The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1866-06-23

This gentleman, who represents in Congress
the counties Of st. Mary's, Calvert, Prince Geor-
ge's, Charles, Anne Arundel, Howard and we
are sorry to say several districts Of Baltimore
county, made a speech in the House Of Represen-
tatives on Thursday of last week. From sy-
nopsis Of his speech published in the daily pa
pers we give the following
REMARKS OF MR.. HARRIS
Mr.. Harris, of Maryland, addressed the House
in opposition to the bill. He declared that in
principle he now stood as he stood after war was
declared as he had stood in the last Congress,
when he received its crown of censure as he had
stood in prison, and before that Internal instru-
ment of tyranny court-martial, and as he
stood in principle so would he stand in practice
whenever occasion might require He declared
himself an Old Line Democrat, believing in the
doctrine of secession believing that the several
States ofthe Union have the right to separate
from it, each acting for itself. He declared his
belief that abuses and assumptions had been
practiced and threatened to SO great an extent by
their associates and partners in this Government
tai compact, that the Southern States were justi-
fed in going out, and his further belief that by
their ordinances of secession they did go out, and
thereby became to this Union foreign States.-
These convictions he could not change, and he
did not expect they would ever be removed
He would most assuredly proclaim them, and
stand by them, as long as single citizen of the
Confederate States was in chains or subject to
penalty for asserting them. There was no po-
litcal or personal consideration which could
prompt him to such desertion. What, sir, said
he, l, that believe them right l, that would
have Joined them, if the sovereign State of Mary
land had said so to desert them now in their
7
such protection as is in my power. Honestly to
give-never. The House would readily conceive,
he continued, that he was adverse to the recon-
struction policy of the President Andrew John
son had been consistent with the views of the late
President, with those of the Republican party,
and with his own declarations from the time he
abandoned the Democratic party. He concurred,
however, with the Presidents vetoes and with
one paragraph in his speech of the 22d February
that wherein he proclaimed no taxation
without representation" In his view the South
ern seeded States had no right to representation
on this floor or in the Senate; neither had they
the right to furnish the country with President
or Vice-President. He, when he could not
avoid it, acquieSced in de facto government and
de fdcto Presidents but if he could he expected
to cast his vote at the next election for Andrew
Johnson, of Tennessee, the status of Tennessee
herself mast be changed completely. She must
be admitted into the Union by act of Congress,
upon her application to become member of it,
But no Congressional bill for that purpose could
ever receive his vote long as the test oath dis
graced the statute book. He would do all he
could to remove it, and to rescue the noble citi-
zens of the South from the slavery and degrada-
ton it imposed even though that led to a con-
tinuance of the dissolution of the Union. Under
the test oath only Southern men who msrepre-
sented their constituents would be admitted -
When vice prevails and impious men bear sway,
the post of honor is a private station.
Mr.. Harris then made some irrelevant remarks
concerning John Brown, Mrs Surratt and Booth,
and returning again to the question of the right
of secession, said that that doctrine was born
with the Constitution, and became leading
principle of the Democratic party, being insert
ed in its platform from 1898 to the late war.
Mr. Harris address is said to have created u
decided sensation in the House. At its conclu-
sion, Mr.. LIE Blond, a democratic leader promptly
rose, and, in the name of Democracy, dissented
from the views and opinions expressed by Mr..
Harris, that the Democratic party did not be-
lieve that the Southern States ever were out of
the Union, or ever had the right to go out. Mr.
Eldridge (democrat) also differed from the doc
trines promulgated by Mr.. Harris.