Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-08-08
NASHVHLE:
SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 1857.

800 P'NoOiy SoOu ana highly patTI-
otto one. The South has always been greatly
dependent on the North for commercial faciIi-
ties, and especially in the matter of our com
merce with foreign nations. The primary
suggestion of those conventions of the Soutb-
ern business men of the country, was doubt
less caused by desire to obtain relief from
this dependence. It was in fact, the offspring
of one Of the plainest principles of commerce
al economy, saving of expense in the irnpor-
tation and general supply of commodities
necessary to the Southern people. Every
hand through which the raw material or the
manufactured article passes in its transit from
the first manufacturer or producer to the final
consumer, adds to its cost. 1t is plain, there
fore, that if our manufactured articles were
passed directly from the manufacturer to the
consumer, the cost would be materially reduc-
ed, from what it is in passing through the
hands Of intermediate parties. This reduction
would be still further enhanced, if the raw
material passed directly from the producer to
| the manufacturer. It is impossible to make
this exchange perfectly direct; but it is Meth
or wrong nor unpatriotic, to exert our ener-
sfOle, and thus lesson the commissions, freight
| and transportation upon all commodities, both
| for sale and consumption, from which the
wealth and convenience of the South are made
up. 1t may again be useful and beneficial for
the active business men of the Southern couR-
try, of all classes, farmers, merchants and me-
chanics, to meet and consult together upon the
most proper mode for the employment of tai
ent, enterprise and capital so as to develop the
| resources of the country and enhance its gen.
| eral welI-being and wealth. Such objects as
these are proper and patriotic enough. An
| honest and honorable competition in trade,
and generous rivalry in the great work of
| improving and developing the country, and of
increasing the general prosperity and happiness
of the people, not only does not initiate against
the interests of one section, but tends rather
to equaize and make men freer, throughout
the whole country. SoloDg as Southern Com
mercial Conventions are inspired by such mo-
tives as these, and faithfully pursue such OBJ
jects, we bid them God speed.
There is another fact of commercial, or more
properly speaking, political economy, which
it would be well for the constituents of those
conventions to bear in mind. Unless they
can produce change in the current of bust
ness, by which the production, interchange
and transportation of commodities, in which
the Southern people are interested, either as
producers or consumers, will be made equal or
less in their cost, than at the present time,
they cannot hope to accomplish any Perma-
nent or lasting Improvement. 1t is the nature
of trade and commerce of every description,
to seek those channels in which it will find
the least burdens, will be subjected to the
lightest expense. This is law ftrade, which
is us Interchangeable as that which gives to the
skin of the Leopard its spots. As an example;
if the consumer at the South can obtain his
supplies from foreign nations through the ports
of the north, paying all the intermediate
freights and commissions, at q cheaper rate,
than he can obtain the same through South
ern ports, he will invariably patronize the
Northern importations. Or, if the Southern
producer can sell to the Northern or foreign
IN manufacturer, and receive in return the man
ufactured, article, a. a less cost than he can
obtain the same article by establishing manu-
facturies at home, he will go to the North or
abroad for those supplies. These are axiomat-
ic truth, and are doubtless familiar; but they
lie at the very basis of the great superstruc-
ture of commerce, and must be constantly con-
suited, in projecting any successful change of
commercial relations. If the Knoxville Con-
vention shall devote its labors to a Jealous and
intelligent investigation of the laws Of trade,
and shall be able to devise any great practical
change in our Southern Commercial system
(Which indeed is not system at all, or at any
rate not more than half a system) whereby
our prosperity shall be benefited, and our
selves relieved of the dependence and tribute
which we are undoubtably under to the North,
we shall hail it as a worthy achievement.
But for two or three or more years past,
these conventions seem to have been compos-
ed of inconsiderate political hot-spurs, rather
than of the solid and deeply-thinking COM
mercial men of the Southern country. They
! have been appointed hastily, and have hastily
packed their portmanteaus and trundled them
selves into the convention, with but one idea
in their heads, and that commercial pon-in-
| tercourse with the North. They pass a series
of resolutions, embodying this spirit; which
| 90 into the hands of the recording secretary
aud the newspaper reporters, and there die,
except so far as they excite the pity and con
tempt of our Northern rivals. This course
has been eminently suicidal, and destructive
of al the good, they might have done, if their
labor and energies had been directed in the
proper channel. In doing thus we fear those
conventions have been blghting the very
cause they were intended to promote; and that
they tend to excite unfraternal and unworthy
feelings among the great commercial interests
ofthe country, and to aggravate the political dis
sensions which divide the two sections of the
Union. They have injured in many respects,
without beneftting materially in single one,
the country and have therefore received pub
lie Reproduction in many quarters. We hope
the Knoxville convention viii steer clear Of
the errors of its predecessors, and that it viii
devote itself to its true duties, and that its Ia
bors may rebound TO the advantages Of the
whole country.
The Result In the Ashland District.
The reported returns Of the election in the Eight
District indicate with painful certainty the defea
OF the noble-hearted and gallant standard-bearer
Anerioanism there, Roger w. Hanson, aud she
| election of James b. Clay. The heart Of every