Of these opposed resolutions, the
latter was adopted on the last day of the convention*, though the
moderates fought hard against it.
*It is significant that the composition of these Southern
commercial congresses and the Congress of the whole Southern
people was strikingly different in personnel. Very few members
of the commercial congresses reappear in the Confederate
Congress.
The split between Southern moderates and Southern radicals was
further indicated by their differing attitudes toward the
adventurers from the United States in Central America. The
Vicksburg Convention adopted resolutions which were thinly veiled
endorsements of southward expansion. In the early autumn another
Nicaraguan expedition was nipped in the bud by the vigilance of
American naval forces. Cobb, prime factor in the group of
Southern moderates as well as Secretary of the Treasury, wrote to
Buchanan expressing his satisfaction at the event, mentioning the
work of his own department in bringing it about, and also
alluding to his arrangments to prevent slave trading off the
Florida coast.
But the spirit of doubt was strong even among the moderates.
Douglas was the target. Stephens gives a glimpse of it in a
letter written during his last session in Congress.
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