In other words, Lincoln himself is spewing the same line of argument Non-Seq just tried.
Forget responsibility for one's own actions. "The South made Lincoln do it"
Kinda not-true the way things turned out, wasn't it? Virginia offered no physical blows to the Union, but Lincoln blockaded Virginia anyway on May 2nd, and a Union steamer fired on a Virginia state militia battery on Chesapeake Bay on May 9th. Then, the day that Virginia's plebiscite voted to ratify the secession ordinance, Lincoln sent four regiments, totalling 13,000 men, across the river to occupy Arlington and Alexandria and capture some Virginia mounted troopers who were lawfully stationed there. The captain of the federal armed steamer Pawnee further sent a truculent note to the militia commander there, to surrender to federal troops (on what authority? if under U.S. law Virginia was still a State!) or retire. They retired from the area.
Pretty nice way to treat a state that hasn't done anything but report out a state ordinance you don't like and don't think is legal. So, how legal was it for Lincoln to make a warlike deployment into Virginia, under what authority did he do so, and how do the Union apologists square his deeds with his inaugural words?
Was Virginia Lincoln's enemy, or he theirs?