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eyes, shaded by long dark lashes and arched over by proud eyebrows. The fine forehead was framed in waving, gold-brown hair. She had something imperial in the pose of the head, and all her movements possessed an exquisite natural charm. No wonder that she came to be admired as a great beauty and broke many hearts. After the usual commonplaces, the conversation at the breakfast table, in which Miss Kate took a lively and remarkably intelligent part, soon turned itself upon politics.
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350:. Kate wrote her father after the convention, "You have been most cruelly deceived and shamefully used by the man whom you trusted implicitly and the country must suffer for his duplicity." Kate would reputedly have her revenge on Tilden eight years later when her paramour Conkling, the most powerful member of the Senate, maneuvered to throw the disputed 1876 election to the Republican
302:, Sprague kept his intentions to himself, but ended up voting with most Republican senators for conviction. This may have furthered his rift with Kate, whose father's chances for the 1868 Republican Presidential nomination would have been damaged had Johnson been removed from office. Next in line to the Presidency, under the law at the time, was radical Republican
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Willie
Sprague continued to live with his father, while the daughters went with Kate Chase, who took back her maiden name after the divorce. Willie died at age 25 in a Seattle boarding house. He had already been through one marriage and divorce. His wife gave birth to a child of questionable lineage
374:; her father had purchased the bulk of the estate in 1863 and constructed a mansion on it. She lived a very quiet life with her three daughters (according to the 1880 federal census), Ethel, Kitty, and Portia Sprague. After her son Willie committed suicide in 1890, at the age of 25, Kate became a
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In 1861, Salmon P. Chase became
Secretary of the Treasury in Lincoln's administration. He set up residence at 6th and E Streets Northwest in Washington, with Kate Chase as his hostess. Her soirees were eagerly attended in the nation's capital; she became, effectively, the "Belle of the North." She
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Hardly more than two or three—and they the nearest relatives on earth—were gathered together yesterday morning around the new-made grave in Spring Grove
Cemetery, where, with the simple ceremony of commitment—"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes"—the mortal remains of the daughter of Salmon P. Chase were
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Despite his position on the
Supreme Court, Chase let it be known in 1868 that he was available as a candidate for the Presidency. He switched parties from the Republicans (of whom he had been an important early member) to the Democrats, hoping they would nominate him. In the summer of 1868, Kate
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She was about eighteen years old, tall and slender and exceedingly well formed. . . . Her little nose, somewhat audaciously tipped up, could perhaps not have passed muster with a severe critic, but it fitted pleasingly into her face with its large, languid, but at the same time vivacious hazel
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Kate worked behind the scenes to foster her father's calculated efforts to wrest the 1864 Republican Party nomination for
President from Lincoln, but the plot blew up in Chase's face when it became public, requiring Chase to settle back into his Treasury Secretary position. One of Chase's many
342:. Although tradition prevented her appearance, as a woman, on the convention floor, she did much of the back-room maneuvering with the goal of winning the nomination after the first ballot. At times the prize seemed within their grasp, but the convention ended up nominating
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that year. The evidence conflicts as to whether Kate welcomed this prestigious appointment or rued it as an attempt to put her father "on the shelf" so as to preempt any hope of his attaining his most-cherished ambition for the highest office in the land.
276:, a textile magnate, on November 12, 1863 (the social event of the season) at Chase's home in Washington. Sprague's wedding gift to her was a tiara of matched pearls and diamonds that cost more than $ 50,000. As the bride entered the room, the
346:, the Democratic Governor of New York, whom Kate and other Chase operatives had been counting on to place her father's name in nomination. Kate placed the blame for the defeat on a conspiracy of New York politicians including
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Chase would make one final bid for the presidency in 1872, with Kate's full support, but by then he was physically weakened and a political has-been; he ran as a
Liberal Republican, challenging the incumbent
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played "The Kate Chase March" that composer Thomas Mark Clark had written for the occasion. President
Lincoln attended the reception, but his wife, who strongly disliked both of the Chases, did not.
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perfunctory offers of resignation from the
Cabinet was accepted by Lincoln (much to Chase's surprise and consternation) in 1864, but the President appointed Chase Chief Justice upon the death of
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visited battle camps in the
Washington area and befriended Union generals, offering her own views on the proper prosecution of the war, often contrary to the wishes of the administration.
