“It’s really one of the dumbest things I’ve seen a governor do in my lifetime.” – University of Virginia political expert Larry Sabato

Just look how far Virginia has come — we are all against slavery, finally.

Asked about the omission, McDonnell replied that “there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.”

“Governor McDonnell’s decision to designate April as Confederate History Month without condemning, or even acknowledging, the pernicious stain of slavery or its role in the war disregards history, is insensitive to the extraordinary efforts of Americans to eliminate slavery and bind the nation’s wounds, and offends millions of Americans of all races and in all parts of our nation.” – Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine

Later, after being informed that slavery was, in fact, significant to the Civil War, Gov. McDonnell apologized for the “major omission.”

“If this proclamation improves knowledge and understanding of our history, then it does good.”

But what if this proclamation avoids the fact that Virginia was a slavery state prior to the Civil War and slavery was not ended until after it ended?

While “states’ rights” might have been one of the reasons for the Civil War, let us not forget that the continuation of slavery was one of the “states’ rights” insisted upon. If this was not true, what caused the states that joined the Confederacy and who seceded from the Union after Abraham Lincoln was elected to do so? Was the common thread Abraham Lincoln’s opposition to slavery?