COMMERCIAL CONVENTIONS. 



117 



resolved that the interests of the people of the 

 whole country require the removal of the 

 capital from its present location to some point 

 in the Mississippi Valley. After a session of 

 three days, the convention adjourned. 



The fourth great Commercial Convention 

 of the year assembled at Louisville, Ky., on 

 the 13th of October, and chose ex-President 

 Fillmore as its presiding officer. The dele- 

 gates numbered upward of five hundred and 

 twenty, comprising prominent merchants and 

 business men from twenty-nine States, of 

 whom two hundred and seventy-seven were 

 from the Southern States, one hundred and 

 seven from the "Western, and thirty-two from 

 the Eastern and Middle States. The subject 

 of the Southern Pacific Railway was promi- 

 nent in the discussions. Full statistics were 

 given and the entire subject reviewed at great 

 length. The minority report favored the route 

 from St. Louis on the thirty-fifth parallel, via 

 Albuquerque to San Francisco; the majority 

 report, which was adopted, recommended sub- 

 stantially the route approved by the Memphis 

 Convention, with feeder-roads, from Leaven- 

 worth, St. Louis, Kansas City, Cairo, Vicks- 

 burg, Memphis, New Orleans, and Galveston, 

 on the East ; and Guaymas, Mazatlan, and San 

 Francisco, on the West. 



On the subject of railroads in general, the 

 convention recommended cooperation in rail- 

 road management, the connection of tracks, 

 and uniform gauges, in order to perfect the 

 system of great through-lines ; and urged the 

 building of railroads to the Gulf ports as the 

 proper outlet for produce destined for the mar- 

 kets of the West Indies, Mexico, or South 

 America. 



A report from the Committee on Direct 

 Trade with Europe recommended the organi- 

 zation of steamship lines between Southern 

 ports and Europe ; such lines to be subsidized 

 by Congress ; a modification of the navigation 

 laws, so as to enable Americans to purchase 

 foreign ships ; the abolition of the tariff on 

 ship-building materials; and that Congress 

 open ports of entry at all cities in the West 

 and South which have a population of one 

 hundred thousand or more. 



A spirited discussion arose on the general 

 subject of immigration ; especially was there a 

 marked difference of opinion as to the intro- 

 duction of Chinese labor, a matter which the 

 convention finally decided to leave to the 

 States and to private interests. The conven- 

 tion approved of the introduction of a million 

 Europeans, and appointed M. F. Maury as a 

 general agent to disseminate information in re- 

 lation to the advantages of the South for im- 

 migration. 



On the subject of banking and* finance, a 

 repeal was recommended of the law providing 

 for a direct land-tax as being unnecessarily bur- 

 densome to the South ; and that, in the system 

 of revenue taxation, the vices of the people 

 rather than the honest industry of the country 



should be taxed. The following resolutions 

 were adopted : 



Resolved, That Congress be requested to enact at 

 once : 



1. A free banking law, with efficient and certain 

 measures for prompt redemption of currency, with a 

 proviso that currency is to be issued only as fast as 

 legal-tender notes are redeemed and destroyed, until 

 specie payments are resumed. 



2. Direct the Secretary of the Treasury to cancel 

 and destroy all legal-tender notes that come in his 

 possession as fast as the net income of the Govern- 

 ment will allow. In case national-bank currency is 

 applied for faster than it can be furnished under the 

 conditions here stated, preference to be^ given, first 

 to the South and second to the West, until the whole 

 currency in circulation be equalized upon the basis of 

 population. 



3. Direct the Secretary of the Treasury to regulate 

 all his actions by the wants and necessities of the 

 Government, and leave the people to ^manage their 

 money markets and their business in their own 

 way. 



After a thorough discussion of the several 

 topics, the convention adopted resolutions in 

 favor of the improvement of the Mississippi 

 levees ; the removal of obstruction to naviga- 

 tion on the Mississippi and its tributaries ; the 

 adoption by Congress of regulations concern- 

 ing the construction of bridges over Western 

 and Southern rivers, as proposed at the Keo- 

 kuk Convention ; and of memorializing Con- 

 gress to aid a proposed line of steamers from 

 New Orleans to Rio Janeiro, and to protect 

 and improve the bars and harbors of the At- 

 lantic coast and Gulf of Mexico. Resolutions 

 were also adopted, appointing a delegation, of 

 which ex-President Fillmore was made chair- 

 man, to attend the Universal Exposition, to be 

 held at St. Petersburg in 1870; and also a 

 committee to memorialize Congress to desig- 

 nate the point for holding the World's Fair in 

 1871. The convention adjourned, to meet at 

 Cincinnati, on the first Tuesday of October, 

 1870. 



The National Board of Trade held its second 

 annual meeting at Richmond, Va., commen- 

 cing on the 1st of December. The delegates 

 present represented the principal cities of the 

 United States. This Board now represents 

 thirty-seven constituent bodies, of which more 

 than 16,000 merchants of the United States are 

 members. Frederick Fraley, of Philadelphia, 

 was elected president of the Board for the en- 

 suing year. The report of the Executive 

 Council recommended a full collection of sta- 

 tistics and reports concerning trade, and their 

 publication in a tabulated form, by the secre- 

 tary of the Board; and that some plan be 

 adopted for the daily interchange of market 

 reports ; also that the number of pounds re- 

 quisite to constitute a bushel should be uniform 

 in all the States. 



Resolutions were passed recommending local 

 boards to adopt a rule that tare shall be the 

 actual weight of the package at the time of 

 sale in all transactions, and to insist on full 

 weights and measures in articles purporting to 

 be of a certain fixed standard, but which are 



