Disunion: The Woman Who Saved the Union?

(NYTimes) ... Like her home state, she bridged North and South – and linked an older America with a newer one. The 45-year-old Carroll was a daughter of Maryland, as well as of a remarkable political dynasty. Her father had been governor three decades earlier; her cousin had been the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence. Although born and raised on a remote plantation on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, she had grown up reading Shakespeare, Kant, Blackstone and Coke – paying far more attention to literature, law and philosophy than needlework and housekeeping. At age 14, when her father took office, she was already advising him on statecraft, offering sage wisdom derived from the ancient Greek lawgiver and military strategist Lycurgus of Sparta. Continued