Benjamin Gwinn Harris

Benjamin Gwinn Harris ( * December 13, 1805 in Leonardtown, St. Mary's County, Maryland, † April 4, 1895 ) was an American politician. Between 1863 and 1867 he represented the state of Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Benjamin Harris attended the Yale College. After a subsequent law studies at the Cambridge Law School in Massachusetts and his 1840 was admitted to the bar he began to work in this profession. At the same time he proposed as a member of the Democratic Party launched a political career. In the years 1833 and 1836 he sat in the House of Representatives from Maryland. In the congressional elections of 1862 he was in the fifth electoral district of Maryland in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he became the successor of Francis Thomas on March 4, 1863. After a re-election he was able to complete in Congress until March 3, 1867 two legislative sessions.

Harris had indeed been against the secession of the Southern states, but was considered a secret trailer or at least a sympathizer of the Confederacy. On April 9, 1864, he was censured by the U.S. House of Representatives because of treacherous actions. In May 1865, was even a court-martial against him because he had hidden two Confederate soldiers. He was sentenced to three years in prison. In addition, he was forbidden ever again to exercise a public office. But President Andrew Johnson pardoned him immediately. Thus Harris could remain until the end of the legislature on March 3, 1867 Congress. Since 1865 the work of the Congress of the conflict between the Republican Party and President Johnson was overshadowed, culminating in a narrowly failed impeachment. Harris was as congressman witness these operations.

After the end of his time in the U.S. House of Representatives, Benjamin Harris withdrew from politics. He died on April 4, 1895 at his estate Ellenborough near Leonardtown, where he was also buried.