The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975 Page: 132
562 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
joined with Tehuantepec railroad promoters in New York and New Orleans.
and helped ratify a somewhat altered version of the treaty on April 25.
Opposition continued in the House for some time, however. Since funds
had to be appropriated, the House had an opportunity to render the treaty
inoperative. Its most outspoken critic, Congressman Thomas Benton, con-
sidered the treaty and the Kansas-Nebraska Act conspiracies by southerners
to acquire new slave territory.46 Benton, of course, did not mention that he-
stood to profit if the treaty were rejected and a railroad were built west
from St. Louis along the central, or "compromise," route surveyed unoffi-
cially by his son-in-law, John C. Fremont. Despite Benton's accusations,
the treaty simply offered too much to too many people. Consequently, fund-
ing was secured in the House on June 28 by a comfortable margin."
How much direct effect the Charleston convention had on these develop--
ments in Congress is unknown. Certainly the South's leaders were made-
aware of the delegates' interests, because state and national politicians were
solicited by the publicity committee, chaired by Pike, to support the con-
vention resolutions. But newspapers scarcely mentioned the convention, as
the same timely topics as before continued to dominate the news pages.
Although most newspaper editors did not comment extensively on the-
convention, few failed to offer some appraisal. Somewhat typical was the
John Bell-oriented Republican Banner and Nashville Whig. Its editor-
continued to support railroads by publishing the appropriate resolutions,
Houston to Gadsden, September 20, 1849, Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker
(eds.), The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-z863 (8 vols.; Austin, 1938-1943), V,
95-o16, 107 n.
Rusk was firmly committed to the treaty. See Rusk to Elisha M. Pease, March 30,.
1854; Rusk to M. T. Johnson, July 9, I854, Thomas Jefferson Rusk Papers (Archives,.
University of Texas Library, Austin).
46Congressional Globe, 33rd Cong., Ist Sess. (Serial XIo4), 1232-1233, 1476, 1519;
ibid. (Serial Xxo6), Appendix, 1031-1037.
During the Senate campaign of 1854, Benton specifically charged that Atchison was
behind the slavery conspiracy and against the Pacific railroad. See Benton campaign hand
bill in the T. H. Benton Papers (Western History Collection, University of Missouri).
Although Atchison claimed to support the railroad with as much eagerness as anyone
else, he did indeed plan to use the Kansas-Nebraska Act to make Kansas a slave state.
See Atchison to Colonel Benjamin Davis, September 24, 1854, D. R. Atchison Papers
(Western History Collection, University of Missouri, Columbia).
47Letter of J. C. Fremont to the Editors of the National Intelligencer . . .," Senate
Miscellaneous Documents, 33rd Cong., Ist Sess. (Serial 705), Doe. No. 67, and in House
Miscellaneous Documents, 33rd Cong., 2nd Sess. (Serial 807), Doc. No. 8; Garber,
Gadsden Treaty, 143-145. Benton's central route was declared hopeless by John W.
Gunnison, the official surveyor of the route and the unfortunate victim of an Indian
raid while in the process of making the survey. Goetzmann, Army Exploration, 283-286.I32
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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/m1/167/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.