He would have been glad to see relocation, but he never insisted on it.
Walt
[Wlat] He would have been glad to see relocation, but he never insisted on it.
You must believe in the tooth fairy as well. It ranks right up there with 40 acres and a mule.
On August 14, 1862 Lincoln invited five Blacks to the White House and explained it to them: "There is an unwillingness on the part of our people, harsh as it may be, for you free colored people to remain with us." "It is better for us both, to be separated."
April 1865, Lincoln to General Butler:
But what shall we do with the negroes after they are free? I can hardly believe that the South and North can live in peace, unless we can get rid of the negroes. Certainly they cannot if we don’t get rid of the negroes whom we have armed and disciplined and who have fought with us. . . . I believe that it would be better to export them all to some fertile country with a good climate, which they could have to themselves.
Benjamin F. Butler, Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: A Review of His Legal, Political, and Military Career (or, Butler’s Book) (Boston: A. M. Thayer & Co. Book Publishers, 1892), p. 903.