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STATE OF THE UNION.
SPEECH OF HON J. M. HARRIS,
OF MARYLAND,
IN TIIE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 29, 1861.
The House having under consideration
i the report iroua the select committee of
, thirty-three—
Mr. HARRIS, of Maryland, said :
Mr. Speaker: —Winn the future his
torian comes to write out the annals ot
our times, he will be amazed at the mag
nitude ot the events that are now trans
piring. and the comparative insufficiency
ol the cause which gave them birth. He
i “id contemplate a nation stretching over
| more than halt a continent, rich with all
the varieties of climate, infinite in the ex
tent ot its diversify and resources, and sig
nalized hy the march ot a development un
equaled in the history of the world. He
| will see that, in less than a century, tlie
| weak dependencies of the British Crown
| swelled into the colossal proportions of
multiplied sovereignties, and that through
i the Li ry baptism of successful war, and
: enriched by the guirdotis ot honorable
peace, the nation has attained a position
ol substantial greatness that eclipses the
pioudest empires of antiquity, and rivals
the most tq lendid nationalities of the pres
ent time. Grout will be his amazement
when he sees—at the moment the nation
has reached so eminent a point in her ca
reer ; when in the full maturity of her
powers, and the undisturbed enjoyment of
her Wouderlui resources, the ships of her
adventurous commerce are sweeping over
every ocean, and her arts, her suit nces,'and
her civilization, are putting hoi in the vau
-1 guard of the nations, and when an emu
lous world is beginning to regard her as a
fixed and stable illustration of the capac
ity of muu for perfect freedom—the whole
Government suddenly disintegrate and fall
to pieces like suine house ol cards built up
for the toying ol a child ; and, sir, when,
with earnest solicitude and deep curiosity,
he set ks to discover the grave causes which
have fid to so disastrous a result, and finds
that they have all sprung from the empty
rivalries nf political parties and the ina
bility ot oil) boasted statesmanship to solve
the problem of the si.tins of a Territory as
to bi.ivery or freedom, the verdict of irn
pai ia! history wdl be, that the discovered
causes alibi'd no reason for the secession of
a sm; !e Elate, none whatever for the dis i
iupn nol itie Amer.con L mon. [Ap
plause] Greater than all else will he hi
amazement hi the tact that, amid tin
thundeU'Us tread of ihe earthquake that
was shaking down the very pillars of the
IL-public, the Representatives ot the peo
j le sat in the quietude of an insane indif
ference, and that thirty million American,
lieeim n failed to vindicate themselves by
giving practical illustration to the verity
ot the maxim, that “ihe voice of tiie peu
|le is the Voice ot Goth” ( pplause.)
Mr. Sp* akt-r, we are living in the very
midst ot ihe.se great enactments ; we are,
in this House of Cungnss, the body of
men upon whom the peculiar eircumstan- !
ces of the times have devolved the great ;
resjx sibtliiy ol either settling ‘.lie ditiicul- |
ties winch are ritxding the country, or ot
giiing aikli ional imp-ukse to the storm
which is n w sweeping it to ruin. I was
no little sin pi is and wli n the gentleman
fiom T. nucs.s. c Etheridge) the otlicr
da\ sue ip**, ted to ilns House (in idea of its
i;restiuiisihihiy under ihcst c ll cumstaiiees,
and is inability to do anything to heal the
troubles ot I lie times, i ditf r with him
wholly. 1 say that the verdict of poster
i y will hi.—ay, sir, 1 hi.-heve the prompt
and uean r verdict of this American peo
ple, when it is fully aroused to the extent
of i.s danger and die negligence hitherto .
of its R •pßSentatives, will be—that the
RTave i'.spei.s.hi l l l y ot lititioual smvation
or national pcidilii'n nsts upon you, the
Representatives of that [>eople, now in)
Congress ass* mbled.
Eo tar, sir, as the views I shall present
of this qiu s.i* n are e meet tied, I desire it
to be understood that I address you, indi
vidually and collectively, as men who hold
in your hands, very largely, it not entirely,
the safety or the tuiu of my country.
