The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-06-21
LETTER FRoM FREDERIcI..

A"O ii'usC btiI leldllHS 10 dlldCHLHeuIS dBdlNsl
non-residsnts, in certain actious for personal in
Juries, was rejected. Yeas IL, nays 6.
LETTEI: FROM FREDERICK.
Correspondence Daily Exchanged
FREDERIcK, June 10th, 1861.
The mornings session opened in the House with
the presentation, by Mr.. -Mclntre, of the petition
of citizens of Cecil county. The House received
the memorial with hilarity, and referred it to an
appropriate committee
The material question of the pay and mileage OF
members was definitely settled to-day by the adop-
tion of a resolution reported by the committee of
conference, recommending the allowance of the
usual per diem for the time the Legislature has
been in actual session since June the 4th and $50
as an increase to the mileage of each member, and
of each officer, except those appointed from Fred
e lex. The report required much skilful engineer
ing on the part of its friends to pass the objections
expressed to it by Influential members. Upon the
hrst call OF the vote by ayes and nays it was re-
jected by small majority, but sufficient number
were induced to change their votes in time to Sc
cure its adoption. The Baltimore delegation voted
with one exception (Mr. Scott), in the negative
The vote by which its success was achieved stood,
ayes 30, nays q.
The act to enable A. Lngan Jarrett to qualify
before anv one of the Judges of the Court of Ap-
peals, and to give bond Comptroller of the State
was paSsed-ayeS 40, NAYS l3. DIR. GOdsbOrouuh
in explaining the object of the act said it was but
to carry into practical effect a decision of the
House, made at its January session, and that it
would entail no cost upon the State, for though it
would enttle Mr.. Jarrett to the salary of the office
for the balance of the term from the date of the
passage of the act, it would also deprive Mr..
Claude, the present incumbent OF his salary for the
same period.
The Amnesty bill reported by Mr. Scott yester-
day, ezempting from prosecution all parties en-
gagged in the assault and murder of United States
troops in the city of Baltimore the 10Th of April
was taken up and rejected by vote of yeas 25,
nays Il. Its passage seemed certain until the call
revealed the previously unknown fact that the
Baltimore delegation themselves divided upon
the question: the first division, with unim-
pOrtant exception, which has occurred in their vote
since the session began )-when Mr.. Dennis, of
Somerset, Brscoe, of Calvert, and several others
changed their votes to the negative aud ensured
its defeat. OF the Baltimore delegation Messrs.
Thomas, Morft and Scott voted affrmativey, and
Messrs. Wartield, Pitts, Harrison, Wallis and
Sangston in the negative.
On motion of Mr.. Briscoe, the House reconsider
ed its decision, and ordered the bill to be printed
and laid upon the table.
An order instructing the Committee on the Ju-
dietary to amend the law regulating the inspec-
tiOn of grain, &c, authorize the Comptroller
to pay to the grain inspectors salary not exceed
ing certain sum. led to prolonged discussion,
Messrs. Chaplain, Welch, Gordon and BrscOe ad-
vocating the order, and Messs. Warfield and Pitts
opposing it. The bill and its proposed amendment
Mr.. Burgess, and made the special order Of the day
for tomorrow.
The regular order of the day-the resolutions of
Mr.. Dennis, of Somerset, and the report of the
Committee on Federal RELATIONSHIPS taken up,
when Mr.. Dennis addressed the House, as follows
SPEECH OF DENNIS.
He proposed at the outset to deal only with the
second resolution of the series proposed by him
that denying the constitutional right Of secession
and declaring that secession was revolution-be-
cause not one of the acts OF Ourages and of arbi-
trary oppression recited in the preamble had been
denied; because no one bad vet risen here to deny
the humiating yet historic fact that the people of
Maryland were crushed beneath the feet of des-
potism more CALLING and more oppressive than that
which had led the infant colonies to throw off the
yoke of Great Britain.
Those who would deny these facts would do so
in the face of current events, to which no reason
able man be blind Those who Justify them
would have sided with the tories of l776; would
have aided to execute Washington, Madison, JEFF
fersOn and all the glorious fathers of the revou-
ton, as fit victims for George III. Applause.
Acknowledging the existence of these wrongs must
necessarily lead to the acknowledgment of the right
to resist them, or to denial of all those noble
principles which led handful of liberty-o pa
trints to defy the pr0pdest nation of Europe. No
plea of 'necessiv," any other pretext
sanction acts matter by whom perpetrated,
which outrage law, and trample upon the Consti-
tuition.
