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Barbour defends Va. Confederate decree

WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour defended Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell's delivering a Confederate History Month proclamation with no mention of slavery.

While McDonnell, a first-term Republican, has since apologized for his "major omission," Barbour, the Republican Governors Association chairman, said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" he didn't think McDonnell made a mistake when he left slavery out of the proclamation.

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Speaking of the outcry since the omission, Barbour said, "To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's trying to make a big deal out of something that doesn't amount to diddly."

By contrast, McDonnell said Wednesday, "The failure to include any reference to slavery was a mistake, and for that I apologize to any fellow Virginian who has been offended or disappointed."

He called slavery "an evil, vicious and inhumane practice which degraded human beings to property ... left a stain on the soul of this state and nation" and "divided our nation, deprived people of their God-given inalienable rights and led to the Civil War."

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McDonnell's proclamation calls on Virginians to "understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War."

The Virginia NAACP and the state's Legislative Black Caucus complained that not mentioning slavery in the proclamation was an insult to all the state's blacks.

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