But as the Supreme Court said in the Prize Cases, war presented itself and the President had an obligation to respond. And I'll add, respond with everything in his arsenal (military and legal).
No, he didn't. He conspicuously refused to consult the Congress on the State of the Union, or to seek the advice and consent of the Senate.
There was no matter before him so pressing as to prevent his involving the Congress in a constitutional response to the Sumter crisis -- which he was provoking, by the way.
Lincoln's solution for everything was war -- and he didn't want Congress around. Other posters have demonstrated, from his own meeting minutes, his continuing allergy to Congressional action. He wanted Congress out of session and preferably out of town while he "handled things" in a manner absolutely inconsistent with the Constitution, inconsistent to a degree that required indemnification later -- "high crimes and misdemeanors", unless Lyman Trumbull could hornswoggle the Indemnification Bill through a sleeping Senate chamber in the dead of night.