The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-10-05
SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL
CONVENTION.
Address by Hon. George III.
PendletOn.
COMMITTEES APPOINTED.

| Aoii. luC HdA HAS UttH tdSieIullN
adorned with festoons Of evergreen
hung on the front of the galleries al
well as around the entrance and through
the stairway. The United States Goa
of arms, with the names Of each State
is placed in front of the galleries
About one hundred and fifty delegate,
were present at the opening. The con
vention was called to order by r. NJ
Bishop, Vice President for Ohio of the
louisville convention, and prayer was
offered by Rev. J. L. Robertson. Theo
dore Cook, Chairman OF the committee
of Arrangements, then introduced Geo.
F. Davis, who welcomed the delegates
to the city.
Hon. Geo II. Pendleton was then in
troduced and made a reception address.
He said !: Gentlemen OF the Conven-
tion; My fellow-citizens have done me
infinite honor to-day. The civic author
tiles, the commercial authorities, the
Chamber of Commerce, the Board OF
Trade, and the people generally, have
commissioned me TO speak to you in
their behalf; they have commanded
M to give you their most fraternal
greeting; they have commanded me to
say, with sincerity and warmth, for
which can find no fitting words, that
you are their honored and most wei
come guests They have commanded
me to say that they appreciate and
honor your presence here, and tina:
they desire to recognize it by every act
of courteous attention and affectionate
hospitality. These annually. recur-
ring meetings this concourse OF repre-
sentative men, these delegations,
from every State, city, chamber of com
merce and combination of business men
from the Hudson to the Rio Grande,
these earnest, thoughtful. learned de-
bates by the friends OF every interest
and advocates Of every growing enter
prise, from the Alleghenies to the
Rocky Mountains, attest the dignity Of
this Convention and the magnitude of
the questions committed TO its consider
alton. Your predecessors, who met in
Norfolk in 1868, were few in numbers,
and the chief subject Of their consilera-
ton was the ocean trade Of the Atlantic
cities with Europe. Your numbers
already reach many hundreds and your
debates will touch every project Of ma
terial development, every phase Of in
telligent industry, every facility for
commercial intercourse, every plan
Of finance and taxation every encourage
ment TO immigration, every question of
governmental economy. 1t must be
said that this convention meets to con
slider and advance the interests of the
great Mississippi Valley. say this
in no selfish or sectional sense; say it
in no narrow spirit; / would limit your
duties and your influence to- no local
lines. The interests. of the Mississippi
usually are the centre and source and
well-being Of other portions OF the
country. Its development is their
growth--its prosperity their wealth.
And when the hand of industry touches
into life any dormant element, the
power of which nature has hidden in
it's fields, mines, lakes or rivers, they
grow by time to activity, and move under
its impulsion. The Mississippi Valley
the very name calls up to the vision trans
cendent grandure. Mountains filled
with ores, valleys instinct with fecund
life, prairies carpeted with most bril-
liant wild flowers and redolent with
sweet perfumes, lands generous with
wheat, corn and barley; lands teaming
with cotton, rice and sugar the snow
clad fields of the North shading into
the dusky yellow Of the parched and
thirsty South; the freezing blasts of
Canada melted to genial breezes in the
warm embrace of the fervent winds Of
Florida 1t stretches from Central
Pennsylvania to the western boundary
of Kansas, from the Lake of the Woods
to the Gulf of Mexico. Its soils are
fertile, its mines productive, its forests
exhaustless, ITS skies bright, its climate
healthful. God has given to it every
element OF wealth and every attribute
of beauty, and through its whole length
great rivers made Of confuent waters.
every spring, and riyulet, and stream in
all its broad expanse runs its ceaseless
flood from the woods OF the Arctic
regions. Yes, the golden orange
groves, begotten trophies, cheap lands
and abounding breadstuffs will secure
its future. Ere long l0O,0OQOO0 peo-
pie will inhabit it; they will till
its fertile soil; they will work
its fruitful mines; they will man
ufacture its raw materials; they
will bring every force Of nature into
cooperation with every appliance'of art
and with every device Of human ingen-
uity and every effort Of human indus
trv and in the Developments Of unrival-
led resources. They will be an active,
enterprising, selfreliant, audacious peo-
pie. They will not submit to issolation.
They will require, and they will have
an interrupted Communication with
the Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi
river, with the Chesapeake Bay BY the
canals Of Virginia, with Sandy Hook by
the canals of New York, and
| with the NOrlH AtlahllS " 'ht
Lakes and the ST. Lawrence,
and will reach the Pacific by the
Northern and Central and Southern
railroads. They will dig through the
Virginia mountains and import by way
of Norfolk. They will thread the valleys
OF Kentucky and Tennessee, and load
ships at Charleston and Savannah
They will build levees on the Southern
rivers and reclaim the local cultivation
They will sweep away every embarrass
ment. caused by the restrictive, or II
you prefer the word, protective. system
and they will demand every improve
meat in the burthen Of taxation, and II
the benefits of currency, which the mos
enlightened and sagacious civilization
can suggest, and l would fan
believe that in the midst of thu
splendid material advancement they vii
never forget that in the eyes Of God ant