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It is a fact that Lincoln was quoted as saying: “ but what about the tariff?”

You make the statement that: “He never said that.”

Several verbose posters here and in the past have expended great energy to discredit this quote without explaining why two or more documented sources, one being sworn testimony from a Virginia pro-Union legislator, and the other a clergyman reporting the quote to newspapers, both of whom likely did not know each other, would by coincidence make the exact same claim.

Well, since neither you, them, or me were there, why not focus on what we know Lincoln knew to be true.

The Treasury Department's Secretary, John A. Dix, notified Congress on February 11, 1861 that “little more” than $500,000 remained in the central depository in Washington.

Demands for $2 million “unanswered” requisitions had accumulated in the department, with $6 million more due to public creditors in early March. Dix predicted a $21.6 million shortfall by the end of the fiscal year.

Staff in most executive departments could not draw their salaries that January. Members of Congress had gone unpaid since the start of the session the previous December. Worse yet, according to Dix, “The War and Navy departments have calls for large requisitions [that] have been delayed on account of the exhausted condition of the Treasury.”d

In 1860, the tariff supplied the Treasury with 94.5% of its total revenue base.

Would Lincoln be referring to this?

PeaRidge: "It is a fact that Lincoln was quoted as saying: 'but what about the tariff?'
You make the statement that: 'He never said that.' "

I'm not certain of the historiography here, but certainly Lincoln would at some point have spoken words similar to "what about the tariff" -- for example, when talking about Federal revenues with his Secretary of Treasury, Chase.

However, since the vast majority of Federal revenues came from tariffs collected in Union ports, they could not have an immediate impact on Lincoln's actions of March & April 1861.

PeaRidge: "In 1860, the tariff supplied the Treasury with 94.5% of its total revenue base."

A tariff collected almost entirely from Union ports.
Huge wartime demands for money were addressed by Congress when it met, starting on July 4, 1861.
In the mean time, Washington's financial belts were tightened as never before, or since.

Why does the thought of overweight bureaucrats getting a financial haircut somehow not disturb me?