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.
My recollection from reading the article is that Butler might have been a little fuzzy on the exact date, but it was more or less shortly before Lincoln's assassination. Spring of 1865.
What gets downplayed in the article are Butler's unreliability and the possibility that colonization was something Butler brought up, not Lincoln.
That has been asserted by modern day critics who adamantly do not wish to believe that Lincoln continued to discuss ideas that he had articulated for most of his adult life.
They insinuate that Butler was simply fueling his own aggrandizement and significance by making this assertion.
I am of the opinion that a Major General of the Union would be a man of high character and not given to lying. (Military men of this period valued honor. ) I am of the opinion that if that is what the man said he heard, then that is what he heard.
Now you can chose to believe one of two things. You can believe that Major General Butler was a liar, or you can believe that he heard Lincoln say what he claims; Sentiments Lincoln expressed for most of his adult life.
I chose to apply Occam's razor and believe that which most simply explains the event.