Political Quotes

“I am going to leave my mask on, not only because it is the safe thing to do for all of you--not for me, for you--but also because it represents the best of America. I am from Maryland. Maryland was a slaveholding State. I represent the district that probably had the most slaves, along with my friend from the First Congressional District. {time} 1000 In fact, there were many sympathizers for the Southern cause that would have had Marylanders join the Confederacy. They were, of course, wrong. But I want to tell my friends from those States that withdrew and whose States tried to destroy the Union that they ought to remember that this Nation took them back without condition with full citizenship and the right to vote. Surely we can do the same for our fellow citizens. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, and I thank Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton in her extraordinary quest keeping her eye on the prize to make sure that the citizens she represents have full citizenship and have our respect. I am proud to stand with her in supporting statehood for the people of the District of Columbia. On this mask, there is a drawing of the outline of the District of Columbia. That is Maryland before the 1789 and subsequent actions. That was Maryland. I daresay, there is not a Marylander who voted on that secession of that land for the Capital of the United States who thought to themselves they were disenfranchising those who lived in that District.…”