[PeaRidge]

Our pal, Brojoke, is pulling our legs.

The story of asking a state not to secede for a fort is newspaper fodder.

Lincoln did visit the Virginia Peace Conference, but as the President-elect. The Conference adjourned before he took office.

Therefore, he did not have the vested authority to make any offer. It was a dare on his part to avoid compromise.

Brojoke tried to offer up a conundrum but failed miserably.

[BroJoeK]

PeaBrain: "Our pal, Brojoke, is pulling our legs.
The story of asking a state not to secede for a fort is newspaper fodder.
Lincoln did visit the Virginia Peace Conference, but as the President-elect.
The Conference adjourned before he took office."

You are correct that historiography of this report is disputed, and some historians argue it never happened.
But some things are not disputed, for example:

"Both sides believed that the first side to use force would lose precious political support in the border states, whose allegiance was undetermined; before Lincoln's inauguration on March 4, five states had voted against secession, including Virginia, and Lincoln openly offered to evacuate Fort Sumter if it would guarantee Virginia's loyalty."

But, Virginia's vote against secession (88-45) was not March 4, it was April 4, after Lincoln's inauguration, as explained here.

"At Lincoln's invitation, unionist John B. Baldwin of Augusta County, met with Lincoln on April 4.
Baldwin explained that the unionists needed the evacuation of Fort Sumter, a national convention to debate the sectional differences, and a commitment by Lincoln to support constitutional protections for southern rights.[25]
Over Lincoln's skepticism, Baldwin argued that Virginia would be out of the Union within forty-eight hours if either side fired a shot at the fort.
By some accounts, Lincoln offered to evacuate Fort Sumter if the Virginia convention would adjourn.[26]"

Those words above, "by some accounts" mean the story is not totally verified, but there was also an earlier report of Lincoln's offering up a fort for a state, which suggests such an idea was in the air.