I have a strong conviction that our rights, interest, and honor, our present safety and future security can be maintained without et looking to the last resort,. The 'ultima ratio regum'. That should not be looked to unless all else fails.
If the policy of Mr Lincoln and his Republican associates shall be carried
out, no man in Georgia will be more willing or ready than myself to defend our
rights, interests, and honor at every hazard and to last extremity. [But Mr
Lincoln's] bare election is not sufficient cause. I can only hope that if reason
is unbiased by passion, that [a future constitutional convention] would say
that the constitutional election of no man is sufficient cause to break up the
Union, but that the state should wait until he at least does commit some unconstitutional
act.
[From William Freehling, ed., Secession Debated]