Southern Convention at Vicksburg, Part 2 [pp. 205-220]

SOUTHERN CONVENTION AT VICKSBURG. 205
the iron necessary to clothe it. Mills will be erected upon a scale to
turn out about 10,000 tons of iron per annum. In connection with
these, it is proposed to erect w.orkshops for the construction of all
the rolling stock of the Company, with the exception of the first suite
of locomnotives. Here is at once the nucleus of a vast business, in
which the whole country is interested. After the clothing of the
road, these mills could offer to other railroad companies, better iron,
and at cheaper rates, than they could procure in England, carriage
being taken into the account; and if this be not so, there is no prob ability that the works would lack for patronage, for if railroad
iron should not be in demand, a trifling expenditure would convert
the rail mills into others adapted to turn out iron in its numerous
commercial forms, which would find a ready market in the ports of
the Gulf.
VWhen we consider the numerous advantages to be derived from
this work, we are not surprised to learn that the people resident
along the line, have sustained it with a noble generosity. Ample
provision has been made for the grading, culverting and crosstieingf
of' about 220 miles of the whole 285 miles. This includes all the
heavy work upon the road, and tlhe two bridges, the one over the
Warrior and the other over the Bigbee. About 100 miles at the
lower extremity and 67 at the upper, are nearly ready for the iron.
Up to this point the Company has not contracted a dollar of debt.
They are now seeking for subscriptions to an extent to make full
provision for the entire road bed; so as to be relieved from the
necessity of creating, a debt beyond what may be required for the
manufacture or for the purchase of rails. It would seem from the
policy of the Company, from the magnitude of its local subscriptions,
and from the unrivalled connections of this road, that no enterprise
of the kind deserves more fully the confidence and support of the
country, none more richly the attention of capitalists.
APIT, XI.-SOUTHERN CONVENTION AT VICKSBUPIG.
DEBATE ON THE SLAVE TRADE-SPEECHES OF MR. SPRATT, OF SOUTH CAROLI NA, AND GOV. H. S. FOOTE, OF MISSISSIPPI.
[rntendingto incorporate the main features of the recent debate at Vicksburg on the subject of the Slave Trade. and a digest of the leading speeches and reports, we have concluded
so far as two speakers are concerned. to give their arguments entire.
Mir Sp,att'.s -peech was written out by himself, and furnished us soon after the adjournment of the Convention It was made upon the report presented by himself, which has already been published in the pages of the REXvIEw.
Gov. Foote's speech in reply, occupied m ny hours in the delivery, and fairly and fully
represents the views of-those with whom he is actingat the South, though in many respects
he goes veryt far beyond them It was report d for the New-York Heraldc, and we believerev ised
by the autsor. We omit from the speech such parts as are merely personal or political, but
the omissions do not at all affect the argument.-EDITOa.]
SPEECH OF MR. SPRATT, OF SOUTI-I CAROLINA.
AT a meeting of this Convention held at Knoxville, in 1857, a committee was
appointed to report upon the foreign slave trade. That comrnittee made their
report to the meeting at Montgomery. It was there discussed with interest and
ability; but the mind of the South was not made fully up, upon the question
-there were differences of opinion in the Convention itself upon the subject
~OL. II.-NO. II. 6