lden time. Well it was for her and her country that her
exceptional position as the cherished daughter of a man of such
education and talent, occupied with political affairs, secured for her
an education that would otherwise have been unattainable to her.
However, she made the best possible use of such education as a
ladylike school permitted, was noted for her intelligence, and made
many friends; but her true education began and continued with Governor
Carroll at home.
Miss Carroll had early shown an intense interest in moral and
religious questions, following her father's views on these subjects.
She became interested in the ministrations of Dr. Robert J.
Breckenridge, of Kentucky, then settled over a Presbyterian church in
Baltimore.
Dr. Breckenridge was the uncle of John C. Breckenridge, afterward one
of the leading secessionists, utterly opposed to his uncle in
political views, and one of the candidates for the Presidency in 1860.
Dr. Robert J. Breckenridge was a valued friend of Governor Carroll.
Miss Anna Ella became a communicant and earnest member of his church,
and a mutual friendship arose, terminated only by the death of the
aged minister, who has left on record his high appreciation of the
mental abilities and the great services afterward rendered by his
remarkable parishioner.
We will give in part two letters from this excellent man to Miss
Carroll, written from Kentucky in after years. For want of space we
must greatly shorten them.
DANVILLE, Ky., _December 6, 1864_.
My Excellent Friend:
It is very seldom I have read a letter with more gratification
than yours of November 29th. How kind it is of you, after so many
events, to remember me; and how many people and events and trials
and enjoyments, connected with years of labor, rush through my
heart and my brain as you recall Maryland and Baltimore so
freshly and suddenly to me; and how noble is the picture of a
fine life, well spent, which the modest detail of some of your
efforts realizes to me. It is no extravagance, not even a trace
of romance; it is a true enjoyment, and deeply affecting, too,
that you give me in what you recount and what is recalled
thereby. 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
|