Revolution the right of which the resolutions
concede-is the resistance of an entire people to
oppression; it is organized resistance to govern
ment and in this view the seeded States were in
revolution. The United States is not a mere
league or. confederacy, as gentlemen on the other
side have maintained, but government of the peo-
Pile. 1t expressly formed to create "more
perfect Union" than what?-than the old Uonfed-
eracy, which was in every essential respect mere
league of independent States, and which had failed
to secure the fnll objects of government.
The words Jordan and establish used in the
preamble of the Constitution, not terms
speaking of compact but of law. That the
government thus formed was not cOnfede
racy, is evidenced in the 10th sec. of art.
IL of the Constitution, in which the attributes
Of sovereignty are expressly given to Congress- and
are expressly denied to the States. So sec. 2 of
art. speaks, with crushing weight, against the
doctrine of State sovereignty, for there it is ex
pressly provided in language, the common-seDse
import of which cannot be mistaken, that all laws
of Congress made in pursuance of the Constitution,
shall be the supreme law of the land, "anything in
the Constitution or laws of any State to the con-
traty notwithstanding"
There can be, therefore, no constitutional right
of secession, can it be shown to be a reserved
right; he preferred to place it, did our fathers
before us, upon the broad right of revolution, and
declaring to the world 1.-The causes which impelled
the exercise of the right to appeal to the God of
battles for the vindication of their Justice.
That such state of affairs had yet arisen in
Maryland to justify resort to revolution, he
would not here discuss; for himself, he did not
doing, in peace the burdens cast upon our dignity
are hard to be borne, but he would not have the
people of his native State tamey submit to con-
ceded wrongs. He would have them speak as be-
comes freemeD, and not bow the neck in base sub
mission Applause.
Mr.. Dennis read from newspaper an extract
from a recent speech Of John Bell, declaring hiul-
self rebel and assuming all the responsibilities of
that position, and thanked God that he had voted
for such a man. [Appause. He re-echoed the
sentiments of that speech-''The South never can
be subdued.' [Applause. Let the attempt be
persisted in, and every hill will become Their
mOpyla, every plain Marathon, and the mothers
of the South, speaking in the language of the Spar
tan marons, will bid their sons to come back with
honor, be borne from the field their shields.
IT, said bIr. Dennis, resistance to the administra-
ton, which is Striking down the most sacred safe
guards of liberty, makes me rebel, am one
Applause. The speaker quoted largely from Story
in support of his argument that this govern
ment Of the people. His own views were that the
government is neither strictly federal nor strictly
parto0k of the characteristics of both.
Who that reveres the memories of our past will
deny the right of revolution? And when power
abuses the high trusts Of government committed to
it, resistance is not only right but duty. Who
is to Judge of the for revolution? the power
which is trampling under foot the rights of the
weak? which sc0rns to look upon the bleeding
wounds it has inflicted? No. but the right to Judge
must be left to those who sutfer-to those who are
willing to incur before posterity all the terrible
The difference between himself and his friends, |
Mr.. Dennis, rests in the question, "Has
the time come to recognize the Southern COufed- |
eracv?" He thought it had the day and the hour. |
He saw around him the preparations for civil war
be heard the shouts for revenge resOunding through
both sections. A land already rent was now being
drenched in fraternal blood-cOnsttutiona rights,
heretofore held sacred, are being daily trampled
under foot-party dogmas have taken the place of
principes-the representative of a
party usurps the name and power of the govern
ment, and from the North there comes the shout
that estate lines must be obliterated. These are
the fruits of scarcely vet begun; and know
ing the impossibity of subjugating the South, he
felt that the recognition of her independence must
be immediate, if a fate worse than that which be
fell Sodom and Gomorrah was not to be entalled
upon the chief cities of the Union.
Peace was necessary to our existence, ana now |
was that end to be procured. By stirring up sec
tiona passions already too implacabe and bitter? |
BY pursuing further questions, which have already
divided US? by still more imDrulng our hands in |
the blood of our brothers? No; by the recognition
of the Southern Confederacy alone could peace be
restored and last faint hope of the restoration of
our national unity be left dependent upon the mer-
cy of time.
Addressing the members of the Democratic par
ty, Mr.. Dennis said he had warred against them |
since 1874, vet he had DO word of regret to utter
He only desired now to ascertain whether that
party stood upon the platform of the Constitution
and the rie ito support it with heart, and mind,
and soul.
He appealed to his brothers of the "Union''
marty to profit by those lessons of the past which
the Whig party ever dsregarded and to sink party
hatred in the welfare of the nation. He regretted
now to find them arrayed under the banner of
power borne by Abraham Lincoln rather than in
bold support of the Union and the Constitution in
all its integrity and purity. He was no prophet,
but it required gift of prescence to foresee that
lhnT cd in i u