[rustbucket]

If he was hoping to provoke a war then why would he make it clear that had the South not intervened then only food and supplies would be landed?

You trust a president that had just flip-flopped about evacuating the fort and tried to sucker South Carolina by sending an unsigned letter claiming he would only send in supplies?

[Non-Sequitur]

You trust a president that had just flip-flopped about evacuating the fort and tried to sucker South Carolina by sending an unsigned letter claiming he would only send in supplies?

A gross overstatement of the circumstances, but on the other hand why should Lincoln had trusted the peaceful intentions of the confederates when every action they had made to date had been desinged to only escalate the tensions? If there was no reason for trust on either side then Lincoln was leaving the matter of war up to them. Just as he said he would in his inaugural address.