Yes there was. Southerners attempted repeatedly to secure a meeting with Lincoln between January and Fort Sumter. He refused EVERY SINGLE ONE of them.
Of course he did; they were traitors.
President Lincoln continued the policy of the Buchanan administration. Attorney General Stanton to President Buchanan:
"These gentlemen claim to be ambassadors," he said. "It is preposterous! They cannot be ambassadors; they are lawbreakers, traitors. They should be arrested. You cannot negotiate with them; and yet it seems by this paper that you have been led into that very thing. With all respect to you, Mr. President, I must say that the Attorney General, under his oath of office, dares not to be cognizant of the pending proceedings. Your reply to these so-called ambassadors must not be transmitted as the reply of the president. It is wholly unlawful, and improper; its language is unguarded and to send it as an official document will bring the presidency to the point of usurpation."
-- The Coming Fury, p. 165 by Bruce Catton
Walt
As of March 1861 some of the senators who had offered to be intermediaries, such as Robert MT Hunter, had not seceded at all. Lincoln still refused him.
President Lincoln continued the policy of the Buchanan administration.
False. The Buchanan administration had negotiated informal ceasefire situations as several of the forts such as Fort Pickens. Lincoln completely disregarded them and went about making war on his own.