I have heard many Southerners say that, if Lincoln had lived out his second term, he would have deported the freed slaves and resettled them somewhere else. Some say the SW United States, other say to Central America. Is there any evidence that Lincoln intended to resettle the freed slaves, and, if so, where?
The evidence is in his own words.
He wanted to send them to Africa or Central America. He didn't care much where they went as long as they got their funky asses out of the United States.
Edit, okay, maybe I should give a reference.
I'm sure any evidence was destroyed...
I imagine Lincoln supported the idea of transporting freed slaves back to Africa in the area that ended up being Liberia. But there were so many blacks that it would have been utterly impractical to transport them all to Africa. America is a free country, and Lincoln believed in freedom. Some blacks had been here since before the Revolutionary War. They were no longer Africans. They spoke no African languages and knew no African culture. They spoke English and had the culture of Americans. So it does not seem like Lincoln had any ethnic cleansing sort of ideas about forcibly deporting people according to the color of their skin. Going back to Africa was just one alternative that freedmen had in addition to enfranchisement and assimilation. It also could have utterly destroyed the economy in some areas if suddenly most of the workers were gone.
Yes, there is serious evidence that Lincoln intended to try it. Whether he could have got Congress to come up with the funds (especially in a depressed post-war economy) is another question. Whether blacks would have cooperated is also questionable. If they hadn't cooperated, yet another question arises, which is whether he could he have gotten White support for coercive measures against them. Since he didn't survive, we'll never know; the idea of "Liberian colonization" was abandoned after Lincoln's assassination.
The GOP's Liberian Connection
http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo49.html
The Lincoln No One Knows: The Mysterious Man Who Ran the Civil War
http://www.amazon.com/Lincoln-No-One-Knows-Mysterious/dp/1567315348/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368421238&sr=1-1&keywords=the+lincoln+no+one+knows
Colonization After Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement
http://www.amazon.com/Colonization-After-Emancipation-Movement-Resettlement/dp/0826219098/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368423585&sr=1-1&keywords=Colonization+After+Emancipation%3A+Linc oln+and+the+Movement+for+Black+Resettlement