I believe that the fact of secession was a pretty awful idea for the South. I think the PBS Ken Burns series quotes Sam Houston as saying secession would cause wrack and ruin for the South. He was then removed from office as governor of Texas and secessionists won the day. The causes of the War Between the States are many and intertwined with slavery and its spread to new territories, but secession was the factor that started hostilities. I know even in Andrew Jackson's time S. Carolina has threatened secession and Jackson had said he would hang every member of S. Carolina's state government if they followed through on their threat. Modern Americans cannot recognize the America of 1860 where many did believe that states had the right to secede when they felt their rights were being destroyed. By that standard we should all secede immediately IMO. I don't want to draw us to far afield from Georgia in the Civil War, but my ancestors must have believed that Georgia had the right to secede because they put on the uniform.