[BroJoeK]

exit82 quoting wiki article: "Davis sent a commission to Washington with an offer to pay for any federal property on Southern soil, as well as the Southern portion of the national debt.
Lincoln refused.
Informal discussions did take place with Secretary of State William Seward through Supreme Court Justice John A. Campbell, an Alabamian who had not yet resigned..."

In early 1861, neither outgoing Democrat President Buchanan nor incoming Republican Lincoln ever met directly with Confederate representatives.
In this particular case, Davis' emissaries didn't meet either Lincoln or Secretary of State Seward.
Instead they met a southern-born US Supreme Court Justice who was soon to himself join the Confederacy.
This justice talked to Seward, who lead him to believe than Lincoln planned to surrender Fort Sumter, South Carolina.

Lincoln's view, as he stated publicly, was that any instructions to him regarding secession must come from Congress, and that's who Davis' emissaries should address.

There's no record of offers of payment for any seized Federal properties, and the whole atmosphere was one of explicit threat of violence -- if Lincoln did not surrender Fort Sumter, it would be seized by military assault.

The key issue here is: what is the proper Constitutional method to secede, and Lincoln's answer then, as is ours today, was -- constitutional secession must be authorized by Congress.

[JCBreckenridge]

So you’re going to continue the lie to cover your butt. :)

It was constitutional to secede. Lincoln chose to declare war on the south when peace was possible, and refuse to permit the South to leave.