You can't search the internet yourself? Well Major General Benjamin Butler did say it, and it can be verified by any number of other sources. This article also proves he was in Washington at the time he said he was, Which pretty much knocks down the argument of critics to the contrary.
There is also this little gem at that link.
Throughout this period Butler was aware that Treasury Department agent Hanson Risley accompanied the president at City Point.[31] Risley, incidentally, was a central figure in the larger cotton-trading controversy that had drawn the ire of several northern congressmen against the Lincoln administration, including criticism directed at the president himself. A close associate of Seward and political boss Thurlow Weed, Risley had been involved in the granting of cotton-trading permits with the south to Lincoln's personal friends, including Leonard Swett and the brother of Ward Hill Lamon.
Loss of what wartime records? Literally every word Lincoln wrote or spoke for the record is available online.
You should solicit your answer from the New York Times Blogger who wrote it. His name appears to be Sebastian Page.
You seem to be attacking the messenger. Perhaps you should attack the message? I don't think you will have any luck there, because it appears that the claim is true.
You're the one who quoted him, not me.
Actually, no. Butler didn't meet Lincoln when he said he did. Magness (a.k.a. gopcapitalist) says the Butler met Lincoln on another day.
What gets downplayed in the article are Butler's unreliability and the possibility that colonization was something Butler brought up, not Lincoln.
If you'd read the article in its entirety you would know that while it puts Butler in a meeting with Lincoln just shortly before the Fords Theater incident, it claims that nobody knows what they conferred about. It also puts a lot of doubt on Butlers account. Next time find a better source. (I'm just trying to be objective, like you)