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In case you are still in doubt about Lincoln's plotting over Sumter several months before his inauguration...

Confidential
Hon. F. P. Blair, Ser. Springfield, Ills.
My dear Sir Dec. 21. 1860

Yours giving an account of an interview with Gen. Scott, is received, and for which I thank you. According to my present view, if the forts shall be given up before the inaugeration, the General must retake them afterwards. Yours truly A. LINCOLN

You're amazing. Lincoln was plotting nothing. He made it clear in speeches and letters up to and including his inaugural that it was his position that the forts in the south were the property of the United States and should be held or, it already approptriated, then they should be reposessed. There was no plot. Nothing that he didn't say in the open.

Yours giving an account of an interview with Gen. Scott, is received, and for which I thank you. According to my present view, if the forts shall be given up before the inaugeration, the General must retake them afterwards. Yours truly A. LINCOLN

And this you call a conspiracy? The president-elect tells General Scott that the forts must be retaken *after* he is inaugurated? The Forts are *federal* territory, not *states* territory. All Lincoln is doing is asserting federal jurisdiction over federal territory. Hardly a plot. Looks to me like he is just saying that if they are taken, they must be retaken. Quite understandable given the fact that the fort was federal territory (which S.C. admitted) and not state territory. A simple request to retake the forts is hardly a plot. You'll have to do better than that - especially in light of the fact that Lincoln was under the impression that Ft. Sumter could hold out for a long time. It wasn't until *after* his inauguration that Lincoln learned that Ft. Sumter only had a few weeks of supplies left.

S.C. fired upon a *federal* fort, they fired upon a *federal* ship trying to resupply that fort. Sounds to me like the plotting was pretty much done all on S.C.'s side.