I readily concede that the US Navy came to Charleston Harbor loaded for bear in their attempt to resupply AND REINFORCE Fort Sumter. I also readily concede that this was part of Lincoln’s master plan to force the Confederacy to fire the first shots and gain the moral high ground in Northern and European public opinion.
My question is, what did you expect them to do? Allow Fort Sumter to be either starved out or taken by storm without contesting the action? To do so would have conceded the Southern position that secession was legal and allowed by the Constitution. That clearly was not going to happen under Lincoln’s watch. The fact that he managed to get the Confederates to fire the first shot, and used it to get the full blooded support of the Northern public behind him merely shows that Governor Pickens was the first man to seriously underestimate Mr Lincoln’s shrewdness and political ability.
We have cut through the issues of “it was all because of slavery” or “slavery was going to extend to the territories”, or "it was because they were rebelling" or the prestige of preserving the Union.
We are at the very core issue, and that is exactly what Lincoln said in his first inaugural:
“The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion...”.
It was strictly a matter of Lincoln wanting to keep Federal forts on state soil and collection of tariffs.
And if the tariffs were voluntarily paid, there would be no need for forts.
So the issue WAS all about tariffs....Federal Government Collection.
NOW, ask yourself this question....What was so important about the conditions in April of 1861 that induced Lincoln to be willing to risk war?