205:, to serve as official hostess for her father, the newly elected Governor of Ohio, and by now widowed a third time. Beautiful and intelligent, Kate impressed such friends of her father as
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287:, had affairs with other women, and lost huge sums of money in poorly conceived business ventures. Some evidence suggests that he engaged in illegal cotton trading during the war.
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and his second wife Eliza Ann Smith. Eliza Chase died shortly after Kate's fifth birthday; Chase later married Sara Bella Ludlow with whom Kate had a difficult relationship.
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378:. She eventually lost her fortune and, to get by, resorted to raising chickens, growing vegetables and selling them door to door. She died in poverty in 1899, at age 58, of
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ran her father's campaign for the
Democratic nomination from their hotel on Fifth Avenue in New York City, where the convention was being held in famed
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So Fell the Angels, The Story of Chase, Lincoln's ambitious Chief Justice, his bold designing daughter, and the husband who could finance her plans
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The marriage ended in divorce in 1882. Before the divorce, Kate was accused of having an affair with the flamboyant and powerful New York Senator
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American Queen: The Rise and Fall of Kate Chase Sprague: Civil War "Belle of the North" and Gilded Age Woman of Scandal
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American Queen: The Rise and Fall of Kate Chase Sprague: Civil War "Belle of the North" and Gilded Age Woman of Scandal
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In 1873, following her father's death, Kate moved onto the "Edgewood" estate, which later became the neighborhood of
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They had four children: William (b. 1865), Ethel (b. 1869), Catherine (b. 1872) and Portia (b. 1873). Sprague had
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766:, a novel by Thomas Mallon, includes a fictional account of the Kate Chase/Roscoe Conkling extramarital affair
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Kate Chase's presence in Washington, D.C. would be fictionally recreated in the 1990s TV series
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of Vidal's book. Chase has also been featured in other Civil War-related novels, such as
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Kate Chase, Dominant Daughter: The Life Story of a Brilliant Woman and her Famous Father
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Kate Chase and William Sprague: Politics and Gender in a Civil War Marriage
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Kate Chase and William Sprague: Politics and Gender in a Civil War Marriage
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Kate Chase and William Sprague: Politics and Gender in a Civil War Marriage
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852:, by John Oller, Hachette Books, Oct 28, 2014. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
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778:, who provides comprehensive biographical information about Kate Chase
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called her "the most brilliant woman of her day. None outshone her."
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587:, Warhogs: A History of War Profits in America, 1997, pages 92 to 93
217:, a German-born American politician, who described her as follows:
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541:, Rhode Island Historical Society, Jun 2000, accessed 2 Sep 2008
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laid to rest forever beside the dust of her illustrious father.
748:- The author uses Kate Chase as a major character in his novel
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recognized her legacy: "No Queen has ever reigned under the
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Sprague was elected a U.S. Senator in 1863. During the 1868
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over the Democrat Tilden, who had won the popular vote.
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Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
760:- Kate Chase appears in several chapters of this novel
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Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
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People of Washington, D.C., in the American Civil War
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Lee's Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies
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Lee's Lost Dispatch and Other Civil War Controversies
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669:"Making Dad President Is 'Kate Chase's' Dream"
599:, Cumberland Island: A History, 2005, page 156
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612:. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 443.
891:First ladies and gentlemen of Rhode Island
722:Proud Kate, Portrait of an Ambitious Woman
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806:, Washington Hostess During The Civil War
511:. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp.
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320:only six months after they were married.
304:President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate
132:(August 13, 1840 – July 31, 1899) was a
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395:wrote that "the homage of the most
667:Van Dyne, Larry (April 20, 1967).
568:. U of Nebraska Press. pp. 46–47.
480:The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln
247:and Kate Chase Sprague, circa 1863
172:Chief Justice of the United States
170:'s first administration and later
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638:. U of Nebraska Press. p. 232.
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399:men in the country was hers."
143:. During the war, she married
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130:Katherine Jane Chase Sprague
104:Socialite; political adviser
656:Lincoln TV movie, IMDb page
442:. She is prominent in both
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372:Edgewood, Washington, D.C.
673:Columbia (Mo.) Missourian
634:Lamphier, Peg A. (2003).
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621:Leigh, Philip (2015).
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608:Nevin, John ( 1995).
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675:. Columbia, Missouri
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465:and is portrayed by
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256:Marriage and divorce
56:Katherine Jane Chase
886:American socialites
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746:Gore Vidal
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