Are you forgetting about the Confederate Commissioners to the United States nominated by Davis on February 25, 1861, and unanimously approved by the Confederate Congress? Those same commissioners that were later lied to by the Lincoln Administration concerning the evacuation of Fort Sumter? The same ones who on April 11 called the Lincoln Administration's deception about Sumter "gross perfidy?"
Here is what the commissioners sent Seward on March 12, 1861 [my bold]:
WASHINGTON CITY, March 12, 1861.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States.
Sir: The undersigned have been duly accredited by the Government of the Confederate States of America as commissioners to the Government of the United States, and, in pursuance of their instructions, have now the honor to acquaint you with that fact, and to make known, through you to the President of the United States, the objects of their presence in this capital.
Seven States of the late Federal Union, having in the exercise of the inherent right of every free people to change or reform their political institutions, and through conventions of their people withdrawn from the United States and reassumed the attributes of sovereign power delegated to it, have formed a government of their own. The Confederate States constitute an independent nation, de facto and de jure, and possess a government perfect in all its parts, and endowed with all the means of self-support.
With a view to a speedy adjustment of all questions growing out of this political separation, upon such terms of amity and good will as the respective interests, geographical contiguity, and future welfare of the two nations may render necessary, the undersigned are instructed to make to the Government of the United States overtures for the opening of negotiations, assuring the Government of the United States that the President, Congress, and people of the Confederate States earnestly desire a peaceful solution of these great questions; that it is neither their interest nor their wish to make any demand which is not founded in strictest justice, nor do any act to injure their late confederates.
The undersigned have now the honor, in obedience to the instructions of their Government, to request you to appoint as early a day as possible, in order that they may present to the President of the United States the credentials which they bear and the objects of the mission with which they are charged.
We are, very respectfully, your obedient servants,
JOHN FORSYTH
MARTIN J. CRAWFORD
And from the resolution passed by the Confederate Congress concerning the negotiations [my bold again]:
Resolved, etc., That said commissioners be further instructed to present to the Government of the United States assurances of the sincere wish on the part of this Government to preserve the most friendly relations between the two Governments and the States comprising the same, and to settle, by peaceful negotiations all matters connected with the public property and the indebtedness of the Government of the United States existing before the withdrawal of any of the States of this Confederacy; and to this end said commissioners are hereby fully empowered to negotiate with the Government of the United States in reference to said matters, and to adjust the same upon principles of justice, equality, and right.
Old peace loving King George Lincoln wouldn't even meet with them to tell them to go jump in the lake or that he wasn't going to let them go because he needed Southern revenue to run his government. Instead, Seward reassured them that Sumter would be evacuated, and Lincoln's agent Lamon did the same with the Governor of South Carolina.
Not at all. I've read all the documents relating to any offers of settlement - the provisional constitution, the confederate congressional resolution, and most of all the letter Davis sent to Lincoln. And unlike you I am not reading any good intentions into documents where none exist. Read the instructions contained in the Davis communication, the instructions outlined in his letter linked here. Let's look at them in detail.
Why did Davis send the delegation? He says so in his letter:
"For the purpose of establishing friendly relations between the Confederate States and the United States..."
For the purpose of establishing relations between countries. Period. No offer to negotiate anything, it was a simple statement of purpose. Lincoln's position is unimportant. If Lincoln wished to negotiate an end to secession, sorry but that wasn't what they were there for. Lincoln's choice was to accept the legitimacy of the confederate actions - all their actions - and recognize them as a sovereign state. Under those circumstances, it was an ultimatum pure and simple.
And had Lincoln accepted the confederate demands and agreed to recognize the confederacy, what then? Would the confederacy have done the right thing and offer to pay for the debt they repudiated and the property they stole? Maybe. Maybe not. The Davis letter contains only a vague offer to "...agree, treat, consult, and negotiate of and concerning all matters and subjects interesting to both nations..." What if paying for the debt wasn't of interest to the confederacy? What if paying for the property wasn't? Well, then it wasn't a matter or subject to agree, treat, consult or negotiate on. So where did that leave Lincoln and the U.S.? Holding the bag. And when you get right down to it, if the confederacy had made an offer to pay for the property seized and the debt repudiated then wouldn't they be admitting that their acts of taking the property and walking away from the debt had been wrong to begin with? What soverign nation is prepared to do that?
Claims that Davis was interesting in negotiating anything or was looking for a settlement fair to both sides is fantasy. Davis wanted recognition, period. He didn't give a damn about the debt or the property, so far as he was concerned it wasn't a matter for the confederacy to care about. He wanted Lincoln to surrender to his demands, that's all. Any intelligent man can see that, and Lincoln was an intelligent man. And given that how can you be so shocked when Lincoln refused to play along.
This is such a silly argument. Lincoln managed to run the government quite effectively for four years without southern revenue, and at a hugely greater level of expense. By mid-1863 the Union was spending about as much each month as it had spent in all of 1860. By the end of the War it had spent around $6B, or roughly 100 year's expenditures at the 1860 level.
The Union's economy performed at gang-buster levels during the War. Industry grew at massive speed. Agriculture throve, with exports booming.
Tell us again why the Union would collapse without southern revenues.