One was effectively the other. The people of Virginia would not have expected Lincoln to re-initiate another conflict elsewhere in the South, or they would have considered it a bad faith agreement.
Letting go of Sumter effectively meant letting go of the seceded states. For what it's worth I have read some very interesting articles about a representative from Virginia offering assurances to Lincoln that Virginia would agree to remain in the Union if Lincoln would let the other states be.
This meeting was after the war fleet had already sailed, and so it was therefore too late to call it back. To the proposal, Lincoln was said to have remarked, "You are too late sir!"
I think I still have that on an open tab somewhere, but I will have to find it again.
But that's not what you said and not what Lincoln said. Other than that...
Letting go of Sumter effectively meant letting go of the seceded states. For what it's worth I have read some very interesting articles about a representative from Virginia offering assurances to Lincoln that Virginia would agree to remain in the Union if Lincoln would let the other states be.
I'm sure they were very...imaginative.