Richmond, Va., Nov. 13, 1859.
To His Excellency, James Buchanan, President of the
United States, and to the Honorable Postmaster-General of the United, States:
gentlemen: — I
have information such as has caused me, upon proper affidavits, to make
requisition upon the Executive of Michigan for the delivery up of the person of
Frederick Douglass, a Negro man, supposed now to be in Michigan, charged with
murder, robbery, and inciting servile insurrection in the State of Virginia. My
agents for the arrest and reclamation of the person so charged, are Benjamin M.
Morris and William N. Kelly. The latter has the requisition and will wait on
you to the end of obtaining nominal authority as post-office agents. They need
to be very secretive in this matter, and some pretext for traveling through
this dangerous section for the execution of the laws in this behalf, and some
protection against obtrusive, unruly, or lawless violence. If it be proper to
do so, will the Postmaster-General be pleased to give to Mr. Kelly, for each of
these men, a permit and authority to act as detectives for the Post-office
Department, without pay, but to pass and repass without question, delay, or
hindrance?
Respectfully submitted,
By your obedient
servant,
henry A. Wise.
SOURCES: Frederick Douglass, The Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass: From 1817-1882, p. 271; Booker T. Washington, Frederick Douglass, p. 192-3; William J. Simmons, Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising,
p. 71; James Monroe Gregory, Frederick
Douglass the Orator, p. 42.
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