Lincoln did later bombard Charleston civilians for 18 months trying to get the Confederate Army to submit to various demands. Didn't work. Nice guy.
How is the act of sending warships, any warships, down to Charleston not threatening?
Back in January of '61, the Star of the West, was not a warship, it was unarmed, but it was fired on. In neo-Confederate logic, is that fact considered "non-threatening"?
Bite the bullet here rusty. That there would be a war was no surprise in 1861 to anyone who had half a brain. It had been discussed for a least 10 years, with the South convinced that somehow via shere genetic ability, they could beat any power who faced them. By the time Lincoln took office, it was nothing but a a Kabuki dance to see who shot first. The fact of the matter is that as of April 12 when the designated mad man Ruffin from Virginia who had lobbied for war for 30 years, was given the honor of lighting the first fuse, the confederate side was far more "armed up" than Lincoln and the Union. The Confederate forces in Charleston alone, outnumbered the entire United States Army at they point in time.
I stick to my point that Davis and the Fire Eaters needed Lincoln to react before they could truly have a viable nation, because without Virginia and the upper south, they were a fly spec on the pages of history. Lincoln, on the other hand, needed the rebs to shoot first. They served each other's purposes in doing what was inevitable.
Lincoln was in a no win situation at that point. If he allowed Davis to give him the finger with no response, he was a lame duck in his first month in office. If he did anything else, "he provoked" the tender sensibilities of the "South." that were so tenderly cultivated by the Slave Power.