House of Representatives. Mis. Doc. No. 58, 45th Congress, 2d session. Claim of Anna Ella Carroll. Memorial of Anna Ella Carroll, of Maryland, praying for compensation for services rendered to the United States during the late civil war. May 18, 1878. * * * * * (Catalogue, page 1149.) Report on claim of Anna Ella Carroll. Senator Cockrell February 18, 1879. Senate Report No. 775, 45th Congress, 3d session, vol. II. * * * * * (Catalogue, page 1241.) Report of claim of Anna Ella Carroll. Representative E. S. Bragg. March 3, 1881. House report No. 386, 46th Congress, 3d session, vol. II. Note.--Most of these only to be seen by consulting the bound volumes in the Congressional Library. * * * * * (All the following letters, reports, etc., concerning Miss Carroll's literary and military services are reproduced from these Congressional documents.) [Illustration: Thomas A. Scott] CHAPTER III. RISE OF THE SECESSION MOVEMENT -- THE CAPITAL IN DANGER -- MISS CARROLL'S LITERARY LABORS FOR THE CAUSE OF THE UNION -- TESTIMONIALS FROM EMINENT MEN. "On the election of Mr. Lincoln, in 1860, the safety of the Union was felt to be in peril and its perpetuity to depend on the action of the border slave States, and, from her geographical position, especially on Maryland. In the cotton States the Breckenridge party had conducted the canvass on the avowed position that the election of a sectional President--as they were pleased to characterize Mr. Lincoln--would be a virtual dissolution of the "compact of the Union;" whereupon it would become the duty of all the Southern States to assemble in "sovereign convention" for the purpose of considering the question of their separate independence. In Maryland the Breckenridge electors assumed the same position, and as the Legislature was under the control of that party, it was understood that could it assemble they would at once provide for a convention for the purpose of formally withdrawing from the Union. The sessions, however, were biennial, and could only be convened by authority of the Governor. It therefore seemed for the time that the salvation of the Union was in the hands of Governor Hicks. Although he had opposed the election of Mr. Lincoln and all his sympathies were on the side of slavery, his strong point was devotion to the Union. With this conviction, founded upon long established friendship, Miss Carroll believed she might render some service to her country, and took her stand with him at once for the preservation of the Union, come weal or woe to the institution of slavery.