Voluminous Literature-Opinions of Morrison, Remusat, &c. 373

lived A. D. 1275. It is a very extensive opinion of a nation whose literature can and profound work, containing research- boast of a work like this." es upon every matter relating to government, and extending through a series of dynasties which held the throne nearly 40 centuries. Remusat says of it: "This excellent work is a library by itself, and if Chinese literature possessed no other, the language would be worth learning for the sake of reading this alone." Mr. Williams says of it: "It elevates our

We are compelled, very unwillingly, to close here this paper on China, for the want of space. There are a great number of subjects which we are obliged to pass over without even naming them; and yet it would be an exceedingly interesting task to discuss them. We may, however, resume the subject in some future number.

ART. V.-THE BALTIMORE SOUTHERN COMMERCIAL

CONVENTION.

Resolved, That the Atlantic cities and states of the South are on the great natural highways of commerce-the gulfstream-and these states should improve the facilities offered by nature by resorting to all the aids of science and art.

Resolved, That among these facilities we hail the speedy completion of the

We have received the proceedings of and states of the South, West, and Souththe Southern Commercial Convention, west. held in Baltimore, and regret that we were unable to accept an invitation to be present. The temporary officers were J. Č. Brune and J. F. Pickrell. The Committee on Resolutions were, Hon. J. D. Freeman, Mississippi; Hon. J. C. Jones, Tennessee; Hon. J. R. Underwood, Kentucky; Hon. T. L. Clingman, North Carolina; Hon. J. L. Orr, South Baltimore and Ohio Rail-road with great Carolina; Lieut. M. F. Maury, Virginia; C. G. Baylor, Esq., District Columbia; P. H. Sullivan, Esq., Maryland; Hon. J. L. Robinson, Indiana; Hon. John Moore, Louisiana; Hon. T. M. Taylor, Missouri; Hon. Richard Apperson, Kentucky; Hon. R. I. Bowie, Maryland; Hon. Alex. White, Alabama.

The Hon. Wm. C. Dawson, of Georgia, was elected president of the convention. The following resolutions were adopted, together with one that the convention meet again on the first Monday of June next at Memphis.

Resolved, That we highly approve the admirable address by which we have been welcomed to Baltimore, and that we sympathize with the noble efforts which the city of Baltimore has made, and is yet making, to secure the trade and commerce of the states to the South, and in the valley of the South.

Resolved, That the prosperity and permanency of the Union will be greatly promoted by the multiplication of the means of commercial and social intercourse in the several states, and that this convention recommends that every effort should be made, consistent with our obligations to the whole, to increase the intercommunication between the cities

satisfaction, and look to it as opening a new channel of trade greatly beneficial to the interior states of the Union, and especially those bordering the Ohio river.

Resolved, That the question of a great commercial centre of commerce for national exchanges will necessarily depend upon the cheapness of transportation, and that it is of great importance to the West and South, and Southwest, to ascertain the prices of freight and transportation to Baltimore, and from Baltimore to Liverpool, and other important points of Europe.

Resolved, That a committee of be appointed by the chairman to ascertain and publish, after the completion of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail-road to Wheeling, the rates of transportation on that road of all important articles of commerce.

Resolved, That it is recommended to the merchants of Baltimore, as a means of securing the trade of the West, Southwest, and South, to establish a line or lines of steamers between Baltimore and Liverpool, and other important parts of Europe and South America.

Resolved, That while we disdain the slightest prejudice or hostility to the welfare and prosperity of any particular

Resolved, That true policy requires the United States to foster steamboat communication between the South and the Amazon, and to build up commerce with the Atlantic slope of South Ame

rica.

On the part of the Board of Trade of Baltimore, Brantz Mayer, Esq., opened the convention with the following address to the people of the South and West:

