Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-06-12
THE LATE ASSEMBLAGE AT MONT
GOMERY.

! Several respectable gentlemen lately met at
Montgomery, in the State of Alabama, and
listened to each others speeches. Well, we
| see no harm in this circumstance People
have right to make speeches. In this Coun-
| try its one of their inalienaJle rights, and to
deprive some of them Of it would, we fear
come under the law Of cruelty to animals
Besides, speeches unquestionably do good.
| Through them superfuous patriotism-whose
retention would only injure the proprietors-
is discharged, leaving the body, mental and
physical, in a normal and more healthy con-
dition. Hence, therefore, to let off speeches
is the same, under some circumstances, as let
ting off damned up waters or foul gasses.
Great calmness Of mind, we are told, is felt
after efforts Of this kind. A halcyon period,
it is said, comes over the individual, sense
of the serene and beautiful, and he enters the
drcam-land where there are no clouds or hur-
ricanes, siroccos or pitfalls, which is supposed
to be chiefly occupied temporarily by Chinese
opium.eaters. Surely if these be the happy
consequences of speech-letting who could be
so cruel as to oppose it?
The meeting at Montgomery called itself the
Southern Commercial Convention" which
seems to have been slightly inappropriate In
some sense, however, it may have been, in
part at least, correct. 1t took place in South
ern State, and therefore, we suppose, may be
called Southern; II convened, and therefore,
was Convention The Commercial element
Of it, however, appears to have been wholly
wanting, and we shall have to surrender that
part of the title incontinently. We must con-
fess, however, that notwithstanding the fore
going admissions, almost any other title would
have answered just as WELL Seceders Asso-
citation, or Donnybrook Meeting, it strikes us
would have been more to the point As to the
proceedings then and there bad, it does not
matter. We judged our readers set some
value upon their time, and hence did not give
them, though VIC do not intend to say by this
that we consider the time devoted to amuse-
ments as thrown away by any means. We
are decidedly in favor Of proper amusements,
and in future sessions Of the Seceders' Asso-
citation we would suggest, with all due defer
ence, that gymnastic exercises be added to the
programme. 1t would vary the proceedings,
and, in our judgment, would be decided i'm
provcment.
Seriously, this meeting seems to have fallen
into almost universal disfavor. Our exchanges
from every quarter pitch into it without mer-
cy. Its proceedings please mob dy The Dis
union-at-any- price people find fault because
the assemblage didn't dissolve the Union at
once so as to save trouble and expense. Or
dinary patriots denounce it as sectional, i'm
practicable and ridiculous humbug. The Knox
vile Register calls it "nest of traitors" The
Georgia Federal Union, the leading Democra-
tic paper of that State, speaks of it as follows;
"We had little hope that the Southern
Commercial Convention would do anything
practical or useful We attended it two days,
and saw who, and what men, were at the head
Of it. That satisfied us. They were mon
who arc always at the extreme Of every ques-