Sarah Ellen Blackwell

“ And let us remember, too, what it would have been for our country if the noble daughter of Governor Carroll had thought it her duty to keep out of politics while her country was perishing, and to regard the military movements, upon which its life depended, as something outside of a woman's province.
The nation belongs to its women as surely as it belongs to its men. All that concerns its welfare concerns them also, and nature has gifted them with especial attributes of heart and intellect to aid in its guidance and to aid in its salvation. ”

“ The active men of to-day were children when the Union was saved. Helpless children, when Miss Carroll, in the prime of her life and fullness of her powers, with clearness of perception, with firmness of character, with the light of genius upon her brow, devoted her time, her strength, her fortune, and her great social influence to the national cause that the men of to-day might have a country, proud, prosperous, and peaceful, to rejoice in themselves and to hand down in unbroken unity to their children. ”

“ Dear Miss Carroll:
I have carefully read your pamphlet, and I do not hesitate to say your claim is a strong one. You could not have a better witness than Colonel Scott, a man of the highest character. His testimony is clear and unequivocal, and if your claim is rejected I can attribute it to but one cause—you are a woman—a relic of barbarism against your sex; but still I believe you will succeed. I am satisfied that a large majority of the members of both Houses are fair-minded, honorable men, disposed to do what is right. ”

“ There is one great abiding and powerful issue to-day, and that is the issue whether the country and the Constitution shall be saved or whether it shall be utterly and entirely annihilated. With Pennsylvania it is a question of national existence, of life or death. * * * The great heart of Pennsylvania is beating to-day for the cause of the Union. * * * It is to decide the great question whether the liberty which has been handed down to us by our fathers shall be permitted to remain in the land, or whether chaos or desolation shall blot out the country and Government forever. ”

“ I know of no instance in which a woman not born to sovereign sway has done so much to avert the impending ruin of her country, and that not by cheap valor, like Joan of Arc, but by rare mental ability. As a Marylander, I am proud that the "Old Maryland line" was so worthily represented by you in the struggle for the Union.
You would have had your substantial reward long ago but for the very absurd opinion that by some fixed, mysterious law of nature the labor done by women is worth less than precisely similar work done by men. ”

“ Go on, madam, in aiding the cause to which you have devoted your talent; your country needs the labor of all her defenders. If the time will ever come when men will break away from passion and return to reason your labors will be appreciated; unless that time soon arrives, alas for this Republic; I have almost despaired of the wisdom of men. God's ways are mysterious, and my trust in Him is left me as a ground of hope.
I have the honor to be, madam, your obedient servant,
A. S. Diven. [6]
Baltimore, May 9, 1874. ”

“ Dear Miss Carroll:
I have not the vanity to suppose that my commendation can add to the high estimate placed by all upon your services to the Union in the late war; but as you have done me the honor to ask a candid expression of my opinion I venture to say that any statesman or author of America might be justly proud of having written such papers as the able pamphlets produced by you in support of the Government at that critical period. ”

“ Granted that this wonderful woman by the intense labor of heart and brain, by her whole-souled devotion of life and fortune, has saved the national cause—for the thousands upon thousands of precious lives laid down would have been of no avail had the plan adopted at the crisis of fate been an unwise one—this granted, a noble bill might be acted upon by Congress, but an ignoble one—never. ”

“ As long as it pleases the English people to maintain a royal line, it makes no difference to them whether its representative be a man or a woman. England never had a salic law. But America—when a grand woman comes to her for her deliverance at the crisis of her fate, crowned with heaven's own prerogative of genius, what America does for her in return for her accepted services is to stamp her under foot and bury her out of sight, that her well-earned glory may fall by default upon the ruling class. ”

“ It is environed within a narrow circle of two hundred thousand men in arms, and yet, sir, that short river which leads to the Capital of a great and proud country, thus defended and encircled by patriot troops, is so thoroughly blockaded by rebels that the Government, though its army has not an adequate supply of forage, cannot bring upon it a peck of oats to feed a hungry horse. ”

“ In ninety days more the nations of the world will, I fear, be justified in saying to us, "You have no more right to shut up the cotton fields of the world by a vain and fruitless effort to reconquer the territory now in rebellion than China or Japan has to wall themselves in", and in the eyes of international law, in the eyes of the world, and, I fear, in the eyes of impartial history, they will be justified in breaking our blockade and giving to the rebels means and munitions of war. ”

