His actions in urging it's passage and writing to the governors of all the states, including the seceded Southern states, indicate that he fully believed this would work in securing the return of the Southern states.
Much effort was put into this thing, and it's asking too much of credibility to believe it was some sort of diabolical plan on Lincoln's part.
Lincoln faced a financial crises, and if the Southern states would return, his money problems would be solved. You may not know this, but Lincoln's mentor was Henry Clay, and their governing philosophy was "Mercantilism", which is not that far from Keynsian "pump priming" economics.
The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 is an example of the sort of big projects Lincoln and Clay liked. It greatly enriched the Railroad barons of that era. You do know that Lincoln was a corporate Railroad lawyer?
You’ve been duped by the postmodernist movement among historians.
What was the fruit of Lincoln’s Civil War efforts?
You could call it—the end of slavery in our country.
Consistent with his deepest philosophical beliefs.
The Democrats were furious that Lincoln and the Republicans halted their slave trade, because of how profitable it was, and so they sent one of their sick and cowardly clowns (not a scarce character among them) to murder Lincoln.