section or city, North or South, we would And is not this true? It will be alpromote, as we think we reasonably lowed by every one who recalls the might, consistent with the laws of trade, history of colonial and revolutionary its great central position, the commer- times, and remembers that Baltimorecial interests and prosperity of Balti- Town, in those days, was the spot more, as being well calculated to excite whence the adventurer and the soldier set a wholesome and beneficial competition forth, wending their way westward by with more northern Atlantic cities, which Fort Cumberland, until they penetrated could not fail to be peculiarly advanta- that wilderness which has been subdued geous to the whole South, Southwest, and civilized by the courageous enterand West, and, in fact, to the nation at prise of your hardy ancestors. It was large. from Baltimore-Town, then already a place of significance at the head of the finest inland navigation in the world, that the pioneer and trader sallied forth with trains of pack-horses, to bear their luxuries and necessaries into the wilderness, in order to exchange them for the peltries which were, at that time, almost the only "circulating medium" of the region. Maryland, lying like a wedge between Pennsylvania and Virginia, and having in its centre another wedge, in its magnificent bay and river, whose affluents penetrated its northwes ternmost comer, afforded the easiest levels as a channel of trade for passing the mountains and reaching the navigable waters of the Ohio; and thus our state became the chief line of American travel, and our city the chief depot between the shores of the Atlantic and the valleys beyond the Alleghany range, Baltimore, therefore, is fairly to be regarded as the natural and earliest historical friend and commercial ally of the West. It was so in the days when Washington and Braddock pursued the line of travel I have indicated; and in periods when the common interests and common sense of men pointed out a trail for trade, independently of all extraneous influences.

We have invited you to meet us, in the city of Baltimore, in order to consider questions of interest to the sections of country whence you come, as well as to ourselves. It is our duty as well as our pleasure to seize the earliest moment to thank you for the alacrity and good-will with which you have so cordially responded to our call.

Gentlemen, we have summoned you here to-day to lay, with proper services, and to cement with hearty feeling, the corner-stone of a great National Exchange. Many circumstances have lately combined to direct public notice towards the city of Baltimore as the most suitable mart for the productions in which your parts of the Union are so deeply concerned. When the census of 1850 was first published, and it was seen that the population of Baltimore But, gentlemen, it is not to be denied had augmented in a larger proportion that although Baltimore, very soon after within the preceding ten years than the adoption of the Constitution of the that of any other Atlantic city, men asked themselves the question, why this had occurred, and found no solution save in the facts that there was a zealous stir of enterprising activity among our people, fostered by the hopeful prospect of future progress,-that our internal improvements were tending to develop a region fraught with wealth, not only to our state but to other sections, and that Baltimore, in truth, was the original and natural terminus of our great internal trade, indicated by nature herself in the geography of our country.

United States, was acknowledged to be the great flour and tobacco mart of the country, as well as. perhaps, the best market for provisions—she still, in time, found that her commerce diminished, while that of other sections, which apparently were not entitled to such advantages, became proportionably enlarged. This may be attributed to three causes the opening of the navigation of the Mississippi, which gave its mouth as a vent for internal commerce;-the introduction of steam on that river and its tributaries as the motive power for

Baltimore the Natural Terminus of Internal Trade.

375

for the friendship of those sections to which nature had originally allied us, and to which art has once more happily restored us after so many years of unnatural estrangement!

trade and travel;-and the construction low-citizens of the South and West, that of the Erie Canal, backed by the mas- we ask you to come hither and tell us terly system of internal improvements that our judgment was right-that our of New-York, which has tapped the opinion of the channel of trade was corlakes and western waters, developed rect-and that we labored not in vain its own immense interior resources, and poured the wealth of the northwest into the lap of its thriving metropolis. Thus, the old trade, which, in earlier days concentrated at Pittsburgh or Wheeling, and pursued its slow journey over the But, gentlemen, while, in Baltimore, mountains in the "Conestoga wagons," we have been striving to make this -which were the successors of "pack- work, by the expenditure of private horse caravans "-was gradually ab- and public means, other cities have not sorbed and taken away by the ingenui- hesitated to attempt outgeneraling us in ty of an opulent rival. our efforts to regain your favor. But you are aware, gentlemen, that ton, New-York, Philadelphia, have all Baltimore was no laggard in seizing the striven to grasp the whole, or, at least, means of reasserting her natural supre- to gain a considerable part, of the macy in the internal commerce of North wealth that your industry produces. America. We perceived the cause, and Yet, in this instance, all their art-all we endeavored to apply the remedy. their ingenuity-could not effect two We saw that art, skill, and capital, had results, without which their attempts striven to overcome nature and distance, and we resolved to make the same elements of success restore nature to her original rights.

Accordingly, about a quarter of a century ago, many of our opulent and enterprising citizens determined to make that gigantic internal improvement which, on the first day of January, 1853, is to signalize the opening of a new year by wedding the Ohio and the Chesapeake, and securing an uninterrupted intercourse, which shall place the Western citizen and his valuable produce on the Atlantic coast within fifteen hours!

