The Joplin Globe, Joplin, MO

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February 10, 2009

State representative apologizes for ‘Northern aggression’ remark

By Derek Spellman

dspellman@joplinglobe.com

A state lawmaker from Webb City on Tuesday apologized for calling the Civil War the “War of Northern Aggression” amid a debate earlier in the day on an abortion resolution.

House members were discussing a resolution urging federal leaders to oppose an abortion proposal when Rep. Bryan Stevenson, R-Webb City, said the proposal would amount to the “greatest power grab by the federal government since the War of Northern Aggression.”

Stevenson apologized after Rep. Don Calloway, D-St. Louis, said the Civil War restored the union and freed the slaves. Calloway, who is black, said it was inappropriate to call the conflict “Northern aggression” and asked for an apology.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Stevenson said, “The terminology I used did cause offense, and I’m sorry for that.”

He also said he was “strongly opposed to slavery in any and all aspects” and “not prejudiced in any way.”

Stevenson said that if he had to do it over again, he would not have described the conflict as “the War of Northern Aggression” but still would have raised the Civil War during the debate on the abortion resolution.

The war, he said, turned on federal authority versus state authority. Although the conflict did lead to the abolition of slavery, Stevenson said it was accompanied by “the illegal expansion of federal authority.”

Stevenson said he thought slavery eventually would have ended without the war, as it did in England.

Calloway told the Globe in a phone interview that he “wholeheartedly” accepted Stevenson’s apology.

“Bryan is a good man,” Calloway said. “I know he is good-hearted.”

Connie Langum, historian at Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield in Republic, said the term “War of Northern Aggression” emerged during the early part of the Civil War. It was one of a host of names given to the war.

“There were hundreds,” Langum said. Northerners, for example, termed the conflict a “War of Rebellion.”

The phrase “War of Northern Aggression” generally denoted someone who was of Southern sympathy, although Langum said there were multiple views on both sides as to the focal point of the war.

“The Civil War is very complicated,” she said. “It’s not just about slavery. It’s not just about states’ rights.”

She later said: “There are many issues that culminated in the splitting of the United States.”

William Piston, a professor of history at Missouri State University in Springfield and a specialist in Civil War history, said the phrase “War of Northern Aggression” was used by some Southerners who believed secession was a legitimate course of action, while the North’s actions were not.

As for the reasons a person thought the war was unjust, that depended on the person.

“That phrase does not automatically convey why the person thought the war was unjust,” Piston said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.





Naming the Civil War



The names given to the Civil War by the different sides over the years include “War Between the States,” “War of the Rebellion,” “War for Southern Independence,” “Second American Revolution” and “War of Northern Aggression.”

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_the_American_Civil_War

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