If an elected official refers to the Civil War as the “War of Yankee Aggression” on the floor of the House of Representatives, is that something that is just a matter of free speech/opinion, or is it something that violates some rule or law? Is it something that the House can or should sanction or censure?
I ask this in all seriousness. I think there is a difference between what a private citizen says in public and what a public official says during official business. And the Yankees won the war and they enshrined that victory in law, including the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution. If anyone thinks that the Civil War, which was instigated by the South before Lincoln could even be inaugurated, was a war of Yankee aggression, then don’t they think that the South was right to secede? And then don’t they think the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments are illegitimate? And then don’t they think that the present Union is illegitimate? And then don’t they think that the abolition of slavery is illegitimate?
Doesn’t something in all of this violate the oath to protect and defend the Constitution? Can you just say that that the Civil War was a war of Yankee Aggression with impunity? I ask Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA). I ask you.