Bos

must be unavailing. They could not destroy the geographical facts that Baltimore was not only the natural channel of trade, but that it was, also, the central point of the sea-board union, in instantaneous intercourse with the national capital — and that its rail-way is the shortest, most direct, and economical communication between the Ohio and the sea.

In order to illustrate our position, let me ask you to look, when you have time, at any skeleton map of the United States, on which the great lines of rail-way are laid down. You will instantly observe, that, while Boston, New-York and PhiThis great work has been long delay- ladelphia stretch out their iron arms ed. There were many reasons. It was with longing towards the West, every the pioneer railway of the Union, as grasp they make drags your produce Baltimore had been the pioneer port in over a longer road, and, of course, at a Western intercourse. The art of con- higher cost, than we shall, after the struction had risen from mere specula- first of January, 1853. Nor is this all. tion to a science during the period of its Whilst seeking to communicate with building; and besides we had to encoun- the Ohio, we have not been unmindful ter manifold impediments and financial that there were northern streams and difficulties, all of which it would be idle lakes which might contribute to Baltito recount. Nevertheless, so confident more's prosperity, and afford many arwere we of the worth of our enterprise, ticles of value to our southern friends. that we have not suffered ourselves to And, accordingly, we have hastened be daunted by any obstacles. We have to thread the valley of the Susquehanna mined our way through mountains, and with a road approaching completion, we have taxed ourselves heavily, both which, uniting with the Erie Railway as Baltimoreans and Marylanders, until, in the State of New-York, will place with the true labor of resolved faith, we the lake, at Dunkirk, thirty-nine miles have succeeded in completing the nearer to Baltimore than to New-York enormous task. city by the present channel of interIt is under such circumstances, fel- course. Nay, you will observe some

sagacity to detect this fact, and came hither to establish commercial agencies. Nay-with all the energy of BostonBoston is beginning to emigrate to NewYork. Her thrifty people, keen to appreciate and swift to seize compulsory des tiny, no longer content themselves by diminishing their profits in the loss of commissions, but abandon their opulent agents, and establish, in that metropolis, commercial houses directly and origi nally concerned in manufactures. Gradually, their progress will be further southward, until, reaching our city, as the true centre of national commerce, they will find that Baltimore is the best market in which the varied products of the plantation, the farm, and the factory, can meet for profitable interchange.

Baltimore is nearest the North, nearest the South, nearest the West; so central, in fact, as to be nearest all. It is nearest the manufacturer of the North—the producer of the South and West—the specu lator of Europe, and purchasers everywhere.

thing more, by the inspection of such a map. You will find that, geography having made Baltimore the great, natural, central entrepot of the Union, on tide water the great receptacle of internal produce and foreign distribution, we have gradually completed or projected a connected system of railways, steam communication, canals, and vessels, diverging northeastwardly to Philadelphia, New-York, Boston and the New-England States generally; northerly, through the valley of the Susquehanna into the hearts of Pennsylvania and New-York; westwardly, by the Patapsco and Potomac valleys, through Virginia, to the Ohio, in the direction of St. Louis; southwestwardly, to Winchester, Washington and Richmond; southwardly, by steamers and rail to Portsmouth, Weldon, Wilmington, and, shortly, to Charleston; southwardly, again by steamer direct to the last named port; and, finally, eastward, to the ocean, by lines of ships communicating with England, Germany, Holland, France, the West Indies, the These inducements of geographical Spanish Main, New-Orleans, Savannah, position, ease of communication, and Mobile, the British Northern Posses- rapid centralization of future trade, might sions, New-England, both coasts of be sufficient to turn your kind attention South America, and the golden shores to Baltimore as a home market, but of California. there are other views and interests we This map will show you, then, that must not neglect to touch on briefly. all these various lines of trade, domestic Our city, gentlemen, is already one of and foreign, converge at Baltimore, like the largest commercial ports of the the spokes of a wheel, making our city Union. Our state is a small one, but its the great central axle of a trade, whose people are industrious, thrifty and ener circumference should touch and gather getic. We are blessed by a genial, the produce of every section. healthful climate, and, while our laws are just in their operation among ourselves, they are not unfavorable to the personal welfare of the stranger who may sojourn among us. I have already noticed the surprising decennial augmentation of our numbers. Maryland, accordingly, possesses within herself the material elements of wealth, adequate to build up a great capital, and assure the commercial safety and supply of all who deal with her.