Mr. Speaker, I do not propose to discuss
before gentlemen who so fully understand
then), the past events of our history as be
tween this or that political party, that I
may clearly point out to them who first be
gan the agitation of the great questions
which have brought the country into these |
perils. Sir, I think it idle, and worse than
idle, for us, at such a time, to be talking
in the face of the people about the origin
of these evils, and upon whom the respon
sibility for them rests. _ What matters it
to me to-day, whether it was the Inst ot
power and the unscrupulous amb'tion ot
the old Democratic party, that induced it
to stir up this agitation of the slavery
question, that it might catch the popular
ear, win the popular vote, gain the control
of the politic’s, and wield the power ot
the country ? W hat matters it to me that
the Republican party, planting itself upon
the issues they presented, and availing
itself of all the various exciting questions
which have arisen, has swelled into the
magnitude of its present strength and pow
erful position P What matters it I say,
to me, whether it is the sin oi the Demo
cratic party, or the sin of the llepublica
party? The great question is not upon
whom the responsibility originally rested,
but upon whom the more terrible respon
sibility of the future shall rest And that
will fall assuredly, and wuh
weight, upon that party, or that bet ol
‘THE UNION OF THE STATES: -DISTINCT, LiKcTKt BILLOWS; ONE,'LIKE THE SEA..”
THOMASTON. GEORGIA. SATURDAY MOfiNING. FEBRUARY 2a 181!.
men in this country, who do not rise now
above the paltriness of mere party tram
mels and prejudices, and prove themselves
i equal to the great question of whether and
how r this nation shall he saved.
Why, Mr. Speaker gentlemen rise in
their places here, and, with the coolness
with which men meet some recondite in
vestigation, and which under other circum
stance, would do them credit, go into all
tin* details of the rise and progress of all
these political issues tending to our pres
ent condition ; and speculate with a nicetv
of philosophical inquiry, and a force of
logical deduction, as to how much respon
sibility rests upon their parry, and how
much musb be visited upon the opposite
party, as if they held the perils of their
country unworthy to be remembered. As
well might the traveler upon some Al { fine
pass, w hen he hears the premonitory crash
of tiie coming avalanche, pause upon the
narrow ledge that hangs over the abyss,
and speculate philosophically upon the
causes in nature which have started the
ponderous mass from its resting place of
ages, as tor the American people, or their
Representatives, to stop in this rush of af
fairs to go into this nice inquisition of
causes, when ruin is imminent upon people
and Representatives alike.
Eir, I represent a people in such near
and dangerous connection with the great
troubles of the day, that I cannot afford
to deal in generalities ; but I feel impera
lively called upon to address mvself, with
whatever of earnestness of appeal I may
command, to the question which alone they
consider important, i say, sir, that the
responsibility of the decision of this whole
grave matter rests upon this Congress in
the first degree, and with great and appro
priate weight. It rests upon the members
ol this House, irrespective of party, from
the southern portion of the Confederacy to
which I belong, and it behooves them,
when they appeal to northern men to do
what is just under the circumstances which
environ us, do what is right and reasona
ble themselves. If I desired to sum up
these matters, I would have no desire to
lift, from the shoulders ot the men of my
own section who, m my humble judgment,
have done great mischief to the cause of
American liberty and to the stability of
lice institutions—l say I should have no
U sire to lilt from their shoulders whatever
ol responsibility properly rests upon them.
Eir, as a Southern man, I am lranlc to ad
mit, in the lace the country, that fur
too much ot this mischief has come upon
us because ol tiie over anxious desire of
a übitious politicians of the South to ere
a.e anew political sphere in which they
c .aid aspire to under ihe present system ;
that much of the trouble now rending the
country has sprung from the unholy pas
sions and the wild ambition ofSouthern pol
lticians ; and that far.too much ot the ag
gravation which has aroused the spirit of
i sistance in the North, and fed, as fuel,
the flame which is mounting up there, of
sectional agitation and prejudice, lias been
ministered to by some of my own fellow
citizens of the South.
