Certainly not all Southerners were slave owners. Most no doubt believed they were fighting for a way of life, as they perceived it, but their leaders were fighting for an entirely different purpose.
—”I don’t think Lincoln was referring to the men who were fighting for the enslavement of an entire race.”
—”With malice toward none...”
4 March 1865 Second Inaugural Address
Lincoln offered conciliatory words to the North and the South.
“With malice toward none with charity for all with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right let us strive on to finish the work we are in to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan ~ to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
Also posted in reply #1.
Lincoln wanted to unify not punish, and get the war in the behind him. He was NOT in agreement with his fellow Republicans on this matter.
NB: Simply my view, not attempting to convince or convert.