The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975 Page: 122
562 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
tion of a southern Pacific railroad was nearly impossible, one would hardly
have known that a convention had been called. Of the non-Charlestonian
editors who did devote some attention to the subject, most thought that
something was to be gained by the endeavor. Yet coverage was still spotty.
Thus the convention did not receive the advance discussion and promotion
necessary to make it a complete success. But because so many outstanding
southerners took part in it, it could not be overlooked, even by its opponents.
The New Orleans Delta was probably the most outspoken newspaper
opposed to the meeting. Beginning especially with the Memphis convention
of I849, the Delta and delegates from New Orleans had fought for a rail-
road across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico-a scheme
few other delegates supported with equal fervor. Although resolutions had
been passed favoring the project, there had been little concerted effort to
secure it. Consequently, the Delta considered these conventions "arrant
humbugs" at best. The Charleston Daily Courier judged such an attitude
of intrasectional jealousy detrimental to the South, especially New Orleans.'5
Undaunted by adverse criticism, Charlestonians continued to busy them-
selves in convention preparations. A great deal of money and time went
into the effort to make this a memorable experience. The elaborate arrange-
ments prompted the editor of the Baltimore Evening Times to declare opti-
mistically that the convention "will, in our opinion, be the most important
assemblage that has met in the country for the last twenty years."'"
Mayor T. Leger Hutchinson called the convention to order on April Io,
I854. The official roll listed some 875 delegates in attendance from twelve
states. The large delegation would seem to reflect strong support throughout
the South. Yet most states' officials, who were primarily responsible for
selecting the delegates, must have realized that the southern Pacific rail-
road would be the main topic, and that it would be treated much as it had
been at the Memphis conventions of 1849 and I853. Consequently, those
states east of the Mississippi, which could still compete for the eastern ter-
Conner, April 5, 1854, ibid., and in "The Great Southern Convention in Charleston No.
II," De Bow's Review, XVII (July, 1854), 95-97.
15New Orleans Daily Delta, February 23, 1854; Charleston Daily Courier, March 24,
1854. See also Merl E. Reed, New Orleans and the Railroads: The Struggle for Com-
mercial Empire, 1830-186o (Baton Rouge, 1966), 58-87, for a discussion of New Or-
leans's decline and its often conflicting attempts to use local, Pacific, and Tehuantepec
railroads to regain its position by diverting trade from the Atlantic, Mobile, and Texas
Gulf ports to New Orleans.
16The Baltimore Evening Times, March 29, 1854, quoted in the Charleston Daily
Courier, April 5, 1854.I22
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975, periodical, 1974/1975; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117149/m1/157/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.