The North fought because the south bombarded Fort Sumter and initiated the war.
You really expect us to believe there wasn't going to be a war at all, except that that happened?
Try another.
Jeff Davis misplayed his hand -- but Abe was playing for war, and playing for keeps. No way he wasn't going to get his war. Everything depended on war, for Abe.
Blame the South some more if you want -- you can't blink that.
I smell the distinct stench of bullsh*t! The South fired on Sumter (which was Southern soil viewed as being occupied by Northern troops) when Lincoln under the guise of resupply, tried to reinfoce the fort. The Lincoln then used that as his excuse to go to war against the seceeding States. He claimed it was about preserving the Union, but in reality it was about politics, economy, and who would have more say - the States or the Federal Government. No matter how you try to paint it, the North waged an aggressive campaign of forcible repatriation. Kind of an early precursor to what Stalin did to the White Russians at the end of WW2.
Uh, isn't Ft. Sumter in South Carolina? What were Northern troops doing in South Carolina when they weren't welcome and were given the chance to leave? Isn't a landlord allowed to evict a tenant who doesn't have a lease?
If Soviet troops had begun landing in New York and moving into apartments there, would New Yorkers have been "initiating a war" if they fired shots at the intruders? It would be ridiculous to say "the Soviets fought because the New Yorkers shot at them and initiated the war," wouldn't it?
Recall that New York and Virginia ratified the Constitution conditionally; i.e., only under the guarantee of the right to secede.