CINCINNATI, Oct. 4, 1870.

The Committee on Permanent Organization beg leave to make the following report:

(1st.) As Permanent Chairman of the Southern Commercial Convention we offer the name of Hon. JOHN W. GARRETT of Baltimore. (2d.) For Vice Presidents of the Convention: Alabama, Col. M. D. Wickersham; Arkansas, Capt. Jno. C. Maccabe; Florida, R B. Hilton; Georgia, R. L. Mott; Iowa, T. M. Monroe; Illinois, J. W. Preston; Indiana, Hon. Willard Carpenter; Kentucky, James Bridgeford; Kansas, Maj. H. S. Sleeper; Louisiana, John H. Kennard; Mississippi, Gen. E. Stafford; Maryland, Hon. R. C. Halliday; Missouri, Gov. E. O. Stannard; Michigan, J. J. Newell; Massachusetts, Gen. N. P. Banks; New York, Col. B. P. Baker; Nevada, John G. Fox; North Carolina, J. C. Mills; Ohio, Gov. A. G. McBurney; Pennsylvania, ; South Carolina, Wm.

S. Hastio; Tennessee, M. Burnes; Texas, Gov. J. W. Throckmorton; Virginia, Gen. Joseph R. Anderson; Wisconsin, Breese J. Stevens.

(3d.) Secretaries-H. H. Tatem, A. W. Mullen, and W. R. Bowes.

(4th.) Reading Clerk--Julius F. Blackburn.

At the same time making it the duty of the Chairman of the Committee on Permanent Organization upon consultat on with the Secretaries to appoint such Assistant Secretaries as may be deemed Respectfully submitted,

necessary.

GEO. E. DODGE, Secretary.

S. W. MORTON, Chairman.

On motion, JAMES S. GIBBONS was named as Vice President from the State of Pennsylvania.

On motion of S. W. MORTON, of Kentucky, the report of the Committee was adopted.

The Chair then appointed Gen. N. P. BANKS, of Massachusetts, and THEODORE COOK, of Ohio, to escort Hon. JOHN W. GARRETT to the Chair.

On assuming the duties of Chairman of the Southern Commercial Convention, Mr. GARRETT said :

GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION:

I can not thank you in terms too strong for the very high and unexpected honor which you have conferred upon me in calling me to preside over a Convention composed of so many able and so many distinguished citizens, and upon an occasion so interesting. It is an honor which I most highly appreciate.

Rarely in our history has a similar occasion been presented. For the first time since the terrible conflict through which our country has passed, we find representatives from all the Southern States assembled upon the soil of a so-styled Northern State-the great State of Ohio-and those representatives welcomed by the eloquent and distinguished gentlemen who have just addressed you as the organs of public sentiment in such terms of warmth and hospitality and kindness, as to make all feel that the Union is truly restored and that cordiality and fraternity again exist between the North and the South. (Cheers.)

This great, splendid and hospitable city-the Queen City of the West-appreciates her relations with the South. Her geographical position is such, that with the enterprise of her citizens she can command, with the growth of the country, the grandest future. Ohio recognizes, and those Northern States, whose eminent representatives are here to-day, recognize that the early restoration of the material prosperity of the South will advance the interests of the whole people.

What can be more advantageous to the entire country than to build up the South-the South so desolated and so ruined by the recent terrible conflict? Let all be done that the South asks to restore her strength and prosperity and the happiness of her people. Let earnest influences be brought to secure National legislation that will improve her rivers and her harbors; that will construct permanent levees for the Mississippi river, and that will aid in building the great Southern Pacific Railway. (Cheers.) Do all these great things, supremely useful and invaluable to the South as they must prove in her period of calamity, and you simply do that which is comprehensive and enlightened for our national interests. (Cheers.)

To accomplish the results which should flow from the efforts of such a Convention, local interests and local feelings must-and I am sure will be thrown aside. Harmony and co-operation will be essential to insure success; and that effective harmony and co-operation are indicated by the high character of this assemblage.

At the close of the war what was more interesting to thoughtful citizens in the North than to find the great heroes-the soldiers and leaders of the South-instead of seeking homes in foreign lands remaining in their country, standing by and with their people, and prepared, after illustrating their splendid valor in the field, to aid, when their cause was lost, in reorganizing society—in rebuilding and strengthening all the broken interests of their people, and in binding together again, in bonds of peace and fraternity, our great national Union! (Cheers.)

