As for Ben Butler, he is not always the most accurate reporter of events; hard to know what Lincoln told him (if anything); what he heard; and what the context was. "Reminiscences" are often tricky sources.
What is interesting about Lincoln is that he often talked about colonization, especially to racial conservatives, but never lifted a finger to do anything about it. He surely did not Butler's "report" to know it was impossible to accomplish. Some sort of colonization in North America -- a kind of Indian Removal program -- might have been partially successful, but Lincoln never pushed for that either.
Paul Finkelman
Barksdale, Yvette wrote:
HI Paul DuBois' source was Wesley, "Lincoln's Plan for Colonizing the Emancipatd Negro", Journal of Negro History, IV ,pp. 12 -13 - It turns out it is available on line - http://dinsdoc.com/wesley-1.htm . Wesley cites as a source - Butler's Reminiscences, pp. 903 - 904.Re colonization laws - Du BOis reports that 1) in an April 16, 1862 act which abolished slavery in the District of COlumbia, Congress appropriated $100,000 voluntary black emigration - $100.00 each. The act also authorized the President to "make provision for trasnportation, colonization and settlemtn, in some tropical country beyond the limits of the U. S. of usch persons of the AFrican race, made free by the provisions of this Act" 2) that by an Act of July 17, 1862 President was authoirzed to colonize blacks made free by the confiscation acts. and 3) He also refers to a House bill, not enacted, which would have appropriated $200 million: (twenty million for colonization and the remaining 180 million for purchase) of $600,000 slaves of Unionist owners in Border states. yb ********************************************* Professor Yvette M. Barksdale Associate Professor of Law The John Marshall Law School 315 S. Plymouth Ct. Chicago, IL 60604 (312) 427-2737 (email:) [EMAIL PROTECTED] *****************************************************---------- From: Paul Finkelman[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Reply To: Discussion list for con law professors Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 8:12 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: lincoln and colonization The evidence on Lincoln and colonization is very mixed and not nearly as clear as DuBois would have us believe. Most Lincoln scholars doubt that he took colonization seriously; on the other hand, he well understood the level racism in America; Lincoln was also a master of political misdirction; in the sense that he might very well have asked for this information, only to use it to prove that colonization impossible, which he already knew. There is no communication from Lincoln to Butler on this subject for 1865 in The Collected Papers of Abraham Lincoln. This does not mean he did not have this discussion with Butler, but I would be curious what the source is. I do not have handy copy of DuBois's Black Reconstruction to check his source. By the spring of 1865 Lincoln was advoctating suffrage for, at a minimum, black veterans. I have no idea what the "colonization laws" were that Yvette refers to. -- Paul Finkelman Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law University of Tulsa College of Law 3120 East 4th Place Tulsa, OK 74104-3189 918-631-3706 (office) 918-631-2194 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED] Barksdale, Yvette wrote:For a discussion of LIncoln and the colonization movement see W. E. B. Du Bois Black Reconstruction in America 1860 - 1880, pp. 145- 149 .(Touchstone ed. 1995), arguing that LIncoln was strongly in favor of colonization and was dissuaded only by the practical difficulties. For WEB Du Bois states that as late as 1865 Lincoln said to General Butler "...what shall we do with the Negroes after they are free?..... I can hardly believe that hte south and north can live in peace unless we get rid of the Negroes," Lincoln then requested Butler provide practical estimates of the cost of exporting the freed slaves. Butler responded there were not enough ships to export African -Americans blacks back to Africa fast enough to keep up with the birth rate of new children born here. The colonization laws were later repealed after African-Americans lost interest in leaving. yb
-- Paul Finkelman Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law University of Tulsa College of Law 3120 East 4th Place Tulsa, OK 74104-3189 918-631-3706 (office) 918-631-2194 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED]
