Few historians believe Butler's account. The real Lincoln had no respect for Butler's talents and accomplishments and wouldn't have flattered Butler and entrusted him with a serious project. I believe it was also proved that Butler did not meet with Lincoln on that date. A former freeper has been promoting the theory that Lincoln and Butler could have met on another day and had that discussion. Sure, and they could just as well never have had such a discussion at all.
I put little stock into the theory that facts are decided by majority or "experts."
It has long been my belief that most historians are biased in favor of Lincoln, and will just dismiss anything that is seen as maligning him.
It's no secret that Lincoln wanted blacks to leave, and he even initiated an experiment to move some of them to Central America. This experiment ended in disaster and he had to bring them back.
So whether Butler met with him or not, migrating blacks out of the US was on Lincoln's mind, and there are many sources that show this.
Getting back to those biased historians, they likewise dismiss the statements of Ward Hill Lamon regarding Lincoln writing out an arrest warrant for Chief Justice Taney, but there are 3 more allusions to this from other sources.
They don't want to believe it, so they stamp their credentials on it being false.