Bangor Daily Evening Times, May 16, 1861

There are a number of reasons why a fight with the rebels of the South is inevitable and necessary, either of which is sufficient to justify war; but there is one thing which it is important they should be taught, and this they must be taught before we can treat with them on terms of equality. They must be undeceived as to the character of the people and the troops of the North. We print in another column, from a New Orleans organ, the opinion and estimate of our people which is held very generally in the Gulf States. They consider us their inferiors in all the elements of manhood, in civilization, and social life, and hold us in utter contempt. This feeling has been on the increase for a number of years, and has been manifested in many notable instances, the most prominent of which was the outrage upon the Massachusetts Senator in the Senate Chamber.

Now it is evident that when men have so transposed and inverted terms, as to characterize public robbery, as honorable action—driving innocent men and women into exile, and inflicting stripes and indignities upon unoffending citizens, as the highest exhibition of chivalry, that it is not worth while to endeavor to argue them out of it by the use of a language which, though they speak, they seem to fail utterly to comprehend. Nothing but the sharp encounter and shock in the field can teach these arrogant, conceited, and insolent men their error. The insult long indulged in, and become a prevalent, sectional sentiment, can only be wiped out in blood. This arrogance must be humbled, this conceit extracted, and this insolence chastised, before those who have been habituated to them, will treat Northern men as their social and political equals.