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When the question of the cause of the Civil War comes up, I generally turn to the main authority on the situation. For example, the below is from his 2nd Innaugural:

Well it's good that you regard Abe Lincoln as a valid authority regarding why the war was being fought, because he makes it very clear in his letter to Horace Greely.

My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union.

I take his word at a little over a year into the war more than I do his efforts to justify what he had already done by three years later.

Having wrecked the South, and having wrecked slavery, what is he going to say? That he fought the war to force the South back into the Union? Why was that worth the deaths of 600,000 people? No, the necessary political optics required something more noble than forcing subjugation on a group of people who didn't want it.

The rationalization seized upon was "abolition of slavery", not because it was true prior to the fact, but because it was something he believed the public would accept. People were deeply religious in those days, and would believe that it was "God's Will" to fight in a noble cause.

Clever Lawyer/Politician, He. Too clever by half.

I see Lincoln's letter to Greeley as Abe saying that paramount to him was saving the Union, and that if he could do it by involving slavery, he would. Surely you can see in that letter he had three options (not just the one that you bolded) for saving the Union by using the peculiar institution as leverage. He made it clear to Greeley what options were on the table. We both know which option he took. So clearly, Abe wasn't merely trying to justify, after the fact, his purpose in the 2nd Innaugural.

Not to mention, I have yet to look up the letter from Greeley that Abe was responding to.