It is also about what the South told him they would do.
Put those two events together... and then you can make an historial evaluation.
You spend too much time defending Lincoln's choices and defining my positions. Stop the blaming and stop defending and stop propagandizing.
Just answer the question.
Did Lincoln know that if he sailed those ships into the harbor, the fighting would start?
And no you did not answer my question in your post...
When exactly did the confederate authorities make this clear to him? Lincoln was told by a lot of people that his actions would lead to war. Hurlburt gave his opinion, Lamon gave his, other people added their impressions as well. But if any person in power in the Davis government threatened it then I'm not aware of it. Lincoln was no doubt acting on the hope that cooler heads would prevail, not knowing that there were no cool heads down there. Might Lincoln also have been resigned to the fact that absent a complete surrender to all their demands, the South would start a war regardless of what he did? Maybe. We will never know for sure.