Perhaps, perhaps not. But they apparently did call for war. From an old post by 4CJ [the emphasis below was 4CJ's]:
Statement of Joseph Medill, editor of the Chicago Tribune, petitioning Lincoln and Stanton for relief:
I shall never forget how he suddenly lifted his head and turned on us a black and frowning face.
"'Gentlemen, he said, in a voice full of bitterness, 'after Boston, Chicago has been the chief instrument in bringing this war on the country. The Northwest has opposed the South as New England has opposed the South. It is you who are largely responsible for making blood flow as it has. You called for war until we had it. You called for Emancipation, and I have given it to you. Whatever you have asked you have had. Now you come here begging to be let off from the call for men which I have made to carry out the war you have demanded. You ought to be ashamed of yourselves. I have a right to expect better things of you. Go home, and raise your 6,000 extra men.
And you, Medill, you are acting like a coward. You and your 'Tribune' have had more influence than any paper in the Northwest in making this war. You can influence great masses, and yet you cry to be spared at a moment when your cause is suffering. Go home and send us those men.'
"I couldn't say anything. It was the first time I ever was whipped, and I didn't have an answer. We all got up and went out, and when the door closed, one of my colleagues said: 'Well, gentlemen, the old man is right. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.' “
Source: Ida Tarbell, (Joseph Medill meeting with Lincoln), Life of Lincoln, McClure, Phillips & Co., 1900, Vol. III, p. 149
Medill’s Chicago Tribune was a longtime supporter of Lincoln, the Republicans, and the Union. [Source: Lincoln and the Press. by Robert S. Harper].
It is funny to see Lincoln blaming the war he started on the demands of Northerners. That is your God with feet of clay there, BJK. He didn’t blame Davis for the war, at least not in this meeting. And Medill said that he was correct.
Y’all realize that this crap’s been going on for nigh on five months? And you all keep talking past each other, repeating the same old same old over and over again, and treating newspaper editorials as if they were fact instead of opinion? You guys really need to get a life.
In early 1861 Northern calls for war against secessionists rose & fell in volume depending on latest events.
Whenever Confederates unlawfully seized another Federal property, or threatened Union officials or fired on Union ships, then Northern newspapers called for actions to punish wrongdoers.
And whenever rumors of peace or compromises circulated, then calls for military actions stopped.
My point here is that no Northern call for military actions was based on economic reasons alone.
rustbucket: "It is funny to see Lincoln blaming the war he started on the demands of Northerners.
That is your God with feet of clay there, BJK.
He didn’t blame Davis for the war, at least not in this meeting.
And Medill said that he was correct."
Typical rubbish & nonsense from a Lost Cause mythologizer.
Clearly, as your own quote points out, Lincoln is here addressing people hoping to miserably weasel out of their duties to raise the troops Lincoln called up.
So the issue here was not Davis' actions, but rather what those Northerners had said & done to support the Union.
As I've reported frequently, in early 1861 there were many Northern calls for military action against secessionists.
But these were strictly driven by the actions of those secessionists in seizing Federal properties, threatening Union officials and firing on Northern ships.
When news or rumors of peace circulated, then those calls stopped.