But, sir, while I make that admission, I
would appeal to the frankness of Northern
gentlemen upon the other hand, and elm
ienge them to deny that far too much of
substantial reason has been given to the
South hy the people they represent, if not
by some ot themselves, in their individual
an t representative capacity ; that far too
many reasonable grounds of complaint
have he< n afforded to that spirit in the
South, which they knew stood ready to
seize with avidity the slightest offering to
the passion it desired to feed, as well as to
that larger and more deliberate body of
Southern people who see good cause for
alarm, and ask only for relief from real
grieveances. I hold them, and the coun
try will hold both sections, responsible, in
their several degrees, for its present —
troubles.
But, as I have said, this matter of crim
ination and recrimination is neither valua
ble nor necessary, under our circumstances;
and I pass to the main purpose that in
duced me to tlike tin* floor. Even since we
assembled here, I have heard Northern
gentlemen say, both publicly and private
ly. and 1 have seen tlie statement day af
ter day in the columns ot leading and in
fluential Northern Journals, that it was
against the honor, that it was against the
dignity, of the Northern people to yield
anything to the demands of the South, be
cause they were pressed in tones of men
ace ; and that while some extreme South
ern Representatives declared th it they nei
ther asked nor would receive any comprom
ises, the people of other States stood with
arms in their hands against the Federal
Government. Now, sir, as a fair man, I
desire to say, just here, that the movement
iu some of the Southern States which aa*-
grown into the tremendous significance oi
an approximate severance of the Inion
and the secession ot the States winch ha\e
gone out ot this Confederacy has none *>i
my sympathy, and no particle oi in\ ap
proval. I have a right to talk of it freely,
sir, because I stand here as a Southern
man; and my State, a Southern Etate,
hangs upon the brink of a precipice winch
we regard as tending only to inevitame
ruin, because of the intemperate the un
necessary action of an extreme Southern
, State, that has chosen to realize herdram
of thirty years in this matter of secession.
Mr. Hughes —I have no objection to my
! colleague speaking ffir ins own district; but
I must dissent, when he undertakes to
speak for the State of Maryland, and es
pecially of the district X represent
Mr Harris ; of Maryland—Wlule I yield
with pi* .sure to the interruption of my
colleag: •, and doubt not he speaks what
lie believes to he the sentiment of his peo
ple, I repeat my declaration ; and say now,
that at this moment, according to my hon
est, and I believe well-informed judgment
upon the subject, the doctrine of secession
cannot, in the State of Maryland, to-day
raise more friends than would make up a
co; ,oral’s guard. [Great applause in the
‘ga 1 levies.] No, sir; and I trust it never
will.
Now, Mr. Speaker, if my friend thinks
that the secession element is more power
ful in the State of Maryland than is that
ntiment which I shall endeavor to give
expression to, I trust he will be afforded
hereafter an opportunity of substantiating
his view.
Why do I say, sir, that I have little
sympathy with this secession movement?
1 b lievc, in th* l first place, Mr. Speaker,
that it has no foundation in constitlit’onal
right. 1 believe that no single State in
t his Confederation has a v ight, of its own
motion, to break up the Federal oompact
to which all are parties, upon an abstract
and forced idea of inherent sovereignty.—
Sir, as I read the history of my country,
these States that have seceded no t draw
the just distinction that exists between
what 1 concede, to be State rights, and the
idea that, because of them, there is the
further right of the absolute negation, at
the ‘ll of any single State, of all the au
thority of the Federal Government.
Sir, I might go further, and say that
none of the States ever had any sovereign
ty except as United States. I read, in the
early history of the country, that before
they were United Colonies, and then Uni
ted States, they were colonies of the Brit
ish. the Spanish, and the Dutch, operating
under charters to companies or individu
al. Georgia was an estate of Governor
Oglethorpe. Pennsylvania was the prop
erty of William Penn. It was as United
Colonies they made the great declaration,
and maintained it in blood ; as such they
became States all together, as recognized
United States. I glance at this view only
in passing, for I do not propose to press it
further.
But, sir, I did not mean to talk about
the doctrine of secession, and regret that
I have been led to do so even thus briefly.
