81. ~Commercial Conventions of 1855-56.~ The growth of the movement is
best followed in the action of the Southern Commercial Convention, an
annual gathering which seems to have been fairly representative of a
considerable part of Southern opinion. In the convention that met at New
Orleans in 1855, McGimsey of Louisiana introduced a resolution
instructing the Southern Congressmen to secure the repeal of the
slave-trade laws. This resolution went to the Committee on Resolutions,
and was not reported.[4] In 1856, in the convention at Savannah, W.B.
Goulden of Georgia moved that the members of Congress be requested to
bestir themselves energetically to have repealed all laws which forbade
the slave-trade. By a vote of 67 to 18 the convention refused to debate
the motion, but appointed a committee to present at the next convention
the facts relating to a reopening of the trade.[5] In regard to this
action a pamphlet of the day said: "There were introduced into the
convention two leading measures, viz.: the laying of a State tariff on
northern goods, and the reopening of the slave-trade; the one to advance
our commercial interest, the other our agricultural interest, and which,
when taken together, as they were doubtless intended to be, and although
they have each been attacked by presses of doubtful service to the
South, are characterized in the private judgment of politicians as one
of the completest southern remedies ever submitted to popular action.
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