This was a gigantic issue husbanded by the people of South Carolina while being bullied by Washington.
One week before South Carolina seceded:
“I am authentically informed that the forts in Charleston harbor are now being thoroughly prepared to turn, with effect, their guns upon the interior and the city. Jurisdiction was ceded by this State expressly for the purpose of external defence from foreign invasion, and not with any view that they should be turned upon the State.”
Governor Pickens to President Buchanan, December 17, 1860
Three weeks after Maj. Anderson took control of the unfinished building and three days after the Star of the West had attempted to run into the harbor:
In his letter of introduction to President Buchanan of January 12, Governor Pickens of South Carolina said,
“I have determined to send to you Hon. I. W. Hayne, the attorney-general of the State of South Carolina, and have instructed him to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, to the constituted authorities of the State of South Carolina.
“The demand I have made of Major Anderson, and which I now make of you is suggested because of my earnest desire to avoid bloodshed, which a persistence in your attempt to retain the possession of that fort will cause, and which will be unavailing to secure to you that possession, but induce a calamity most deeply to be deplored.”.
Major Anderson, after the Star of the West, asserted his military strength in correspondence with the Governor, saying circumstances might cause him to fire upon all vessels coming within range of his guns.
Imagine driving your wife and family around downtown Charleston in your carriage while this was going on.
Agreed. Remember also the Charleston civilians killed by the 18-month bombardment of Charleston by Federal troops during the war. They started firing on the city in the middle of the night, not from Fort Sumter which the Confederates still held, but from big guns like the Swamp Angel located in the marshes. Basically, the Union general had told the Confederate Army to stop defending your forts and batteries or we will bombard the Charleston civilians. And he did just that.
Years ago, I made my own list of casualties from this bombardment. I used newspapers and other sources for the information. See my old post listing them: Link to post 1,629 -- you have to scroll to the post, I think.
'I have determined to send to you Hon. I. W. Hayne, the attorney-general of the State of South Carolina, and have instructed him to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter, in the harbor of Charleston, to the constituted authorities of the State of South Carolina.' "
That was just one of many such demands made by Governor Pickens and other secessionists.
All such demands and all related threats against Union officials, firings on Union ships, seizures of Union property, etc. -- all those were unequivocal provocations of war.
The actual Confederate military assault on Fort Sumter was a clear act of war, the beginning of Civil War, followed soon after by a formal Confederate declaration of war against the United States, May 6, 1861.