Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1858-1860, 1858-03-19
rne southern Commercial Conven-


gomery. Ala, on the first Monday in May. 1t
promises to be as largely attended as usual
It has heretofore been composed of men of
warm impulses, of great zeal for the institu-
tions and prosperity of the South and tow
ering desire to see the commercial interests of
the South free and Independent. These have
been generally divided into two classes; first,
mere theorists-the second mere poiiti-
clans The first are purely speculative,
the second chiefly infiamatory. The one
builds navies and manufactures in the
clouds the other makes the whole subject ri
diculous by frothy rant about sectionalism.
It is needless to state the consequence; it fol-
lows very naturally and inevitably that
nothing has been accomplished. While these
annually recurring conventions have served
to excite public attention to their professed
object, they have not less served to excite the
public contempt for their ineffciency. The
Montgomery convention is not likely to de
part from the course and policy of its prede-
cessors, either in action result Most Gifts
members will acquire temporary local re-
nown, by appearing in the reports, Others go
ing extremer lengths may entitle themselves
to a whole years newspaper paragraph noto-
riety, as chairmen of committees and com
mercial ambassadors. This is a short and
convenient mode of gratifying petty ambi-
ton; but it is a very poor way to build ships.
establish ocean steam ferries and erect manu-
actories.
We hold it not improper for the South to
seek that direct commercial importance and
intercourse with the rest of the world, which
her resources and productions entitle her to-;
and in so seeking to hold her councils and
conventions. The motive is high and hon
cradle one; but the object can never be at
tanned by speeches and resolutions, simply.
The South is unquestionablv dependent on
the capital and enterprise of the North and
Europe for the prompt supply Of all her great
commercial necessities both in the matter Of
exporting and importing. But it is no less
true that she has the capacity to achieve her
independence. She may do it by careful
systematic and persevering efort-and with
this the struggle will be long and arduous.
In the first place the South has neither ship
builders nor sailors. The State of Maine will
send out more ships and sailors in one year
than the South has furnished in fifty. Yet
she has the ship timber, the sea-coast and the
men. She has the power to make ships and
sailors-she has the money and the will, and
only requires an executive hand. The ener
gies of the Southern population have never
I,aa. f.,.-. tSt hfu nhn oil III mi
nently an agricultural people. We have been
content to furnish the world with the largest
proportion of their cotton, sugar, rice, tobac-
co, and we might add no inconsiderabe
amount of grain, pork and beef. Our policy,
vt least our practice, has been to do this, and
allow the world to run their keels into our
ports and carry away what we had prepared
for it; and indeed have consented to accept
its manufactures of our own materials in pay
meat-and hence we have no manufactures
of our own-comparatively none. Year by
year our production has incrcased-we send
out more cotton, more sugar, more everything,
and receive more of their exchangeable and
consumable commodities in return. 1t re
quires but a small degree of reason and dis
elimination to discover that we have contrib
uted largely to the support and absolute
wealth of the rest of the world. Ii is not the
peculiar task of the astute political economist
to prove that if the South should raise and
manufacture every article of her consump-
ton, and an overplus the overplus wol be
SO much clear gain-and that if we transport
ed that overplus to other or foreign markets,
in our own ships it would be so much addi-
tional clear gain. That is a suggestion of
common sense that any one can appreciate.
But so long as the South leaves to others the
bringing and carrying trade, and the business
of manufacturing our own raw material for
our own consumption, she can not be indpen-
dent She must therefore turn her attention
to building ships and manufactures. This is
not the work of day, nor of paper resolu-
tions. We hope that the Montgomery CON
vention may distinguish itself from its fore
runners and that something feasible and prac-
ticable may be set on foot.