You need to read the messages PeaRidge has posted regarding the outfitting of those ships, the manner in which they were outfitted, the manner in which the orders were given, and their behavior up to, during, and subsequent to Ft. Sumter.
It very much looks as if Lincoln very deliberately launched an invasion, and I expect he would have gotten away with it as well, so far as the Northeaster media would have reported it.
Just as then, same as now, the media were in the pockets of big government Liberals. Lincoln was a Liberal for his time period. The Social Justice Warriors of that time period were Northeaster Liberals (Harriet Beecher Stowe) from big cities like New York and Boston, and a divisive Lawyer from Illinois was running the country.
There are a lot of modern parallels with the past.
That is being prepared for different possibilities. If the resupply mission was repulsed or attack, you needed ships in the area while you figured out what to do next. You couldn't rightly have to send ships down from New York every time something happened.
It very much looks as if Lincoln very deliberately launched an invasion, and I expect he would have gotten away with it as well, so far as the Northeaster media would have reported it.
Just as then, same as now, the media were in the pockets of big government Liberals.
First of all, "liberals" and "big government" didn't necessarily mean the same thing then as they do now. Second, the most popular New York paper of the day, The New York Herald was Democrat and anti-Lincoln. Even the very liberal (I guess) Tribune editor Horace Greeley was writing that the country should simply let the South go. Before Sumter, that was a strong sentiment in the North, and if Lincoln had simply attacked or invaded South Carolina without sufficient provocation, the move would not have been popular or approved of by the newspapers and the public.
Lincoln was a Liberal for his time period. The Social Justice Warriors of that time period were Northeaster Liberals (Harriet Beecher Stowe) from big cities like New York and Boston, and a divisive Lawyer from Illinois was running the country.
There are a lot of modern parallels with the past.
In other words, when it suits your purpose you tell us how different the 19th century was from the 21st and when it suits your purpose they're very similar.