Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1858-04-29

Southern Commercial Convention A committee
appointed for that purpose, have published an adj
dress urging an appointment Of delegates and
giving a programme Of the objects and purposes Of
the convention.
The original purpose Of these Southern assem-
blagss is thus set forth BY the committee:
The motive which prompted the organization
of Southern Commercial Convention was the de
sire TO ascertain the causes Of the decline Of the
foreign commerce of the Southern States, and to
devise some plan for its revival and restoration.
The people Of the Southern States and felt the
anomalous fact that the country which produces
three ffths in value Of the exports Of the nation,
had not only l ost is commercial supremacy, but
had become, commercially. dependent upon and
vet tributary to that portion Of the country which
produces much the smallest portion ofthoss exports.
This was not only an unnatural, but an eXhsusting
and depressing process retardng, necessarily, the
growth and prosperity Of the South, and it was
natural to DESIRE as ii vas necessary to provide,
remedy for it, This desire and necessity suggested
the ides Of assembling, once in every year, the
people of the South, BY deputies, in convention
for the purpose Of gathering information from the
most reliable witnesses, as to the causes Of the evil,
With the hope of obtaining from the Wisest and most
devoted sons Of the South the suggestion Of plan
or system of measures which should correct il"
The COMMITTEES acknowledge, what ell close OBJ
servers have already perceived the virtual failure
Of these meetings accomplish the objects in view,
but they find incidental benefits resulting from them,
to which they alluds as follows:
The chief benefit, therefore, which has result
ed from the sessions of the convention, has been
the increased knowledge Of and sympathy for each
other with q better understanding Of our wants,
resulting from these snnual assemblies Southern
men have been more extensively acquainted with
IL hat ofr,tn hou
learned the cheering and delighted fact, that how
ever we may differ about men, about party politics,
or particular remedies among ourselves, there is in
the South but one heart one mind and one will for
our tradueers and assailanis; and that when the
time for a blow at them shall arrive, if unhspPily
it ever SHALL all the energy, patriotism and courage
off united nation will be felt IN that blow, by those
who shall unhappily provoke it-that, however, We
may differ among ourselves as to the means Of at-
rack or the mode Of defence, there is difference
Of opinion as to the great conclusion that the South
must be defended and all her rights prOteced-cOst
what it may. This we're cause and compensation
enough for any trouble aad expense 10 holding our
assemblies But rapidly occurring events furnish
additional and conclusive incentives to the contin-
uance Of the work which we have commemorative
commercial independence Of the South-by bring
ing more closely aud distinctly to our view the
probability that shall at no distant day be com
PEELED to assert our political independence, which
dence-without The means Of regulating and con-
trolling our own commerce; for, without that
power 10 nation can be free. II the South is wise,
then and WOul1 be proyident, she viii lose no time
in providing the best means, and all the means
within her power, to restore her own commerce to
her own ports and people. For, whether she to
be permitted to remain in the Union enjoying In
honorable peace all her constitutional rights-or is
to be compelled, by continued and progressive as
sauts upon her rights herinterests and her feelings
The most unprecedented and fagitious which Gu
piiity and ambition ever prompted-to assert her
right to withdraw from an association which no
longer recognizes the original compact IS the rule
of its government, or longer to yield submission TO
an oppressive and Ubiquitous majority, it is Of the
highest Importance TO her. if not Of absolute neoes
sitv, that she should seriously and earnestly
address herself to the restoration of her foreign
commerce, and to the encouragement within her
limits, BY her own means, of the manufacture Of
those articles which necessary to her comfort.
The committee then review in desultory manner
the various political abuses and Outrages which the
Southern States haFe suffered from Northern Legis-
latures and from Northern representatives in the
federal government, urge them as additional incen-
tivss for doing all that can be done to develop the
resources of the Southern States preparatory to the
step they may be compelled to take for selfpreser
walton, and continue:
Ifthese things shall continue, and be persisted
in, every man p4st perceive that the alternatives
presented to the South will be ruin, disgrace and
bondage on the one hand, or independence Of her
prosecutors and oppressors on the other. She will
be compelled to assert her inalienable rights and
refuse longer submission to the laws Of perverted
Union, pretended to be passed under constitution
which has been not only desecrated but destroyed.
Whether the spirit which is indcstedby these events
Will finally prevail andits purposes be eonsummated,
as far as Congress can coRsummate them we will not,
because We cannot, predict. We would humbly pray
TO God that they may not, for we would, if We could,
perpetuate the Union of the States, under the
stitution, as its immortal founders made it. We
would prefer to die have lived, under one flag,
with one name; with the constitution, which
fars fathers conquered and cOnseerated with their
blood, like the rainbow spanning our beloved eoun-
try, still the land Of the free and the home Of the
brave -
"But it cannot be diguised and must not, If it
could that the Free States they called, con-
stitute now the majority, and upon their will, upon
their wisdom and patriotism, it depends, and not
upon the will of the South, whether the things
Whi.h we have indicated shall be done or not. But
this we may and must say, that the South is now
forewarned, and she will be recreant to herself and
sl the great hopes Of liberty and happiness to the
white man. aud responsible for much Of the i'll which
may follow if she be not foresrmed if she does not
proceed, without delay, to provide all the peaceful
and constitutional means within her power, to place
herself in 3 condition to meet the crisis when it
comes.
First among these is the restoration Of her OOm-
merce, and the encouragement Of her own manu-.
features.
eve urge you, therefore, most respectfully, but
most earnestly to send delegates to the approaching
convention, at Montgomery, and let them be Of your
ablest, best tried, and most trusted sons-for the
presence Of such is demanded by the distempered
Of fbn NJ
to be considered Let not the sneers or denuncis-
lions of your opponents or enemies deter you, and
shrink not under the cry of DisuniOn.'
"The Convention will not consider the question
of disunion, any question tending to produce
that result It's hopeful pesoeful, patriotic object
will be to promote the prosperity, and increase the
wealth and power of our own beautiful and beloved
South; to make her people happier, if possible, and
more willing, IS well as more able to perform all
the duties in the Union, to the Union, if returning
reason and patriotism shall arrest the march Of fa
naticism, and stay the hand Of oppression. But if
lost reason shall never be found and patriotism and
sympathy have been extinguished if those who
should be our brothers shall prove to be malignant
and implscable foes, and cupidity and ambition
shall dissolve the tie which binds US together still
our work will have been WsH and wisely done, il we
succeed in restoring the commercial independence
of the South and build up our own towns and en-
rich our own people by our own means, which now
budup and enrich others-or the southern States will
then be prepared more fully to meet the issue thus
forced upon them, and able to defend IS well as
justify their position when they shall be compelled
/" to assume among the powers Of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the laws Of
ture and Of natures God entitle them"
Although the proposed meeting is called like its
predecessors commercial" convention the fore
going extracts from the committees address would
show that it is to be more Of political than of
commercial character. The main topics of discus
sion at Montgomery will doubtless be those growing
out of the federal relations Of the southern States
and the prominent political questions which have
produced alienation and which now threaten the
destruction of the federal system. Nor would there
be any special objection to such discussions proVi
ded they were pursued quietly and dispsssiOnately
We're The leading men, the statesmen, the ruling
minds the thinkers Of the Southern States to assem-
bic and compare ideas upon the vital issue which
may soon be forced upon US, without any heated
phillipcs without any sppeals to feeling, without
any displays of Oratorical denuncistion, but with
the sole view of learning and prOpagating the pOli
,sI trutbs which bear upon questions so momentous