Washington House,
Washington City, Jan. 16, 1861.
My Dear Governor:
I have for some days intended to write and express my cordial admiration and gratitude for the noble stand you have now taken in behalf of the Union by the public address issued on the 3d instant. An extended relation with the leading presses of the country has enabled me in a public and more efficient manner to testify to this and create a public opinion favorable to your course of patriotic action throughout the land. Many of the articles you have seen emanated from this source.
I feel it will be a gratification to you, in the high and sacred responsibilities which surround your position, to know from one who is incapable of flattering or deceiving you the opinion privately held in this metropolis concerning your whole course since the secession movement in the South was practically initiated.
With all the friends of the Union with whom I converse, without regard to section or party, your course elicits the most unbounded applause. I might add to this the evidences furnished from private correspondence, but you doubtless feel already the sympathy and moral support to be derived in this way. I am often asked if I think you can continue to stand firm under the frightful pressure brought to bear upon you. I answer, yes; that my personal knowledge enables me to express the confident belief that nothing will ever induce you to surrender while the oath to support the Constitution of your country and the vow to fulfill the obligations of your God rest upon your soul.
As a daughter of Maryland, I am proud to have her destiny in the hands of one so worthy of her ancient great name; one who will never betray the sacred trust imposed upon him. "When God is for us, no man can be against us," is the Christian's courage when the day of trial comes.
I shall continue to fight your battle to the end.
Your sincere friend,
A. E. Carroll.
Well might Governor Hicks say to her again and again, as in a letter to her in 1863: "Your moral and material support I shall never forget in that trying ordeal, such as no other man in this country ever went through."
A little further on, Governor Hicks writes as follows:
Annapolis, Md., December 17, 1861.
My Dear Miss Carroll: