Governor Wise, fearing an incursion into Virginia to rescue John Brown, had requested that Buchanan use federal troops to break up rumored "depots" in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Ohio where such a force may be gathering. Buchanan assured Wise that federal troops would be available in Virginia but that any such federal efforts in other states would be a "palpable invasion of state sovereignty" and would set a dangerous precedent. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
James Buchanan to Governor Wise, November 28, 1859, quoted in John B. McMaster, A history of the people of the United States: from the Revolution to the Civil War Volume 8, 1850-1861 (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1913), 323-324.
Record Data
Type
Legal/Political
