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DiogenesLamp referring to Horace Greeley's "flip" on secession: "More like the Race Obsessed Liberal Lawyer President from Illinois made him an offer he couldn't refuse."

Naw, you don't understand Greeley, who was a... ah, complicated man.
Before the war, Greeley was a staunch abolitionist who wanted no compromises over slavery in the western territories.
During the Civil War Greely was a Radical Republican highly critical of Lincoln and opposed to Lincoln's renomination in 1864.

So after the election, in late 1860, Greeley's "let them go" position was intended to stiffen-up weak Republicans who were over-eager to compromise with Southern slaveocrats in order to preserve the Union.
Greeley was saying: don't compromise, if need be, let them go.

Once they did go, then Greeley's views changed to maintain a hard line against the Confederacy, including after Fort Sumter, Civil War.
Here is a brief review of this topic:

"After Lincoln's election, there was talk of secession in the South.
The Tribune was initially in favor of peaceful separation, with the South becoming a separate nation.
According to an editorial on November 9:

"If the Cotton States shall become satisfied that they can do better out of the Union than in it, we insist on letting them go in peace.
The right to secede may be a revolutionary one, but it exists nevertheless ...
And whenever a considerable section of our Union shall deliberately resolve to go out, we shall resist all coercive measures designed to keep it in.
We hope never to live in a republic where of one section is pinned to the residue by bayonets.[61]

Similar editorials appeared through January 1861, after which Tribune editorials took a hard line on the South, opposing concessions.[62]
Williams concludes that 'for a brief moment, Horace Greeley had believed that peaceful secession might be a form of freedom preferable to civil war'.[63]
This brief flirtation with disunion would have consequences for Greeley—it was used by his opponents against him when he ran for president in 1872.[63]
In the days leading up to Lincoln's inauguration, the Tribune headed its editorial columns each day, in large capital letters: 'No compromise!/No concession to traitors!/The Constitution as it is!'[64]
Greeley attended the inauguration, sitting close to Senator Douglas, as the Tribune hailed the beginning of Lincoln's presidency.
When southern forces attacked Fort Sumter, the Tribune regretted the loss of the fort, but applauded the fact that war to subdue the rebels, who formed the Confederate States of America, would now take place.
The paper criticized Lincoln for not being quick to use force.[65]

Through the spring and early summer of 1861, Greeley and the Tribune beat the drum for a Union attack.
'On to Richmond', a phrase coined by a Tribune stringer, became the watchword of the newspaper..."

So Horace Greeley and his New York Tribune were, ah, "complicated", but there's no evidence he was ever afraid of Lincoln, or afraid to put his thoughts in print.