Memoirs of Admiral Porter. He wrote two of them. Here is another. (Go to page 21) There are other sources that confirm he hand carried secret orders for himself and for Captain Mercer directly from Lincoln. The order to Captain Mercer has been made public. Porter never released the order from Lincoln, which makes me think it was pretty bad.
What would have Davis done with Pensacola. It was fully manned, equipped, and armed.
Don't know. I guess it would have depended on how much of a disruption it was.
He could Let a Foreign power occupy a portion of the Confederate States of America or take action to eliminate that situation.
Well they allowed that for 4 months in the case of Sumter, so they may have allowed it longer for Pickens. Who knows? Doesn't really matter. Lincoln was going to have his war.
Read what Porter did in his own memoirs from the links I supplied to you. It is hard to conclude anything other than that Porter was deliberately trying to start a war in Pensacola.
There are other sources that confirm he hand carried secret orders for himself.
Reading the link you gave, Porter could have been referring to the original orders signed by Lincoln. These orders were in fact “confidential” and signed by the President. It you have sources, other than Porter, for “secret orders by Lincoln to Porter” would appreciate links to them.