There was no "secession" from Great Britain - the colonialists openly rebelled against British abuse.
But when the South decided it wanted to secede from the North, Lincoln refused...
Lincoln didn't "refuse". He said that he was powerless to stop a secession - as long as it was peaceful. His hope was that cooler heads would prevail and they would stop their foolishness.
...and he initiated the most destructive war in American history...
Sine Qua non - without which not. The rebellion had already started when Lincoln took office. So the positions he took were responsive, not initiative. Had the confederates sued for relief through Congress (as they should have) the civil war might have been avoided. It was the confeds who took hostile action against their own country and are singularly responsible for what came after.
I can live with them. But I categorically refuse to be governed by them and their 50 million American-born Socialist friends.
We may not have any choice in the matter.
Re: Lincoln didn’t “refuse”. He said that he was powerless to stop a secession - as long as it was peaceful.
Apparently Lincoln forgot to mention the “peace” option to the residents of Charleston before they attacked Fort Sumter.