[Ditto]

Nah he didn't have to supply Ft Sumner

What would your reaction be to a president who did not attempt to supply a besieged garrison? The word Impeachment comes to my mind. Anderson and his 40 men had become living, breathing symbols of the Union to the people of the north. Lincoln had no choice but to attempt a re-supply mission. Divis had no choice but to force Anderson's surrender. A protracted standoff worked in Lincoln's favor in keeping the Upper South in the Union and Davis understood that fact.

[uncbob]

What would your reaction be to a president who did not attempt to supply a besieged garrison?

Could have evacuated the Fort under a white flag
It was part of the general problem of UNION property in southern states
Once the south seceded they did not recognize federal claims to land in southern states
Lincoln didn't recognize the right to secede so in his mind it was still federal territory

My argument is that the war was fought to save the union.
Which I am not arguing against as a pragmatic goal since there would have been a war between north and south over the western lands anyway ( at least to my way of thinking ) and who knows what North america would have ended up being

Lincoln may have been against slavery but he was not going to risk a war and destruction of the union to outlaw it and stated so in speeches.
Part of his aura is as a geat emancipator which is not what he really was.
His greatness would lie in recognizing the over ridng necessity of saving the union ( if it meant dragging the south back )
The other aspect is it was easy for some in the North to moralize over slavery when their economic well being was not affected as there were plenty of immigrants and child labor to staff the factories etc

When it comes to one's rice bowl decisions are very hard to make if they are peceived as turning the bowl over