For many this was not the case, any more than it is today. Political sentiment can change, depending on events and how others in a man's circle of friends and family interpret them. For instance, writing from Texas a month after Lincoln's election, Robert E. Lee declared, "I prize the Union very highly, & know of no personal sacrifice that I would not make to preserve it, save that of honour. I must trust in the wisdom & patriotism of the Nation to maintain it." [Letter of Dec. 3, 1860, page 84, Michael Fellman, The Making of Robert E. Lee.]
Some never changed their politics, especially those living in isolated areas where people heard little and cared less about events in the outside world. A reading of newspapers from this period strongly suggests that up until the year before the war, most Southern citizens would have described their political feelings as Lee did.