Most people were stunned a few days ago when Arkansas state representative Jon Hubbard suggested that slavery "may actually have been a blessing in disguise," among other racist observations. Sure, this is the deep south we're talking about. But still — defending slavery? One of the worst things ever? That was unexpected.

And yet, amazingly, it turns out that Hubbard has offered only the second-worst defense of slavery by an Arkansas state representative to surface this week. Here's his colleague Loy Mauch, in a letter to the editor from 2009 that the Arkansas Times dug up:

If slavery were so God-awful, why didn’t Jesus or Paul condemn it, why was it in the Constitution and why wasn’t there a war before 1861?

Check. Mate.