patriotism, to
which I cannot think a just Government will prove ungrateful.

I am, dear Miss Carroll, always most sincerely and truly yours,

CHRIS. C. COXE.[17]

[Footnote 17: Christopher C. Coxe held many offices
of trust throughout the war, was quite eminent as a
poet and man of letters, and was pension agent at
Baltimore.]

* * * * *

PETERSBORO', N. Y., _May, 1874_.

Miss Anna Ella Carroll:

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.

GERRITT SMITH.[18]

[Footnote 18: Gerritt Smith was a noted
philanthropist, Member of Congress, one of the
first so-called Abolitionists, and a man of immense
wealth.]

* * * * *

WASHINGTON, D. C. _June 5, 1874_.

Dear Miss Carroll:

I did not receive your polite note and the pamphlet in relation
to your claim till this morning. The statement of your case is
very strong, both as to the clear proof of "value received" from
you by the Government, and on which was founded its promise to
pay, and as to the favorable opinions of your literary and
military services expressed by leading men. 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. You should persist in your just claim, if only to
establish the principle that the value of work should be
estimated according to its merits and not with reference