From The Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln, Volume Six:
ON COLONIZATION ARRANGEMENTS
REPUDIATION OF AN AGREEMENT WITH BERNARD KOCK
APRIL 16, 1863. A. LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREETING:
Know ye that, whereas a paper bearing date the 3rd day of December last, purporting to be an agreement between the United States and one Bernard Kock for immigration of persons of African extraction to a dependency of the Republic of Haiti, was signed by me on behalf of the party of the first part; but whereas the said instrument was and has since remained incomplete in consequence of the seal of the United States not having been thereunto affixed; and whereas I have been moved by considerations by me deemed sufficient to withhold my authority for affixing the said seal:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby authorize the Secretary of State to cancel my signature to the instrument aforesaid.
Done at Washington, this sixteenth day of April, A.D. 1863.
A. LINCOLN.
By the President: WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
Bernard Kock’s scheme to colonize Cow Island(Ile A’Vache) off the coast of Haiti with freed slaves to grow cotton caught the attention of Haiti’s president, Fabre Geffrard, who wanted to develop “a true middle class using black immigrants from America”. President Lincoln was also interested in Kock’s plan because he considered colonization a possible avenue for freed slaves. The Disunion blog discusses Kock’s deal with the president in an analysis of Lincoln’s views on colonization. Apparently the president actually signed the Haiti contract either late on December 31, 1863 or the next morning shortly before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
You can read an account of the Cow Island Experiment at Thompson Family History. The piece is written by a descendant of Bernard Kock.
By December 1863 it was obvious that the plan had failed. In late December a ship sent by President Lincoln picked up the surviving “colonists”.
You can view Bernard Kock’s proposal to the president at American Memory. It is dated October 1, 1862.