Securing, therefore, our natural and geographical right to a large share of the produce of those valleys which drain the western slopes of Virginia and Pennsylvania, the States of Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana; holding, moreover, a close intercourse with the broad lakes and their fruitful borders, through the valley of the Susquehanna; may we not justly say to you, gentlemen, that our central position and facilities of transportation, make us, obviously, a national entrepot, and will force the North to regard Baltimore as the best exchange for the disposal of its manufactures, and its best market for you?

The answer, we think, is ready, in the collossal fortunes already realized from Southern purchasers by enterprising Eastern and Northern men who had the

The manufactures of Maryland in every branch of industry must thrive, increase and prevail. The geological features of our section are peculiarly favor able to factories. The tide water of the Chesapeake washes the eastern base of that formation which runs parallel with the Atlantic coast, while abundant streams from that elevated ridge precipitate themselves in a succession of falls

Manufactures-Agricultural Resources of Maryland.

to the rivers, from an elevation generally amounting to about 600 feet, within a distance around Baltimore comprised in a radius of twenty-five miles. It has been calculated that within ten miles of the city there is water-power sufficient for near half a million of spindles, a large portion of which is still unapplied to any kind of manufacture.

If water is abundant, coal and iron are not less so. Our Cumberland region is known throughout the world as producing the best evaporative material," in its semi-bituminous coal, hitherto discovered; and the capitalists of the North are eagerly grasping those mines which must control so much labor and navigation. Hard by these mines, iron is stacked up in mountains, awaiting the development of time and industry; while, by railway and the Susquehanna Canal, anthracite coal is brought from a region which Pennsylvania has been slack in opening. Now, who does not know what powerful elements of England's wealth her coal and iron have been; but there are multitudes who do not know, that, from the abandoned furnaces of old Revolutionary days in our state-whose ruins may still be traced, -that very England was supplied, to some extent, with "pig iron which was in high repute!"

Nor are our agricultural resources to be forgotten. The census of 1850 displays a teeming list of our productions. Flour, corn, tobacco, and stock, raised so abundantly on our fertile levels, long ago constituted Baltimore one of the best provision markets of the Union. The facility of selling here, has caused the West and adjacent South to select our market, even at a time when wagons and horses performed the work of cars and steam. The consequence has been that the British West Indies are now almost exclusively supplied with provisions by our merchants, and that a trade is daily augmenting with the continent of Europe, with free-trade England, with the Spanish Main and islands, and with both coasts of North and South America.

But grain and provisions do not alone absorb the great bulk of our commerce. Our traditionary staple is the favorite luxury-tobacco. Long before Revolutionary times, long, even, before our city opened and developed a trade with the West,-Baltimore and the towns

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along our Maryland water courses were the centres and marts of the American tobacco trade. At one time the leaf itself was our precious currency; and when commerce introduced paper as a circulating medium, it was still the familiar engraving of this leaf that authenticated "a note" to the people. In spite of all competition, accordingly, we have hitherto been enabled to maintain our commercial supremacy in this article; and, as our road and its western continuations penetrate farther and farther the heart of those new lands which are favorable to its planting, we mean, by the facilities afforded, and the concentration of operations, to consolidate the monopoly in this seaboard market. Heavy articles, like flour and tobacco, designed for export, seek the swiftest, nearest, and cheapest conveyance to the sea; and Baltimore must, therefore, continue to maintain its high commercial character in those productions, as well as provisions generally, by the facilities it will ever afford to the best producers.

Such, gentlemen, were some of the elements of our own domestic trade, within our neighborhood, even before the entire opening of our great internal improvement; yet, I should not forget to enumerate among our home wealth, the products of our bay,-its fisheries and its luxurious oysters,-demanded in such quantities at the West as to absorb a large transportation tonnage, and to lay the foundation of distinguished private fortunes. Nor should I neglect to mention our industrial establishments, our machine shops, our ship-building, our luxurious stores, filled with every article of comfort, elegance, taste, or necessity,

all pledged to respond to your wants as readily and cheaply as the dealers of any other market in the country.

I have spoken somewhat at large of our domestic trade; let me now briefly advert to our foreign. When a domestic trade concentrates at a depot on tidewater, foreign trade must follow as a natural consequence. Accordingly, Baltimore, except in seasons of great disas ter or war, has never been without a liberal commerce. England is largely a purchaser of our provisions and luxuries. Germany and France nearly monopolize our tobacco; and, carrying the article on better terms in their own vessels, they send them hither laden with emigrants who are to fill up the unoccupied lands