What magnificent examples of moral courage and grand action have been shown by many of the heroic soldiers of the South! That illustrious, great and good man, General Robert E. Lee (cheers) at the close of the war threw aside the sword and became the honored and recognized leader, in a spirit of personal independence and moral heroism, in the new work which was requisite for the South. (Cheers.) He became the president of a college, promptly throwing his energies and influence for the cause of learning, recognizing that 'knowledge is power," and that the strength of the South must in the future, as always, largely depend upon the education of her sons. But, gentlemen, recent intercourse with that distinguished man has impressed me with the breadth and nobleness of his views upon other great subjects in connection with the restoration of peace and in the interests of our common country.

At a very recent period, controlled by his conviction of the importance of binding the North and the South by the strongest ties of interest and commercial relations, in addition to his labors as the president of Washington College, he accepted the presidency of a railway.

The great object of that railway-the Valley Railroad of Virginia-is to connect the Maryland system of railways through the interior with that of the Central and the extreme South, embracing the States of Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In undertaking this duty, and governed by such motives, his anxiety has been not only to labor himself, but to give an example, the value of which all must recognize, by showing that he desired to aid practically that which he believed to be the true, great and beneficent policy now and for the future to bind in cordial interest and fraternity the North and the South, the East and the West, under the flag of our common country. (Cheers.)

Direct trade, gentlemen, as stated in your programme, is to be the leading subject of discussion. Direct trade is what the South

needs; and direct trade in its most enlarged sense, to embrace not only foreign commerce, but home business, to secure for each section its shortest and most economical route to the ocean, and so to organize that its regions shall become studded with manufactories; that the cotton of the South shall be made into clothing for the Southern people in the vicinity of the plantations on which it is grown, and that the surplus of its cereals and provisions shall be consumed by the employés of its factories. Let trade be so controlled as to abolish in all practical cases charges and costs and middlemen. These great interests require your most thoughtful attention and influence; and the promotion of these interests is gradually being recognized as of vital moment for our national progress. Legions of earnest patriots recognize not only the necessity for the early restoration of the material progress of the South, but that the adoption of the policy to secure a speedy restoration of all her constitutional rights, of equality and fraternity, will give the greatest prosperity and power to the Union. (Cheers.)

The South has immediate and important relations and interests in connection with the General Government. Her whole people have. those interests in common. The white man and the black man of the South will be alike affected by future national legislation. The tariff that will suit the one race necessarily maintains the interests of the other.

Their interests in connection with all the great material subjects of national legislation being identical, at no distant period their co-operation and their efforts in behalf of those plain interests will, in conjunction with the aid of the North and the West, give to the South that power and prosperity which the interests of the whole country demand.

Your influence and aid, gentlemen, can bring about retrenchment and economy in the vast expenses of our Government, and thus, while honorably fulfilling every public financial obligation, legitimately, effectively and largely reduce the present severe burdens of taxation. The subjects of finance and taxation affect every citizen, and they are presented for the most serious consideration of the Convention.

I regret, gentlemen, that your choice has fallen upon one who, though most earnest to serve you-most anxious, as are his fellow citizens of the State which he has the honor to represent in this Convention, to do all which will at the earliest period restore your

prosperity and effect those improvements you desire-yet is entirely inexperienced as a presiding officer of such a body.

I must therefore trust to your indulgence and your co-operation. I know the high courtesy and dignity that each member of this Convention maintains in his individual relations. May I ask that that same consideration shall be extended to the Chair in performing its duty, and for your co-operation to accomplish promptly and effectively the objects the Convention has in view?

me,

Reiterating my thanks for the distinguished honor conferred upon I trust, impressed by the vast importance of the subjects before you, and the greatness of the interests that may be favorably affected by judicious action, that Heaven's benedictions may rest upon your efforts and labors. (Cheers.)

The CHAIR now called for the report of the Committee on Rules and Order of Business, whereupon Mr. BENJ. EGGLESTON, of Ohio, Chairman of the Committee, submitted the following:

To the Chairman of the Southern Commercial Convention :

The Committee on Rules of Order and Order of Business, beg leave to make the following report:

That the Rules of Order governing the House of Representatives. of the United States be adopted by the Convention for the regulation of debate, subject to the following modifications:

1. All propositions presented to the Convention shall be submitted in writing and referred to appropriate committees without debate.

2. Speakers shall be limited in their remarks to thirty minutes. The Committee also recommend the following Order of Business: 1. Direct trade between southern Atlantic cities and Europe, including the subject of Immigration.-(Adjourned from Louisville Convention.)

2. Southern Pacific Railroad.-(Adjourned from Louisville Convention.)

3. Continuous water line communication between the Mississippi river and the Atlantic seaboard.- (Adjourned from Louisville Convention.)

4. River navigation, canals, &c.-(Adjourned from Louisville Convention.)