have not laid
yard. Their balance sheet stands: debit every
thing, credit nothing-and they folly, of which
the Southern people ought to be, and we believe
are, thoroughly sick and ashamed. What then p
Shall they be abandoned? Shall we stop here, and
confessing the folly of past career forsake this
sectional san for the future? Nay, verify, for the
time must come when, from the superintendent de-
clamaton and foolery and patitude of those bodies,
the people shall come to the uselessness of the
particular acts of past conventions and be educated
then to the level of true commercial policy.
The laws of trade as infeXbe those of dy-
namics. Spea king about production, resolving pro-
ductlon, recommending production, will not build up
commerce, and nothing short of creating produc-
ton will
We told that old channels of trade being cut,
commerce cannot be diverted into new. Nonsense:
the sea is no macadamZed road tempting vessels in
certain directions by the superiority of the track
1t is no meanderng turnpike in which ships acquire
sentimental affections for certain shady dels and
purling streams wooing them into old familiar ways
by ties of local attachment 1t is broad prairie of
water which men traverse in any direction in which
profit leads them, and in other. Commerce is
terrible democrat, q ieveller who knows dstinc-
tons. To procure ornament for ladys tippet
it plods with sinking steps through Unreasonable
fields of snow that never mets. To collect the cast
tusks of savage beasts it penetrates undauntedly in
to the haunts of men more savage. 10 supply the
call for simple manure, it sends its ships to the
antipodes.
If, then we can make it profitable for commerce
to seek our shores, effort of men of the ele-
ments can long retard its coming, and this should
be the one only object of Southern Conventions
The man who will draw some feasible plan for slim
ulatng the productions of manufactures in the South
will solce the problem Of Southern independence and
safety.
Let Europe seek our ports to buy and sell and
the North will come to US begging amity and
proffering us the most ample security for inst-
tutions. Commercial sovereignty is the sword of
Brenus which kicks the beam.
Let US not, then, mistake the means for the end
the common error of those who attempt improve
ments upon nature. To build line of steamships
or packets for direct trade between Europe and the
Chesapeake, though it could be accomplished with
out cost would not advance the good cause a STEP
unless we could make it more profitable for those
steamers to come here than to go elsewhere. 70
maize it thus profitable, many things are wanting
Some of these dependant upon State legislation;
as the removal of unequal burdens upon the com
mercial community. Some of them depend upon
federal assistance the facilitating of business by
the construction ofcusom houses, light houses &C.,
&C., and much depends upon that enlarged liberalty
of spirit which is the surest foundation it is the
most enrolling ornament of the mercantile charac-
ter. But the great need is to produce The nation
which produces useful thing, be it gold guano,
compels the white winged messengers of trade to
seek its shores. SoutA-Side Democrat.
STATEMENT.
The following statement will show the operations
and condition of the North Carolina Mutual Life In
surance Company to LIST June, 1857:
NJ e in lactR