The Journal of Negro History, Volume 4, 1919 | Page 8

to the government that Kock had
sought the aid of capitalists and money makers. Suspicion as to the
honesty of his purposes was then aroused. It was finally discovered also
that he was in league with certain confederates to hand over slaves to
him as captured runaways on the condition of receiving a price for their
return. Lincoln investigated the matter and discovered that Kock was a

mere adventurer and the agreement with him was cancelled.[27]
A certain group of capitalists, whose names are not mentioned, then
secured the lease from Kock and entered into contract with the
government through the Secretary of the Interior, April 6, 1863.[28]
Under this agreement a shipload of colonists from the contrabands at
Fortress Monroe, said to number 411-435, were embarked.[29] An
infectious disease broke out through the presence on board of patients
from the military hospital on Craney Island and from twenty to thirty
died. On the arrival in the colony no hospitals were ready, no houses
were provided, and the resulting conditions were appalling. Kock was
sent along as Governor, and he is said to have put on the air of a despot
and by his neglect of the sick and needy to have made himself
obnoxious.
Rumors of the situation came to the President and he sent a special
agent, D. C. Donnohue, who investigated the matter and made a report.
Donnohue elaborately described the deplorable situation of the
inhabitants, the wretched condition of the small houses and the
prevalence of sickness. He further reported that the Haytian
government was unwilling that emigrants should remain upon the
island and that the emigrants themselves desired to return to the United
States. Acting upon the report, the President ordered the Secretary of
War to dispatch a vessel to bring home the colonists desiring to
return.[30] On the fourth of March the vessel set sail and landed at the
Potomac River opposite Alexandria on the twentieth of the same month.
On the twelfth of March, 1864, a report was submitted to the Senate
showing what portion of the appropriation for colonization had been
expended and the several steps which had been taken for the execution
of the acts of Congress.[31] On July 2, 1864, Congress repealed its
appropriation and no further effort was made at colonization.[32]
The failure of this project did not dim the vision of the successful
colonization of the freed slaves in the mind of President Lincoln. As
late as April, 1865, according to report, the following conversation is
said to have ensued between the President and General Benjamin F.
Butler: "But what shall we do with the Negroes after they are free?"

inquired Lincoln. "I can hardly believe that the South and North can
live in peace unless we 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, to the amount, I believe, of some 150,000
men. 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. You
have been a staunch friend of the race from the time you first advised
me to enlist them at New Orleans. You have had a great deal of
experience in moving bodies of men by water--your movement up the
James was a magnificent one. Now we shall have no use for our very
large navy. What then are our difficulties in sending the blacks away?...
I wish you would examine the question and give me your views upon it
and go into the figures as you did before in some degree as to show
whether the Negroes can be exported." Butler replied: "I will go over
this matter with all diligence and tell you my conclusions as soon as I
can." The second day after that Butler called early in the morning and
said: "Mr. President, I have gone very carefully over my calculations as
to the power of the country to export the Negroes of the South and I
assure you that, using all your naval vessels and all the merchant
marines fit to cross the seas with safety, it will be impossible for you to
transport to the nearest place that can be found fit for them--and that is
the Island of San Domingo, half as fast as Negro children will be born
here."[33]
This completes all of the evidence obtainable concerning Lincoln's
thought and plan for the colonization of the slaves freed by his
proclamation. From the earliest period of his public life it is easily
discernable that Abraham Lincoln was an ardent believer and supporter
of the colonization idea. It was his plan not only to emancipate the
Negro, but to colonize him in some foreign