MISS CARROLL:--I can not take leave of my public life without expressing my deep sense of your services to the country during the whole period of our National troubles. Although a citizen of a State almost unanimously disloyal and deeply sympathizing with secession, especially the wealthy and aristocratic cla.s.s of her people, to which you belonged, yet, in the midst of such surroundings, you emanc.i.p.ated your own slaves at a great sacrifice of personal interest, and with your powerful pen defended the cause of the Union and loyalty as ably and effectively as it has ever yet been defended.
From my position on the Committee on the Conduct of the War, I know that some of the most successful expeditions of the war were suggested by you, among which I might instance the expedition up the Tennessee River.
The powerful support you gave Governor Hicks during the darkest hour of your State"s history, prompted him to take and maintain the stand he did, and thereby saved your State from secession and consequent ruin.
All those things, as well as your unremitted labors in the cause of reconstruction, I doubt not, are well known and remembered by the members of Congress at that period.
I also well know in what high estimation your services were held by President Lincoln: and I can not leave the subject without sincerely hoping that the Government may yet confer on you some token of acknowledgment for all these services and sacrifices.
Very sincerely, your friend, B. F. WADE.
On the 28th of February, 1873, three years after his leaving public life, Judge Wade addressed the following letter:
_To the Chairman of the Military Committee of the United States Senate:_
DEAR SIR:--I have been requested to make a brief statement of what I can recollect concerning the claim of Miss Carroll, now before Congress. From my position as Chairman of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, it came to my knowledge that the expedition that was preparing, under the special direction of President Lincoln, to descend the Mississippi River, was abandoned, and the Tennessee expedition was adopted by the Government in pursuance of information and a plan presented to the Secretary of War, I think the latter part of November, 1861, by Miss Carroll. A copy of this plan was put into my hands immediately after the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson. With the knowledge of its author I interrogated witnesses before the Committee to ascertain how far military men were cognizant of the fact. Subsequently President Lincoln informed me that the merit of this plan was due to Miss Carroll; that the transfer of the armies from Cairo and the northern part of Kentucky to the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was her conception, and was afterwards carried out generally, and very much in detail, according to her suggestions.
Secretary Stanton also conversed with me on the matter, and fully recognized Miss Carroll"s service to the Union in the organization of this campaign. Indeed, both Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Stanton, the latter only a few weeks before his death, expressed to me their high appreciation of this service, and all the other services she was enabled to render the country by her influence and ability as a writer, and they both expressed the wish that the Government would reward her liberally for the same, in which wish I most fully concur.
B. F. WADE.
We give extracts from letters written Miss Carroll by Judge Wade, after his retirement from public life:
JEFFERSON, OHIO, _Sept. 9, 1874_.
This Congress may be mean enough to refuse to remunerate you for your services, but thank heaven they can not deprive you of the honor and consciousness of having done greater and more efficient services for the country in the time of her greatest peril than any other person in the Republic, and a knowledge of this can not long be suppressed, though I do not underrate the mighty powers that may be arrayed against you.
B. F. WADE.
JEFFERSON, OHIO, _Aug. 14, 1876_.
I rejoice that you are to have the testimony in your case published by Congress, as I can not but believe that Congress, when they have the facts properly before them, will be shamed into doing you justice, though late.
I fully appreciate and deeply regret the injustice done you as though the case were my own. The country almost in her last extremity was saved by your sagacity and unremitted labor; indeed your services were so great that it is hard to make the world believe it. Many have been most generously rewarded for services having no more proportion to yours than a mole hill to a mountain--and that all this great work should be brought about by a woman is inconceivable to vulgar minds, but I hope and believe that justice will triumph at last.
B. F. WADE.
JEFFERSON, OHIO, _Oct. 3, 1876_.
The truth is, your services were so great that they can not be comprehended by the ordinary capacity of our public men, and then again your services were of such a character that they threw a shadow over the reputation of some of our would-be great men. No doubt great pains has been taken in the business of trying to defeat you; but it has been an article of faith with me that truth and justice must ultimately triumph.
Ever yours truly, B. F. WADE.
FROM REVERDY JOHNSON.
WESTMINSTER PALACE HOTEL, } LONDON, _Nov. 29, 1875_. }
MY DEAR MISS CARROLL:--I remember very well that you were the first to advise the campaign on the Tennessee River in November, 1861. This I have never heard doubted, and the great events which followed it demonstrate the value of your suggestions. That this will be recognized by the Government sooner or later I can not doubt....
Sincerely your friend, REVERDY JOHNSON.
FROM ORESTES H. BROWNSON.
QUINCY, ILL., _Sept. 17, 1873_.
MISS A. E. CARROLL:--During the progress of the war of the rebellion, from 1861 to 1865, I had frequent conversations with President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton in regard to the able and efficient part you had taken in behalf of the country, in all of which they expressed their admiration and grat.i.tude for the patriotic and valuable services you had rendered the cause of the Union. In the hope that you would be adequately recompensed by Congress....
I am your obedient servant, O. H. BROWNSON.
LETTER OF HON. THOMAS A. SCOTT TO HON. JACOB M. HOWARD, Chairman of the Senate Military Committee upon Miss Carroll"s claim for a pension after the close of the war:
HON. JACOB M. HOWARD, UNITED STATES SENATE:--On or about the 30th of November, 1861, Miss Carroll, as stated in her memorial, called on me as a.s.sistant Secretary of War, and suggested the propriety of abandoning the expedition which was then preparing to descend the Mississippi River, and to adopt instead the Tennessee River, and handed me the plan of the campaign as appended to her memorial, which plan I submitted to the Secretary of War, and its general ideas were adopted. On my return from the South-west in 1862, I informed Miss Carroll, as she states in her memorial, that through the adoption of this plan, the country had been saved millions, and that it ent.i.tled her to the kind consideration of Congress.
THOS. A. SCOTT.
LETTER OF HON. THOMAS A. SCOTT TO HON. HENRY WILSON, Chairman of the Military Committee, United States Senate:
PHILADELPHIA, _May 1, 1872_.
MY DEAR SIR:--I take pleasure in stating that the plan presented by Miss Carroll, in November, 1861, for a campaign up the Tennessee River and thence southerly, was submitted to the Secretary of War and President. And, after Secretary Stanton"s appointment, I was directed to go to the western armies and arrange to increase their effective force as rapidly as possible. A part of the duty a.s.signed to me was the organization and consolidation into regiments of all the troops then being recruited in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, for the purpose of carrying through _this campaign_, then inaugurated.
This work was vigorously prosecuted by the army, and as the valuable suggestions of Miss Carroll, made to the Department some months before, _were substantially carried out through the campaigns in that section_, great successes followed, and the country was largely benefited in the saving of time and expenditure.
I hope Congress will reward Miss Carroll liberally for her patriotic efforts and services.
Very truly yours, THOMAS A. SCOTT.
HON. HENRY WILSON, _Chairman of the Military Committee, United States Senate_.
LETTER FROM HON. THOMAS A. SCOTT TO MRS. GAGE.
NO. 233 SOUTH FOURTH ST., } PHILADELPHIA, _Mar. 29, 1880_. }
DEAR MADAM:--I have your letter of March 25th in regard to Miss Carroll"s matter, and beg to say in reply that I do not know whether the old papers are on file in the War Department or not; I presume the only way to ascertain would be to apply to the Department direct. I have done all that I feel I can do in this matter, having given my evidence before the Committee in the most concise and direct form possible. I hope that Congress will do something for Miss Carroll, but with their present economical habits, I doubt very much whether they will.
Hoping that the Committee in charge of the matter may have success,
I am, very truly yours, THOMAS A. SCOTT.