98 Southern Historical Society Papers.
Edward Moyler, F. D. Nibbett, J. R. Norris, J. A. Parker, Wm. H. Parker, R. A. Parker, J. S. Parker, -J. W. Parker,]. M. Presson, Nathaniel Raines, B. F. Raines, G. E. Rives, W. B. Scott, J. D. Spain, P. Thorp, R. G. West, J. L. White, R. W. White, A. D. White, H. B. Walker, George. Walker, A. C. Winston, and W. W. Woodson.
The paper from which the above was taken is in the possession of Captain George J. Rogers, of this city.
[From the Richmond, Va., Time*, October 31, 1899.]
WILLIAM L. YANCEY IN HISTORY.
The Memorable Debate on the Slave Trade at Montgomery,
Alabama.
[Reference may be made to Vol. XXL, pp. 151-9, for a graphic sketch of the eventful career of Hon. William Lowndes Yancey, by Hon. Anthony W. Dillard. It is evident that it was not the inten- tion of Dr. McGuire to misrepresent Mr. Yancey. EDITOR.]
Editor of the Times :
Sir, You have incalculably increased the obligations of the coun- try to your custom of printing fragmentary examples of Southern history in the publication of Dr. Hunter McGuire's report, in your issue of Sunday, October i5th, instant.
The vast and wonderfully rich field of historical incident connected with the Southern movement in the decade next before the erection of the Confederacy is sufficiently explained in the activity at that time of the remarkable men who came forward in large numbers to discuss public questions. In evidence of this phenomenon, stands the Southern Commercial Convention, a meeting of planters and law- yers. At the Knoxville meeting of 1857 a committee was apppointed to report on the policy of re-opening the African slave trade and to consider the constitutionality of the act of Congress which pro- nounced the trade piracy. The report was to be made to the next annual meeting of the convention, appointed for Montgomery, Ala- bama, in May, 1858. The significance of the discussion of this sub-