I do not admit it as a constitutional right;
and I irust Mr. Speaker, that win n the
unfortunate moment arrives, as arrive it
p. -sibly may. according to the present cur
rent'of political events, when the Com
monwealth of Maryland may feel compell
ed to assert her rights, I shall hear through
out the length and breadth of that State
no talk about “the constituti nnl right of
secession ;” but that when her people have
made up their mind that the North does
not and will not give them such rights a.,
under the Constitution, they are entitled
to demand, they will call the thing that
they meant to do revolution , and stand up
on that ; and that they will, when that
time does come, rebel , Ido not for one in
stant doubt.
1 like, sir, the homelier phrase for the
act ; I like the fair, frank word, that out
spoken, tells the whole story without the
necessity of hedging it around with consti
tutional ideas of constitutional rights, and
abstract notions of constitutional abstrac
tion. The right of a people to go into a
state of revolution is sanctioned alike by
nature and hv the Constitution ; and when
any people in this country feel that they are
oppressed by intolerable and grievous
wrongs, which they cannot otherwise re
dress, they ought to rise against them; and
so far as my own people are concerned, I
know they will promptly do so when that
dark day in their history arrives.
Mr. Hughes.—With the permission of
my colleague, I would state that I said
nothing about the abstract right of seces
sion. I understood my colleague as say
ing the people ot Maryland were denounc
ing the seceding States for the course they
had pursued. I said nothing upon the sub
ject of the right of secession as being con
stitutional, or revolutionary, or otherwise.
That is a point which I will discuss, and
give mv own views upon, if ever 1 have the
good fortune to get the floor. I simply
meant to say to my friend that, when he
undertook to speak for the State of Mary
land, denouncing and violently disapprov
ing the conduct of the seceding States, he
might speak for his own district; or, at any
rate, for the State of Maryland outside of
mv district.
Mr. Speaker, I undertake to say that
the people of the district that I represent
here, whatever may he their opinion on the
abstract question of secession or revolution,
do not use the language of denunciation
against the States which have withdrawn
from this L nion. *
Mr. Harris, of Maryland. I have been
lil> ioil in yielding precious time to my
friend ; for i do not mean, for an instant,
to put him wrong. He misunderstood me;
that is all. I use the language of disap
proval, which is enough for mv purposes.
And I dare say that, as between my friend
and mvself, when lie comes to hear all I
propose to eay. and I have heard his views
wh ‘il he gets that blessed opportunity ot
the floor, which, I admit, comes to some
here like “angel’s visits, few and tar be
tween,” [laughter,] he may not find any
erreat gulf between us. I say, then, for
myself, and to close the matter, that I ex
press my disapprobation of the secession
of those States ; and I believe that the
sentiment of an immense majority ot the
people of Maryland is entirely against both
ihe doctrine and the practice ot secession.
[Applause in the galleries.] That, sir, is
what I mean so say.
Mr. Speaker, I had remarked, when this
interruption occurred, that I had heard
from northern gentlemen that they could
concede nothing to the extreme South, be
cause its demands were enforced by men
who either declined to compromise or w *e
standing in hostility to the General Gov
ernment. Now, without going into the
reasonableness of that plea, I desiie to say
to Northern men upon this floor to-day,
that this argument, whether sound or not,
is exclusive in its app I ’cation to the States
that have already assumed such position ;
and that, just in proportion as Northern
gentlemen here condemn the action ot those
States, they ought to be anxious to pre
serve the remaining Southern States ofthe
Union from falling into the same gulf, by
the very necessities of the position that the
failure of conservative and sufficient action
by the Republican side ofthe House forces
upon them.
I stand here ns a representative of one
ofthe border States of this Union. lam
a Southern man, born so, and proud of the
nativity. My State is a Southern State.
Her sympathies of blood, of sentiment, of
geographical position—her large posses
sion of slave property, equal at this time
to some $40,000,000; the interests of trade
between her commercial emporium and the
South amounting in tho last year to over a
hundred million of dollars out of an aggre
gate trade of $168,000,000 ; th*? great in
terests of her manufactures of which $45.-
000,000 went last year to the South and
Southwest from the city of Baltimore a
lone ; all these give weight to the Southern
sentiment of her people, who are also of a
warm blood and an active temperament.
