Lincoln sent ships to resupply Sumter, and notified South Carolina governor Francis W. Pickens of an impending expedition to provision the fort, an action that Lincoln said would not involve bringing any additional men or arms into the garrison. Jefferson Davis was a hothead who turned a winning 10th amendment Supreme Court legal case into a losing war. The South elected the wrong man and lost their independence. And now every state stills suffers from Davis’s blunder, since the illegality of secession is considered “settled” by the stupid war Jeff Davis started.
In my opinion, while FDR was secretly delighted that Pearl Harbor was attacked, Lincoln really preferred peace. As he said in his inaugural address: “there needs to be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the Government and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere.” and ‘In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to “preserve, protect, and defend it.”’
I realize that convincing a Southern sympathizer of anything is even more hopeless than convincing a critic of the Warren Commission that Oswald was the lone assassin. But, for the record, the above is what I honestly believe.
In light of the fact that the Governor of South Carolina allowed Gustavus Fox to go to Sumter to meet with Anderson to see about the well being of his soldiers, but in reality Fox was going to meet with Anderson to tell him of the treachery they planned, and in light of the efforts to sneak federal troops into Sumter by hiding them below decks on the Star of the West, If you were the governor of South Carolina would you trust the word of Lincoln?
Also, the Newspaper in Washington DC had announced in March of 1861 that at a cabinet meeting it was decided Fort Sumter would be turned over to South Carolina.
So there are three examples where the Federals could not be trusted at their word. The governor found out that Gustavus Fox lied to him. He found out about the Federal Troops being attempted to be snuck into Sumter. And he found out Lincoln had no intention of turning the fort over to them despite what it said in the newspaper. So now he's supposed to take Lincoln's word that they wouldn't try to reinforce the fort?
And now every state stills suffers from Davis’s blunder, since the illegality of secession is considered “settled” by the stupid war Jeff Davis started.
When you understand the economics of the situation, you will realize that a war was going to start no matter what. You may also be unaware that the Orders Lincoln gave to Lieutenant David Porter would have started a war in Florida if the effort to start it in Charleston failed.
The powerful interests of the North needed a war. They would lose 200 million per year from their control, and likely a great deal more with the loss of their protectionist policies from DC.
In my opinion, while FDR was secretly delighted that Pearl Harbor was attacked, Lincoln really preferred peace.
So long as he was in control. He would rather have a war than lose control, and that is what he did.
I realize that convincing a Southern sympathizer...
I am not a Southern sympathizer. As I have explained numerous times in threads like this, I don't live in a Southern state, I've never lived in a Southern state, my family is not from any Southern state and they did not arrive in the US until the 1900s. (From Denmark.)
I am a reality sympathizer. I try to see things as they truly are, even if they conflict with what I would prefer to believe.