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]