And vet, sir, Maryland, always national,
conservative, and just, lias maintained,
amidst all these great excitements, an at
titude of calmness, of honorable and digni
fied tranquility, and has, to her best abili
ty, with her whole energy of sentiment, of
purpose, and of action, breasted the tide
of this secession movement. If you gen
tlemen on the Northern side of the House,
believe that it is in the power of the con
servative sentiment of the State much lon
ger to hold her in this condition ; if you
believe that week after week is to pass over
this Congress and nothing in the way of
curative legislation is to be given ; if you
believe that you can sit here and talk and
talk about the philosophy of politics and
the abstractions of secession and coercion,
and that State, one of the most conserva
tive and just and devotedly Union of this
whole tier of border States, can be held in
that poise which, up to this time, she has
maintained, I tell you frankly, I tell you
earnestly, and I tell you, 1 believe truly,
that you misread the record of the times ; ‘
and I believe, sir ; that this statement will
apply with equal force to every one of the
border slave States of the Union.
Why, sir, there is the State of Tennes
see, trembling to-day upon the verge of se
cession. In Kentucky, in North Carolina
and in Virginia—great mother of States—
this secession movement is making progress
day by day, and hour by hour—aud I say
to you, in all frankness and in all kindness,
it is making that progress, because we have
had nothing in the way of healing legisla
tion from our friends of the North. And
to-day, while the conservative element that
is against secession, is the dominant idea ;
of Maryland, and nine-tenths of her peo- |
pie will do anything in honor and give any- j
thing in reason to be able to maintain their
status as one of the confederated States of
this great Republic, yet under the surface
of things, there is a slumbering fire that
may break out, and that suddenly, and
strive to hurry her from hei moorings, and
sweep her, too, into the current and drift
of disunion.
I say, then, to you Representatives of
the free States ; that if you propose to do
anything in tlie way of legislation upon
these subjects, let it lie of the most concil
iatory character ; let it rise .above the prej
udices and dictates of party ; let it meet
us, I pray you. upon some high, statesman
like, and satisfactory basis that will keep
these border States fast anchored within
the circle of tlie Republic ; ay, that will do
even more than that ; that will so build up
and strengthen the conservatism of the
people of other States that we will be able,
by your liberal legislation, to rectify the
whole structure of a now broken Confeder
acy.
I do not propose —indeed, the time would
not permit me, for with the interruptions
of my friend, and my own forgetfulness of
its passage, I am running more rapidly
than I thought through my hour —to go
into any discussion ot the several modes ot
pacification that have be tj n presented to
this House. It is not necessary that 1
should do so. for gentlemen are fully post
ed upon the subject themselves, aud the
propositions are familiar to us all, with
their merits and demerits, weakness and
strength. The great idea that I desiie to
present to mv friends of the Northern States
in this House is, that what we want is im
mediate action upon this subject ; we want
less of the eloquence ol speech, and more
of the pertinent eloquence of votes. In trie
whole tier of these border States, and great
ly in mv own State, before the rush of
events whirls us into greater excitem ut,
we want to know whether the Northern
Representatives in this Congress, who ho and
tiie power of this giaat salvation or this
absolute ruin iu their own hands, are dis
posed to do anything, mean todo anything,
upon a basis that will oe saving and suffi-
I trust that vour action will be enlarged
in spirit, that it will meet squarely the
Editor and Proprietor*
Volume % Number 14.
gieat trouble ; and I pray you let it cotno
soon. One tiling in reference to these va
rious propositions is very 3ure ; and that
is ; that if Northern gentlemen upon this
floor would only lift themselves above the
prejudices of party ; above the necessities
of party ; above the pride of opinion : abovo
their conscious power and achieved success,
there is one proposition which, accepted, I
believe would not only keep every single
border State in the Union, hut would bring
hack those which have gone out. If our
Northern friends would only accept the
proposition submitted by the patriot Sen
ator from Kentucky, (Mr. Crittenden,)
their action would be hailed with delight
by tens of thousands of their fellow-citi
zens throughout the free States. If they
would only endorse and pass the proposi
tions of that great statesman, they would
do infinitely more to strengthen and build
up themselves by thus saving their coun
try than they will ever do by any move
ment resulting in the non-pacification of
these troubles, and they would iufinitely
gratify the honest masses who stand be
hind them, and whose good sense teaches
them that it is nobler to save a country
than to stick to a party platform.
