2.18.13
Secession in GA and  Alexander Stephen's Role
      Following the election of 1860, the states of the south were faced with a crucial choice to make: secede or remain in the Union. Almost all of the southern states, save Maryland, Missouri, Delaware, and Kentucky, ended up seceding from the Union. In Georgia, and the south in general, there were two different groups of people, secessionists and cooperationists. Cooperationists were willing to remain in the Union. Alexander Stephens, a delegate of GA, was a cooperationist who voted against secession. The vote for or against secession in GA was 209 to 89, with secession winning. Seeing as there were still many non-secessionists in the South, a cooperationist was elected Vice President of the Confederacy, in order to appeal to more of the southern population. This Vice President cooperationist was Alexander Stephens. He helped insure that the vast majority of the south supported the Confederacy and its cause. 
Sources:
http://ehistory.osu.edu/uscw/features/articles/articleview.cfm?aid=34