“I’d give him credit for doing that if that was what he set out to do, but given that it was a subsequent afterthought, done only because of the usefulness of it to both the war effort and his political power, i’ll give him credit for being a clever manipulator of the public.”
Results count. Little else matters.
Well his results were not what he wanted. What he wanted was to reassert control, and resume having that Southern export trade routing through his friends pockets, with all the slaves remaining in harness powering that money machine.
Now he greatly underestimated the resistance he was going to face when he started that war, and so he didn't get what he wanted when he began it.
Of course what he got instead is greatly increased federal power and control over the rest of the country, which for him and his cronies was not a bad deal.
Wasn't so good for the actual people of the nation, but was great for the cronies exploiting government connections. Of course this stuff got so bad that it came to a head under the Grant administration and the public finally noticed.