Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1899-08-10

former governor of Rhode Island, and
daughter of the late Salmon T. chase,
governor of Ohio, United States sena-
tor and chief justice of the United
States supreme court, who died at her
homestead, Edgewood, in Washing
toms suburbs July 81, had a most ro-
mantle record. Some one has said that
Kate Chase Sprague was the Nine de
Stael OF America, but later years Will
have to furnish the perspective neceS-
sary to set proper seal upon that
likeness. Those that have known her
in her day will always speak OF her
as brilliant, ambitious, spirited and
daring woman, intense in her pur-
poses. indefatigable in her efforts.
She had great personal beauty and a
ready wit, an ability that enabled her
to reign in the social world. She in
herited much of the genius of her
father. Salmon p. Chase, Lincoln S
secretary of the treasury, which, COM
bined with an intimate and practical
knowledge of governmental workings
in the days of the war, gave her a
political power such as probably no
other woman in this country has ever
possessed.
She was born in Ohio in 1910, and
was barely more than 20 when she
went to Washington with her father,
who was to take his place in the cabl-
net. Young as she was, she
had seen service in public life. While
her father was governor of Ohio she
had been his confidential secretary,
and by constant association with
him had taken on many of his man
ners and habits of life and thought.
He was imperious and high-tempered,
and so was she. His self-esteem was
one of his greatest intirmities, and
the daughter was not a step behind
him.
1t was the dream of her young life
that she should some time see her
father president of the country, and 1t
is certain she subordinated many of her
plans to this one overpowering idea,
Her beauty and her fathers place in
the cabinet placed her in the front rank
of society in Washington, and it was
not long before she was using her
power to attract the leading men of the
capital to her. Those in public life
We'd for her favor and she accorded it
in proportion to their position and in
fuence, immediate or prospective. For
the men that came to her in marrying
mood she had no thought in those early
days, and passed them away with
freezing imperousness. They had NO
place in the plan of her campaign.
The women of the capital she never
needed. She considered them as use
less as the love-lorn men, and could not
see how they could ever help her to the
realization of her dream. But the
enemies she then made were never lost
to her, and surely counted against her
in the days that came.
When she was "a, however, there APP
peared as a sutton for her hand, Gov
ernor William Sprague of Rhode ISL
and He was a man of great wealth
had served with honor in the battles oil
the war; and there was that about him
which made the young woman believe
he might be of great use to her. She
married him as mere step forward in
the furtherance of her ambition, and
not with any thought of love, as events
were made to show.
This marriage proved to be the mis-
take of her life, and it was not many
years before she realized it, Her hus-
band, governor then and senator after
ward, Brought no addition to her power
and helped her not at all in the cam
paign in her fathers favor. But she
was not east down to the point of for
saking her plan, and when, after pass
ing from the cabinet. her father went
into the supreme court OF the nation
there to become its chief justice, she
redoubled her efforts. She employed
every method known to the science OF
politics to advance his cause. An
enormous fund was raised and sys-
tematic corruption of the newspaper
correspondents at Washington was at
tempted. A list was prepared by this
clever, audacious woman, of men who
SHOulu receive 9luU per Weeh III duNo-
eating the nomination of the chief JUS
tice. She once boosted to the writer Of
this article that she had the receipts of
many men. whom she named, for
money accepted in this service. In
that list are the names of several per-
sons VINO stand very high in wealth
and political power today. But all the
campaigning was for naught. All she
could do was in vain, and when, in
1873, her father died, without her hopes
having been realized in the slightest
regree, she gave up and whatever pow
er she had ever had was at an end.
Her married life had never been hap
by. Her husband had established her
in palatial residence at Canonchet, R.
l., destined to be the scene OF a great
sensation in later day. She was ex-
travagant in everything. and this led
TO feud between her and the members
of her husbands family. They warned
him that she was leading him on at too
rapid pace. and when she learned Of
this she vowed a lasting vengeance