Editing Gadsden Purchase (section)

=== Southern commercial conventions ===
[[File:James Gadsden.jpg|thumb|left|Lieutenant [[James Gadsden]], U.S. Army, later American minister to Mexico]] In January 1845, [[Asa Whitney]] of New York presented the [[United States Congress]] with the first plan to construct a transcontinental railroad. Although Congress took no action on his proposal, a commercial convention of 1845 in [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] took up the issue. Prominent attendees included [[John C. Calhoun]], [[Clement Comer Clay|Clement C. Clay Sr.]], [[John Bell (Tennessee politician)|John Bell]], [[William M. Gwin|William Gwin]], and [[Edmund P. Gaines]], but  [[James Gadsden]] of South Carolina was influential in the convention's recommending a southern route for the proposed railroad. The route was to begin in [[Texas]] and end in [[San Diego]] or [[Mazatlán]]. Southerners hoped that such a route would ensure Southern prosperity, while opening the "West to southern influence and settlement".<ref>{{harvp|Roberson|1974|pp=163–164}}</ref>

Southern interest in railroads in general, and the Pacific railroad in particular, accelerated after the conclusion of the [[Mexican–American War]] in 1848. During that war, [[topography|topographical]] officers [[William H. Emory]] and [[James William Abert|James W. Abert]] had conducted surveys that demonstrated the feasibility of a railroad's originating in [[El Paso, Texas|El Paso]] or western [[Arkansas]] and ending in San Diego. [[J. D. B. De Bow|J. D. B. DeBow]], the editor of ''[[De Bow's Review|DeBow's Review]]'', and Gadsden both publicized within the [[American South|South]] the benefits of building this railroad.<ref>{{harvp|Roberson|1974|p=165}}.</ref>

Gadsden had become the president of the [[South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company|South Carolina Canal and Rail Road Company]] in 1839; about a decade later, the company had laid {{convert|136|mi|km}} of track extending west from [[Charleston, South Carolina]], and was $3 million (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{Inflation|US-GDP|3000000|1850|r=-6}}}} in {{inflation-year|US-GDP}}{{Inflation-fn|US-GDP}}) in debt. Gadsden wanted to connect all Southern railroads into one sectional network.<ref name="Richards1">{{harvp|Richards|2007|p=125}}.</ref> He was concerned that the increasing railroad construction in the North was shifting trade in lumber, farm and manufacturing goods from the traditional north–south route based on the [[Ohio River|Ohio]] and [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] rivers to an east–west axis that would bypass the South. He also saw Charleston, his home town, losing its prominence as a seaport. In addition, many Southern business interests feared that a northern transcontinental route would exclude the South from trade with the [[Orient]]. Other Southerners argued for diversification from a plantation economy to keep the South independent of northern bankers.<ref>{{harvp|Kluger|2007|p= 485}}.</ref>

In October 1849, the southern interests held a convention in Memphis, in response to a convention in [[St. Louis]] earlier that fall which discussed a northern route. The Memphis convention overwhelmingly advocated the construction of a route beginning there, to connect with an El Paso, Texas to San Diego, California line. Disagreement arose only over the issue of financing. The convention president, [[Matthew Fontaine Maury]] of [[Virginia]], preferred strict private financing, whereas John Bell and others thought that federal land grants to railroad developers would be necessary.<ref>{{harvp|Roberson|1974|p=166}}.</ref>