Sir, there are points in the historv of
political parties when sometimes the peo
ple get a clearer conception of the difficul
ties and dangers of their position than the
politicians who represent them are willing
to accord, and 1 see indications in various
sections of the free States, that the people
are beginning to realize the great fact that
they are in peril ; that their country is in
peril ; and that the politicians, whom they
have trusted, are not abreast with them in
their perception of the fact, of are not bold
enough to meet it as they should.
Mr. Speaker, it may he a great thing to
preserve political consistency ; hut my word
for it in the present condition of thiscoun
try, he who rises above the trammels of
politics and party will tind that he has a
chieved a greatness more enduring, infin
itely, than he ever could have done within
the lower sphere of his partisan operations.
Why, sir, as an illustration of the direc
tion which the popular mind of the North
is taking, I notice in the newspapers, among
oth t signs, the account of an immense
mass meeting of the sons of labor, toiling
men, artificers, and mechanics in the ma
chine shops and factories ot the city of
Philadelphia, who turned out to the num
ber of many thousands, and assembled in
Independence Square, in spite of the incle
ment night, in spite of the driving snow
storm, in spite of obstacles that would have
broken up any ordinary assemblage, to re
new their allegiance to the union of the
States, and to urge upon you who have the
power, to grant, and grant speedily, meas
ures of safety and conciliation.
I am glad, also, to see that throughout
the free States a returning sense of reason
is beginning to evidence itself : a desire, on
their part, begins to be manifested to a
very general extent, that something shall
be done which will quiet and give peace to
the country I rejoice that the State of
Rhode Island has lead off in the good work
of repealing her personal liberty bill, and
that other States are following rapidly in
her footsteps. And lam especially glad
to notice the recent action of the Legisla
ture of the loyal State of New Jersey in
the support of the propositions of the Ken
tucky Senator.
Doubt not that, when you have accom
plished the return of peace and good will,
you will be sustained by the people you
represent, and that, instead of holding you
to strict account for overstepping the lines
of party, they will praise you for showing
how nobler you thought it, in the hour of
vour country’s need, to be patriotic rather
than partizan.
Let me say further, Mr. Speaker, that
no matter to what extent the people of tho
South, who still cling to the Union, may
deprecate the action of those States which
have gone out, it is a fact not to be dis
guised from the country that, if there is no
wholesome and sufficient legislation within
a reasonable time, it may be difficult, if not
impossible, to prevent the entire disruption
of the country upon a geographical line.—
What my own State will do in such a dread
ful emergency, I am not authorized to say.
What she will do should all her sister States
on the border go out, and the great neigh
boring and coterminous sovereignty of “V ir
ginia, with whom she is so intimately con
nected, decide that the moment has arriv
ed when she too must sunder the old bonds
of the Federal Union, and leave her sister
States of the North, I will not undertake
to say ; but I will say, sir, that there will
then be presented to the consideration ot
the people ot Maryland by far the greatest*
question in their national life, the gravest
problem of their political history, upon
which they have ever been called to delib
erate.
Ido not pay —I am not : authorized to
say —what the decision of my State will
then be. In solemn convention of her peo
ple, that question must be met ; but I do
know, sir, that the sentimeutof that State,
while it is strongly for the Union, and
while the determination of the people is to
stay in the Union so long as it is possible
for them to do so in honor, yet. at the
same time, l cannot say that, when Vir
ginia has taken her position, Maryland may
not feel herself also pressed, by the various
considerations that will intluence her, to
join hands with that illustrious sover
eignty.
What her ultimate action will be, I re
peut, I am not authorized to speak , but I
utter the sentiment that occurs to me in
connection with her jposition. She is jdaewd