Biography

Carroll was atypical of the 19th century American woman in that she was very actively involved in Washington politics.

Born to a prominent Maryland family, her father Thomas King Carroll was Governor of Maryland from 1830-1831. She became involved with her father's political and legal activities throughout her young life. She entered the mainly male world of politics through his training. During the 1850s, she was a propagandist for the anti-Catholic and anti-foreign Know-Nothing party. She gave lectures and published pamphlets for the party and campaigned for Millard Fillmore. When Lincoln was elected, she was originally not confident in his abilities. However, she wrote letters, articles, and pamphlets in support of the Union because she was strongly anti-slavery and against the secession of the Southern states. She actively fought to keep Maryland in the Union. She published two significant books during the war: The War Powers of the General Government (1861) and The Relation of the National Government to the Revolted Citizens Defined (1862). Both were published at her own personal expense. In these books, she outlined a constitutional theory under which the secession of the Souther states and the formation of the Confederacy were illegal and invalid, which was the theory that Lincoln exercised during wartime and which he pressed against the competing claims of Congress. Carroll claimed to also have helped in military strategies, but her role is controversial. After the assassination of Lincoln, she continued to work with reconstruction efforts, but her efforts were largely ignored after Lincoln's death. She appealed to Congress for recognition and compensation for her contributions to the War effort. In the 1880s, Congress passed a bill to put Anna Carroll's name on the pension rolls and to pay her $50.00 a month for life for the, "important military service rendered by her during the late Civil War."