Not after Lincoln sent warships to force his will on them. Davis could not back down in the face of military assault. His government would have been over right then and there.
The ever popular "We were so stupid we fell right into Lincoln's trap" defense. Doesn't say a whole lot about the intellect of those running the Confederacy, does it?
They made the mistake of believing what Lincoln said. Had they looked into his past history in his campaigns for office, they would have realized this guy was a masterful liar on the sneaky bastard scale of Bill Clinton.
Their spies also told them Lincoln was serious. Nobody had any idea he was going to send secret orders to a Lieutenant to deliberately paralyze the war mission.
So instead he started a war which killed it. It just took four years for the body to hit the floor.
They made the mistake of believing what Lincoln said. Had they looked into his past history in his campaigns for office, they would have realized this guy was a masterful liar on the sneaky bastard scale of Bill Clinton.
They made the decision post war to go all revisionist and try and pin the blame on Lincoln. It has obviously worked on some people.