Gallatin Examiner, December 1, 1860

The gloom which now hangs over the Union is the result of Northern fanatacism. The South has ever been loyal to the Union and has always contributed two-thirds of the revenue which has supported the General Government, and this too when her representation in the halls of legislation is but little over one-half as much as the North. She has faithfully executed every law passed by Congress, and has furnished two soldiers to every one from the North, in all the Indian wars and in the war with Mexico. In the war of 1812, which was waged chiefly to protect New England shippers, the South furnished 18,000 more troops than the North. Yet with all this devotion to the Union, with all this loyalty to a common country, she is assailed by Northern fanatics as untrue to the vows she made when she became an integral portion of the Confederacy. Our plainest constitutional rights are denied us by direct legislation in many of the Northern States. The Constitution has ceased to be a barrier between Black Republicanism and its fiendish designs. A higher law has superseded its authority. This law has been carried so far that it is about rending the Government in twain. Every pillar of the temple trembles before the raging tempest. What must be done to avert the present calamity? This question is easily solved when we review the cause of the disaster which now threatens us. The cause must be removed before any cure can be effected. The North has forced this calamity upon us by her unceasing warfare upon the constitutional rights of the South. As she has inaugurated this "irrepressible conflict" between the two sections of the country, she must remove it. She must make amends for a violated law. She must rebuke fanatacism wherever it lifts its hideous front. She must demand that every State which has nullified the fugitive slave law or any other law protecting the interest of the South, should immediately repeal them. She should require the Northern States to enact laws compelling their officers and citizens to assist in the faithful execution of the fugitive slave law, and make it a penal offence for any of their citizens to encourage or assist any fugitive to escape from his master. They should pass laws giving full protection to slave property in the Territories, and should recognize slave property as on the same footing as any other species of property. These demands are all constitutional, and were contemplated by our fathers in forming the Constitution. The North must yield the substance of these demands, or there must be dissolution. He who would be willing to remain in the Union, if the North should solemnly refuse to concede to us our dearest rights, is already a slave. His chains are now forged, and he is ready to have them riveted upon his servile neck.

We repeat again, there must be a settlement, and the concessions must all come from the North. We have violated no obligation, either legal or moral towards them, and we have no overtures to make. We should make our demands in a spirit of kindness and conciliation, but at the same time with the firmness and dignity which so important a mission requires. If the South had any law upon her statute books inimical to Northern interest, we should urge its immediate repeal. We should be just ourselves before we could expect justice from others.