“ The Memphis and Charleston railroad, the only complete interior line of communication, would not necessarily have been touched. So long as the Confederacy could maintain its interior lines of communication complete, the United States could neither destroy its armies in the east nor open the Mississippi river. The National Government could only escape annihilation by reaching the center of the Confederate power and striking a fatal blow upon its resources. ”

“ I have just received a note from Miss Anna Ella Carroll, of Maryland, informing me she is going to Philadelphia, where she is a comparative stranger, and desiring an introduction to some of the eminent publicists of your famous city.
I venture to present her to you, sir, first, as an unquestionable (p. 025) lady of the highest personal standing and family connection; second, as a person of superior mind, highly cultivated, especially in the solids of American literature, political history, and constitutional law; third, of strong will, indomitable courage, and patient labor. ”

“ For what is there in our advanced life more worthy of thankfulness to God than that our former years were such that if we remember them with tears they are tears of which we need not be ashamed. My life during the almost twenty years since I left Maryland has been, as the preceding period had all been, a scene of unremitting effort in very many ways; and now, if the force of invincible habit permitted me to live otherwise, I should hardly escape by any other means a solitary if not a desolate old age. ”

“ In time a lively group of children filled the old Hall with life and gayety.
Thomas King Carroll, like many another Maryland planter, was fully convinced that in itself slavery was wrong. The early settlers of Maryland would gladly have excluded it, but the institution was forced upon them by the mother country, the English monarch and his court deriving large incomes from the sale of slaves and canceling every law made by the early settlers to prevent their introduction into the colony. ”

“ Before we have reached victory we have reached bankruptcy. We are to-day flooding the country with an irredeemable currency. In ninety days, with the patriotism of the people paralyzed by the inaction of our great army, the funded debt of the country will depreciate with a rapidity that will startle us. ”

“ Surely nothing more can be needed than your pamphlet, entitled "Miss Carroll's Claim before Congress," to insure the prompt and generous payment of it. Our country will be deeply dishonored if you, its wise and faithful and grandly useful servant, shall be left unpaid. ”

“ Although weighed down with an immense mass of obsolete law and custom, shall we say that England leads the van in integrity of principle and devotion to human rights? Although the doctrine of divine right was exploded long ago, England loyally holds to her Queen. ”

“ Lincoln and Mr. Stanton were opposed to its being known that the armies were moving under the plan of a civilian. Mr. Lincoln wanted the armies to believe that they were doing the whole business of saving the country."
Mr. Wade also writes to Miss Carroll:
"The country, almost in her last extremity, was saved by your sagacity and unremitting labor; indeed, your services were so great that it is hard to make the world believe it. That all this great work should be brought about by a woman is inconceivable to vulgar minds. ”

“ Up to that time no plan for the close of the struggle, except down the Mississippi, had ever occurred to the mind of any living man or woman, as far as known; but from that moment Mr. Lincoln thought of nothing else. He hastened to send Mr. Scott to investigate, and went himself at once to St. Louis to aid in putting the plan in motion.
Just after the fall of Fort Henry I called at the War Department and saw Mr. Tucker, then Assistant Secretary of War. He told me that Mr. Scott stated to him on leaving for the West, "This is Miss Carroll's plan, and if it succeeds the glory is hers." ”

“ Under our arrangements for securing a male aristocracy no services, however brilliant, could secure to a woman any post whatever. She must remain an unrecognized member, and being an unrecognized member for her there was no pay—not even her traveling expenses. Any help towards the circulation of her invaluable pamphlets had to come out of the private means of Thomas A. Scott. From first to last, for all her intense and unremitting labors through all the (p. 131) years of the civil war, she has, it would appear, received from the Government, in any department whatever, not one cent. ”

“ Late Secretary of Senate Military Committee.
Senator Howard tells Miss Carroll she has a right to feel disappointed that her claims should be neglected, but he says, "you know the great power of the military, who don't want you to have the recognition."
"Senator Howard," she replies, "there is something in (p. 118) moral integrity. I understand you, but just tell the truth. I ask only to be sustained by truth, and am not afraid of this power."
"Miss Carroll," he says with emphasis, "you have done more for the country than them all. ”

“ It may not be amiss here to submit that the two and only drawbacks or obstacles that we have met to the immediate, prompt, and unanimous passage of an act of Congress in recognition of and adequate compensation for the patriotic services and successful military strategy of Miss Carroll in the late civil war are found first in an obstruction which President Lincoln encountered and which he referred to when he explained to Senator Wade that the Tennessee plan was devised by Miss Carroll, and military men were exceedingly jealous of all outside interference. ”