"Southern Commercial Convention" -What a fraud to claim this represents the South

Battalion

Banned
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
"The opposition by persistently quoting every...expression of the fire-eating press of the South, and by republishing the local resolutions of public meetings of the same character, keep up the idea that such is public opinion there, and thus foster these sectional prejudices from which both parts of the union are now suffering. Very many at the North, who have the opportunity of reading but one side, actually believe that the noisy zeal displayed by the turbulent spirits who now and then hold conventions to consider the condition of the Southern States, are a reflex of public sentiment at the South...

...The recent convention held at Vicksburg, which is cited as evidence of public sentiment meets with the most determined opposition at home. We quote from several of the most influential papers of the South, the expression upon this subject:
....

From the Mobile (Ala.) Advertiser.

The self-styled 'Southern Convention,' now in session at Vicksburg, seems to have been mainly engrossed with discussions upon the chimerical and ruinous project, the special bantling [bastard] of a Mr. Spratt of South Carolina, which occupied so much of the time to so little valuable purpose of previous Conventions. According to the astute and enterprising gentlemen who are amusing themselves and trying to startle the country at Vicksburg, the revival of the African slave trade is the grand panacea for Southern wrongs and ills--the one thing wanting to elevate the South to the loftiest pinnacle of human power and influence....
With one or two exceptions we discover the name of no man of much distinction or influence at the South among the delegates to the Convention, most of whom hail from Mississippi.

From the Savannah (Ga.) Republican.

Only 81 [88] delegates attended the Convention at Vicksburg, Miss., and 55 of them were from the State where the Convention was holden. Rather a slim turn out. The following is the numerical representation of each State: Mississippi, 55; Texas, 1; South Carolina, 11; Georgia, 9; Tennessee, 4; Alabama, 1; Louisiana, 5; Florida, 1; and Kansas 1.
....

From The Charleton (S.C.) News

It is stated that the Southern Commercial Convention at Vicksburgh has adopted a resolution that the laws prohibiting slave trade should be abolished. That this is also meant to recommend the actual opening of the trade does not appear, but is to be inferred. It is to be presumed that the laws referred to are those of Congress. But nearly all the Southern States, ten at least, have laws against the introduction of African negroes. That these laws, Federal or State, will ever be abolished cannot be anticipated. This action of the Convention then is but another indication of the folly of these irregular and windy bodies....few beside the slave trade agitators take now any interest in their meetings or constituency...

From the New Orleans Picayune.

It is a consolation to know that it is likely to have little or no effect upon the public mind in the slave States. These States are but partially represented, and in some instances the States nominally in the Convention have only one delegate.

It is a very good escape valve for impracticable politicians, and a report of its doing is only important as showing the Quixotism of a few Southern men.

The Weekly Wisconsin Patriot (Madison), 11 June 1859

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"The following were among the toasts at the 4th of July celebration in Chester, S.C.:

'The Southern Commercial Convention--A misnomer--a perversion of terms. We regard it as a humbug and a nuisance.'

Banner of Liberty (Middletown, N.Y.), 20 July 1859

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"There is one feature in these conventions which satisfies me that they do not reflect the popular sentiment, and that is the monotonous character of their composition. From their inception down to the present time they are made up of almost the same elements. I have recognized at the last Convention almost the same class of men who attended the Memphis and Charleston Conventions several years ago, and their attendance at all the intervening assemblages of this character has been uniform and unfailing. The only marked changes I have observed in the late Convention is the falling off in numbers, the class of men who continue to attend being almost the same I have seen in the palmier days of these now almost-defunct Conventions. I take it, therefore, that these men constitute the main forces of the disunionists in their respective localities....There is evidently not enough of this class of men to admit of rotation in the selection, and hence this monotony in the character and caste of the elements which compose these Conventions."

New York Times, 26 May 1858

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"The next Southern Commercial Convention, does not promise to amount to much. We see it stated that the Governors of Louisiana and Georgia have refused to appoint delegates to the Convention; and many of the southern papers pronounce it a humbug and a farce."

Weekly Gazette and Free Press (Janesville, Wisconsin), 20 May 1859

 
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