Washington was abuzz with rumors about a southern plot to invade the nation’s capital. “Many of the residents here are preparing to remove their families,” a D.C. resident wrote in a letter. “Almost everyone has talked of certain civil war; of streets drowned in blood, and of the city a prey to the flames.” By late January, Stanton was convinced that the rumors were true. He feared that his docile boss, the lame-duck president Buchanan, was not up to the task of protecting the capital. A lifelong Democrat, Stanton turned to Republicans for help. He warned Sumner about the conspiracy to take
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