They had a fourth choice that would have been best. They should have realized that a Republican in the White House was much less of a threat to their liberties than a tyrant in Dixie and rejected the power grab attempted by a greedy band of slave owning aristocrats.
As the Southern Unionist Horace Maynard described the rebellion at the time:
"...the uprising of the few against the many; the assertion of the rights of property in disregard of personal rights"
Your “fourth” choice is encapsulated in the first choice I previously posited.