If (a) your claim to that property is disputed, (b) accessing that property requires you to first cross through my property, and (c) you insist upon crossing my property to reach the disputed plot upon demand and while showing overt and armed hostility towards me personally you cannot reasonably expect that I will acquiesce to your demands. Neither do you have a right to coerce my facilitation of your access to the disputed property on your own arbitrary whim. That is what is wrong with banging on my door at 2 AM with a shotgun in hand and demanding I let you cross my backyard.
Sumter was the property of the U.S. government.
That was a matter of dispute. Sumter was built their following a unilateral cession of the location to the federal government by South Carolina, yet in 1861 South Carolina adopted a secession ordinance and in doing so repealed all previous ties to the federal government. That would include Sumter. Sure, dispute this if you want and in fact a reasonable case could probably be made either way in a courtroom. That is why South Carolina sent diplomats to Washington to negotiate the property dispute with Lincoln. Lincoln would have none of it though, simply declared "it's all mine," and sent in the navy to blow up anyone who challenged that assertion.
The Davis regime was attempting to starve it into submission.
No they weren't. Food channels to Sumter had been handled for the previous several months by the South Carolina government. Up until a few weeks before the attack, a food arrangement had been made and they were being fully fed. Refusal of the Lincoln government to even so much as meet for the purpose of settling the disputed claim to the fort led to the food agreement being halted, however absolutely no reason existed as to why it could not and would not have been resumed if they would simply meet to negotiate the thing. But that ran contrary to Lincoln's "shoot first, ask questions later" philosophy of government.
Lincoln did what any reasonable person would do, attempt to peacefully and openly deliver food to the fort.
...yeah, on a fleet of heavily armed warships with explicit directions to fire upon anything and everything that denies them access to Charleston harbor.
There was no threat to anyone in Charleston at any time.
Lincoln's orders to fight their way into the harbor say differently.
Up until a few weeks before the attack, a food arrangement had been made and they were being fully fed.
"Up until a few weeks before.." One of the last messages that the Lincoln administration had from Major Anderson warned that he didn't have enough supplies to hold out for more than a few weeks. Without any reason to doubt his warnings then Lincoln quite rightly launched a resupply effort, making it clear to the Davis regime through a message to Governor Pickens that the effort was meant to land food only, and would only land men and munitions if opposed. And had Davis been interested in a peaceful solution then he would have held his fire and that is what would have happened.
...yeah, on a fleet of heavily armed warships with explicit directions to fire upon anything and everything that denies them access to Charleston harbor.
A prudent decision, given the confederate propensity to fire on anything and everything flying the U.S. flag.
Lincoln's orders to fight their way into the harbor say differently.
U.S. actions say different. In the three months leading up to the southern attack, and inspite of a number of provocations, the Lincoln administration had not made a single aggressive action.