Disunion Feed

"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 our honor as a people is still untarnished—our Constitutional rights, so far as the federal government is concerned, are still untouched. If the federal government should attempt even to tarnish the one or to deprive us of the other, we for one would be ready to resist, and ready to dissolve the Union without regard to consequences. 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 ↗

"What, then, has been gained to the anti-slavery cause by the election of Mr. Lincoln? Not much, in itself considered, but very much when viewed in the light of its relations and bearings. For fifty years the country has taken the law from the lips of an exacting, haughty and imperious slave oligarchy. The masters of slaves have been masters of the Republic. [...] Lincoln's election has vitiated their authority, and broken their power. It has taught the North its strength, and shown the South its weakness. [...] Hitherto the threat of disunion has been as potent over the politicians of the North, as the cat-o'-nine-tails is over the backs of the slaves. Mr. Lincoln's election breaks this enchantment, dispels this terrible nightmare, and awakes the nation to the consciousness of new powers,"

Douglass concedes Lincoln is no abolitionist yet argues the election shattered the slaveholders' half-century grip on the Republic and broke the 'enchantment' by which disunion threats had cowed the North. Douglass' Monthly was a monthly, so no day is printed; dated to the first of the month. Verified via House Divided (Dickinson College) transcription of the December 1860 issue (primary scan at NYS Historic Newspapers). Fragments joined with [...].

Read it in the original — Douglass' Monthly, Dec 1860 ↗