Maybe -- but in 1858 Democrat President Buchanan sent a much larger war fleet to Paraguay to settle a matter of national honor.
That war fleet was also ordered, in effect, "no first use of force".
The Paraguayans decided they wanted peace and made the necessary accommodations.
They chose wisely.
Jefferson Davis, by contrast:
“Maybe — but in 1858 Democrat President Buchanan sent a much larger war fleet to Paraguay to settle a matter of national honor. That war fleet was also ordered, in effect, “no first use of force”.
The same Buchanan sent an army to put down the Mormon rebellion in the Utah Territory. The forgotten ‘Utah Mormon War’.
Forgotten because it was a moot issue by the time that the army arrived, the Mormons had acquiesced to obeying the Territorial government.
The story gets more interesting after that. Buchanan was also President when the Star of the West was fired upon by as it sought to resupply Fort Sumter. Some will say this was the first shot of the Civil War, fired by cadets from The Citadel- Go Bulldogs!
So why didn’t Buchanan call up the army to put down this affront, same as he did with Mormon rebellion in the Utah Territory?
Buchanan believed that States had rights that Territories didn’t. He didn’t believe that secession was Constitutional, but he also didn’t believe that it was legal for a President to send the army against an American state. Andrew Jackson did when he threatened South Carolina over the tariff, Buchanan didn’t. If secession was going to be reversed it was going to be by means other than force and civil war.
James Buchanan thought Lincoln’s war was illegal. As did Franklin Pierce. So did John Tyler. Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore supported Lincoln. Two Democrats and one Whig against Lincoln, one Democrat and one Whig supporting Lincoln.