New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1858-04-14
stfn @rltans 8aiip Grrsr.ut.
soutlern conrnerelnl con,sn1lon.

Knoxville, the undersigned were appointed q com
mittee TO address you, in anticipation Of the Conven
ton which is 10 Be beld in Montgomery in the State
Of Alabama, on the 10th day Of May next
The object Of the address, as we understand il, b
70 remind you Of the approaching session % the Con
venon, and 70 urge you to appoint delegates to it,
and we proceed now 10 perform that duty.
The motive which prompted the Organization Of a
Southern Commercial Convention, was the desire 10
ascertain the Of the decline OF the foreign com
merce Of the Southern States, and 10 devise some
plan TOT IT, revival and restoration. The people Of
tne southern States saw and felt the anomalous fact
mat the country which produces threeths in value
Oh the exports OF the nation bad not only lost its
commercial supremacy, but had become, CONNER (
clay, dependent upon and yet tributary to that
portion OF The country which produces nneh the |
smallest portion Of those exports. This was not only
an unnatural but an exhausting and depressing pro
cess, re.ardg necessarily, the growth and prosper
~ .ne oouan, aud y was natural TO desire, as It
was necessary 70 provide, remedy for IT, This de-
sire and necessity suggested the idea of Assembling
once in every year, the people Of the South nv de-
puties, in Convention for the purpose OF gathering
information, from the most reliable witnesses - M
the Of the evil, with the hope Of ohtainin0
from the wisest and most devoted sons Of The South
the suggestion Of plan system Of measures which
should correct Ii. a.F -
We regret to say that. thus far our hopes have not
been realized, while the predictions Of our opponents
have been to some extent verified, although much
good has been accomplished. Our disappointment
has not BEEN however, the fault entirely OF the Con-
yention, for although we have been too much divided
among ourselves az to the remedies proper to be
adopted, and thereby have impaired onr efficiency
still much good has been done, and much more would
have been accomplished if we could have carried our
suggestions into execution without dependence upon
the will OF Congress and the State Legislature The
chief benefit therefore, which has resulted from the
sessions OF the Convention, has been the increased
knowledge OF, and sympathy for each other with a
better understanding OF wants, resulting from
these annual assemblies. Southern men have been
da O4nra ted 1st.x~
and through that acquaintance have learned the
cheering and delightful fact, that however we NAV
differ about men, about party politics. or particular
remedies among ourselves, there is in the South bat
one heart, and one will for our traducers and assa-
ants, and that when the time for blow at them shall
arrive, Ii unhappiy it SHALL all the energy pa.
trotism and courage of united nation will be felt in
that blow, by those who shall unhappily provoke il
that, however we may differ among ourselves as TO
the means Of attack the mode OF defense there i
no difference Of opinion to the great conclusion
that the South must be defended and all her rights
protected-cost what it may. This were cause and
compensation enough for any trouble and expense
which are incurred in holding our assemblies. But
rapidly concurring events furnish additional and
conclusive incentives to the continuance of the work
which we have commemorative commercial indie
Pendenee Of the h.by bringing more closely and
distinctly TO view the probability that we shall at
no distant day be compelled to assert our political in
observation-disclosures the means Of regulating and
controlling our own commerce for without that
then, and would be provident. she will lose no time
in providing the best means and all the means within
her power, to restore her own commerce 10 her own
ports and people. For whether she is TO be permit
ted to remain IN the union-enjoying in honorable
peace all her constitutional rghts-or is to be com,
PEELED, by continued and progressive assaults upon
her rights, her interests and her feelnes-the most
unprecedented and flagtions which cnpidty and am
btion ever prompted-to assert her right TO with
draw from an association which no longer recognizes
the original compact the rule of its government
or longer TO yield submission to an oppressive and
nqultous majority it is of the highest importance to
her, If not of absolute necessity, that She shonld
seriously and earnestly address herself to the restora
ton of her foreign commerce. and TO the encourage
ment within her limits by her own means of the
manufacture OF those articles which necessary to
her comfort.
The candid lover of the union of the States must
be satisfied, as It seems to the undersigned that If
not already abrogated in spirit by the deliberate VIC
atons OF the compact to the injury and for the in
jury OF the South, by many OF the Northern and
Eastern States there is not only little ground to hone
for the preservation of it, upon the basis and under
The guarantees OF the Constitution Of 1887 but there
is the most imminent danger of its entire destruction
before many years shall have rolled by. For a num-
Der OF years, not only the most offensive dennncia
tions have been poured out upon the South but the
most wanton aggressions upon her constitutional
rights have been committed. commencing with that
most absurd and uniounded claim of right to con-
vert the balls OF the National Council into an arena
upon which TO discuss the tenure by which we hold
our slaves under the pretence OF petitionng for re-
dress of grievances
Not only has our right to reclaim our slaves when
they escape into Northern State been denied but
the law passed by Congress, for our protection has
been resisted by people who claim still to be in the
Union. And recently the State OF Massachusetts has
perpetrated an act such as never committed be-
fore by any Constitutional Government-towit the
removal of Judge (Loring) without mpeach
ment Tor any crime, simply because he has honestly
and faithfully enforced that law
II the Southern States were to pass laws prohibit.
ing any citizen OF Massachusetts from recovering any
debt or other property within their limits or without
such law, should remove from Office every Judge who
should render judgment in suit in favor OF a citizen
of Massachusetts, Massachusetts could not complain
but the Union with Massachusetts would he dissolved
Is it not dissolved already, if the Southern States
choose so to regard itg Bnt this is not although
| this is enough to expose the danger-and the true
question is, shall the South wait until the danger
ward off its evils. Again
You are painfully sensible of the protracted and
excited struggle which has, for several years been in
progress in relation to the settlement and Govern
| ment of the Territory of Kansas Finally the
struggle seemed to have been terminated by the
adoption OF Constitution for the Territory to CON
stitute it State as admitted into the Union
With the details OF the controversy we do not pro-
pose to deal We shall speak only OF results When
that Constitution was adopted, it transmitted to
the President and, with noble patriotism, coming
as he does from the North, and with faithful adj.
herence to the constitutional opinions of the States
Rights party, he submitted it to Congress- with the
recommendation that it should be received by it, and
the State of Kansas left to correct the errors If any
were committee. aHredress the wrongs, il any were
perpetrated, d krritory of Kansas and thus
| remove the slavery from Congress, to
| whom 1t in n ngs, to deal with the question
| Of slavery id klnd who can NEEDLE with il
only Tor mlscfi imposes, and in violation OF its
The consequence Of this act has been the reopenng
not only all the suces of abuse and detraction OF the
South, from more than one quarter and especially
from the representative of the great State of New
York, in the Senate by whom it has been proclaimed
without rebuke from any Northern Senator, that we,
the slaveowners of the South to be pursued from
| Maryland TO Mexico and If need be, in order to
strip us Of home and shelter, across the Gulf Of
Mexico into the Island of Cuba, by the nsatate ap-
petite and voracious demands OF free labor and the
Supreme Judiciary il TO be corrupted and degraded
because the present iustriOus bench has been true
TO its oath and the Constitution thus to make ouI
bondage sure by securing an infamous approval Of
vicious and unconstitutional laws by a corrupt and
plant Judiciary.
these things shall continue and be persisted in
every man must perceive that the alternative pre-
sented to the South will be ruin disgrace and bond
age, on the one hand, independence Of her perse
compelled TO assert her inaenable right. and refns,
| longer submission to the laws of perverted Union
| pretended to be passed under Constitution which
has been not only desecrated but destroyed Whethe
the spirit which is dictated by these events will finally