I provided a reference to that in a post I once made to you. I’d link you to that long post, but the thread was deleted by a flame war. In the interest of brevity I won’t repost the old long post now, but I may change my mind later and post the whole thing because there was useful information in it.
Here is a link to Lincoln and his March 5 verbal order I provided you back then: Link; (it's in the first paragraph)
Do you want me to repost Adams and Meigs statements too?
I have not seen that event reported elsewhere, but assuming it's accurate, it simply reflects the same thinking behind Lincoln's April missions to resupply both Forts Pickens and Sumter:
Lincoln was pledged to occupy, support and defend Federal properties, and did not respect "informal truces" that prevented the Union from doing so.
The fact is that any official Confederate threat against Union forces on Union property was itself unlawful, and carrying out such threats were acts of war.
By the way, your link does report and correct my quote from Lincoln regarding his willingness to trade Fort Sumter for Virginia:
Anxious to avoid war, Lincoln willingly joined in these efforts.
One possibility was an agreement to surrender Fort Sumter in return for a pledge of unconditional loyalty on the part of Virginia.
There was nothing inherently implausible about such a deal.
Though many Virginians sympathized with the states of the lower South, most were loyal to the Union, and Unionists had a clear majority in the state convention, which was still in session.
The president hoped to confer with George W. Summers, the leading Unionist in that convention, but Summers declined to come to Washington.
Instead, he sent John B. Baldwin, another Unionist, who had a long secret conference with Lincoln on April 5.
What the two men said became a matter of dispute, but according to the most reliable account the President promised:
"Whether intentionally or inadvertently, Baldwin misunderstood the President, and nothing came of this offer."
rustbucket: "Do you want me to repost Adams and Meigs statements too?"
Regarding?