Ah, the old "That crafty Lincoln tricked us into bombarding a fort into submission" excuse.
It is not an "excuse." My own opinion was that Lincoln was very smart and indeed very calculating and "crafty." He manipulated the country into war.
Lincoln and the Republicans had run on increasing the tariff. The Morrill Tariff which benefited Northern manufacturers at the expense of the South was passed by Republicans and signed by Buchanan on March 2, 1861. It actually posed a huge economic threat to the North. The Confederacy had passed a tariff bill of their own in February 1861 that essentially matched the then existing 1857 US tariff. The Morrill Tariff greatly increased the US tariff and thus created the two-tariff problem that threatened tariff revenue to the US. Imports to Northern port cities immediately started falling, and northern import businesses started failing. There were cries in the Northern press to blockade Southern ports so they wouldn't take away business from the North. A blockade of Southern ports could solve the two-tariff problem.
Lincoln was smart enough to quickly realize early on the financial problem the US would have once and if the South seceded. He had quietly approached General Scott, who was then serving under President Buchanan, and asked/suggested Scott make moves to hold or defend the forts. Fort Sumter could control Charleston Harbor and enforce a blockade, if one were needed. And a blockade might indeed be needed if the high tariff the Republicans wanted became law and the South became an independent country with a lower tariff (both of which came to pass).
How was Lincoln to protect the revenue of his Northern government? His answer was answer was to let Congress adjourn sine die on March 28, 1861 (Link on meaning of sine die) in March 1861. This meant that Congress could not legally reconvene until December unless Lincoln called them into session, which he didn't until July 4th after he had declared a blockade, called for 75,000 troops to invade the South, and did invade the South. Lincoln's blockade proclamation was the start of the war according to the US Supreme Court.
The same day that Lincoln told the Senate he had nothing further of importance to tell them and they could adjourn (which they did sine die), Lincoln had a draft prepared of the then secret plan to resupply (and if you believe General Scott, "reinforce") Fort Sumter.
Lincoln did not want peace. As he told a delegation of 30 people from Baltimore who urged peace after the attack on Fort Sumter Link to the full content of the Baltimore Sun article in post 328:
"And what is to become of the revenue? I shall have no government -- no resources."
So, how could Lincoln provoke war with the South so that he could blockade Southern ports and not have the war be blamed on him? He tried to start war at Fort Pickens by without telling the other side thereby breaking a truce there that had been negotiated by the previous US administration. When that did not happen at Fort Pickens, he focused on Fort Sumter. He sent warships, soldiers, and supplies to Fort Sumter knowing that the South would fire on those ships and/or attack the fort. He got his political objective by putting Major Anderson and the US soldiers in Fort Sumter at the risk of being killed by the bombardment.
As I have posted before, Lincoln's cabinet and generals had told him that sending such an expedition to Fort Sumter would result in a shooting war. According to the essay I referred to above, a March 27 letter to one of the cabinet members was, according to the essay, "undoubtedly discussed" with the cabinet along with other letters and editorials. The essay quotes the letter as follows:
In the name of God! why not hold the fort? Will reinforcing & holding it cause the rebels to attack it, and thus bring on "civil war"? What of it? That is just what the government ought to wish to bring about, and ought to do all it can ... to bring about. Let them attack the Fort if they will - it will then be them that commence the war.