114 



COMMERCIAL CONVENTIONS. 



Receipts of Custom* at New York. 



The foregoing figures represent coin. The im- 

 ports are entered at their foreign cost in gold, 

 freight and duty not included ; so that the actual 

 cost in currency here, of the last year's imports, 

 without profit, would be about $600,000,000. 



The results are not favorable to ourselves. 

 When we compare the specie value of the ex- 

 ports with the aggregate values of the foreign 

 imports, the balance of trade is decidedly 

 against us, and has to be met by an export of 

 Government bonds and other securities, which 

 eventually must be paid in gold. 



The following table shows the aggregate an- 

 nual foreign imports and exports of the United 

 States, ending June 30, 1857-'69 : 



FOREIGN IMPOSTS AND EXPOET8 OF THE TJXITED STATES, ETC. 



COMMERCIAL CONVENTIONS. During 

 the past year five National Commercial Con- 

 ventions have been held, of which four occurred 

 in the Mississippi Valley, and were composed 

 largely of delegates from the Southern and 

 "Western States. Many important commercial 

 questions were discussed, with a view of effect- 

 ing great changes in certain branches of trade. 

 In all the conventions the subjects of a South- 

 ern Pacific Eailway, immigration to the South 

 and "West, and the improvement of naviga- 

 tion in the Mississippi Valley, held a marked 

 prominence ; the last having in view an entire 

 change of the freight transportation system be- 

 tween the "West and the East by opening an 

 advantageous outlet, via the Mississippi River, 

 for the vast produce of the "West, destined to 

 Eastern markets. 



The first of the conventions was held in 

 the latter part of May, at Memphis, Tenn., 

 and was very largely attended; the delegates, 

 mostly from the South and Southwest, num- 

 bered upward of eleven hundred, and rep- 

 resented twenty-two States. The subject of 

 a Southern Pacific Railway received an ex- 

 tended and thorough discussion. The com- 

 mittee, to whom it was referred, reported the 

 following resolutions, which were unanimously 

 adopted : 



.Resolved, That, in the opinion of this convention, 

 the interests of the whole country, and especially the 



Southern States, could be served by a main trunk 

 railway line from San Diego, Cal., through Junction 

 Kiver, Colorado, and the Gila, and along the valley 

 of the Gila south of that river to El Paso, on the Eio 

 Grande, and thence to a convenient central point 

 near the thirty-second parallel of latitude east of 

 Brazos River, in the State of Texas; from which 

 main trunk feeder-roads should lead from St. Louis, 

 Cairo, Memphis, Vicksburg, New Orleans, and other 

 points, all of which feeder-roads having equal right 

 of connection with their main trunk ; while similar 

 feeder-roads from San Francisco and other points on 

 the Pacific coast should have similar equal rights of 

 connection. 



Jtesolved, That the president of the convention be 

 requested to forward a copy of this resolution to the 

 President and Vice-President of the United States, 

 and Speaker of the House of Kepresentatives, and re- 

 quest them to present the same to the respective 

 Houses of Congress. 



The committee also stated the following rea- 

 sons for selecting this route : 



1. It is the shortest line connecting the Gulf of 

 Mexico and Valley of the Mississippi with the Pacific ; 

 and, 



2. It is the line, of all those now unoccupied, of 

 most easy grades and cheapest constructed on permit. 



3. It passes through less inhospitable and barren 

 country, and over more fertile and hospitable lands, 

 than any other unoccupied route proposed. 



4. The line is touched by water transportation at 

 three points, affording the greatest facilities for con- 

 struction, and consequently hastening and cheapen- 



ing such construction. 

 5. 



The line will open to the world the great mineral 

 resources of Arizona and Sonora, and render .more 



