OLYMPIA -- The State Senate marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War with a resolution today that honors President Lincoln, notes that many veterans headed west and wound up in Washington after the war and recalls that a few former generals served inside the territory.

Lincoln "reasserted our American creed with eloquence and persistence, reminded us of the values upon which this country was founded, and led us through that time of great crisis." U.S. Grant and George McLellan both served in the state and Isaac Ingalls Stevens, the territory's first governor, was also a general for the Union. (Of note to Spokane, although not mentioned in the resolution, was another Union general, George Wright.)

The Secretary of State's office has a special exhibit on Stevens, who was killed at the Battle of Chantilly in Virginia in 1862, to mark the sesquicentennial.

Of note in the resolution: No mention of the right of states to nullify federal laws. No quibble over the name of the conflict. It sticks with Civil War throughout, none of this War Between the States, Second American Revolution or War of Northern Agression stuff.

During discussion (no debate, really, because no one spoke against the resolution) Sen. Jim Honeyford, R-Sunnyside, donned a stove pipe hat and said that along with being the anniversary of the Civil War which freed slaves, today is also Tax Freedom Day, so people are now freed from working for the government. Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, responded "You're no Abraham Lincoln."  

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