There is only one evil greater than disunion: the loss of honor and Constitutional right — to that the South will never submit. But not now! says the non-slaveholder; not now! says the slaveholder, whose property war would imperil; not now! say our friends in the free States.
Original passage & context
"There is only one evil greater than disunion, and that is the loss of honor and Constitutional right. That evil the people of the South will never submit to. [...] But not now! — the non-slaveholder says not now! — the slaveholder, whose property civil war would involve in imminent peril, says not now! — millions of our friends in the free States say not now!"
William W. Holden's paper, the leading voice of North Carolina conditional Unionism — it would resist actual federal aggression but rejected secession over the mere election of Lincoln, absent an overt act. The Upper-South counterweight to the fire-eaters. Text from the AHA "Sixteen Months to Sumter" reproduction of Dumond (transcription). Fragments joined with [...].
Read it in the original — North Carolina Standard, Dec 1, 1860 ↗
Southern press · conditional Unionist Condensed — not verbatim Verified against the source — see the record