XXI THOMAS KING CARROLL Modesty and diffidence are not common traits in the average politician. Indeed, it would appear little short of impossible for a man with a markedly retiring disposition to win large political honors. But in the gallery of Maryland's governors there hangs the picture of one executive who was preeminently modest and quiet. His life began when the federation of the American states under the constitution was still in an experimental stage. He took part in the early political affairs of the state and witnessed America's development along democratic lines. He was in the heat of the slavery discussion, saw the conflict which sought to solve the negro problem, and watched over his native commonwealth when she joined in the task of binding up the wounds inflicted by war. And yet, through it all, Governor Carroll appears more as a spectator than a principal, not because he only looked on, but because he labored quietly for the causes which he favored. He joined the company of governors so modestly, he remained in office so brief a period, and his retirement from the executive mansion was so quiet, that somehow he seems mingled with the crowd rather than the leaders. Thomas King Carroll was born at Kingston Hall, Somerset county, April 29, 1793. He was descended from Capt. Henry Carroll, the proprietor of Susquehanna in St. Mary's county, who died shortly before the outbreak of the Revolution. Captain Carroll's eldest son was Col. Henry James Carroll, who married Miss Elizabeth Barnes King, the only daughter of Col. Thomas King, of Kingston Hall, Somerset county. Somerset was then a stronghold of the Presbyterians, and when announcement was made of an engagement between Miss King, a Presbyterian, and Colonel Carroll, a Roman Catholic, there followed considerable excitement in the county, and posters were distributed denouncing the marriage of a King and a Catholic. Upon his marriage Colonel Carroll and his wife took up their residence at Kingston Hall, and there Thomas King Carroll, their eldest son, was born. The home in which his boyhood was passed furnished fertile soil for the development of a refined and cultured character, and Governor Carroll, despite his support of the democratic party, was in a number of his ways a typical aristocrat of his day. Many of the old English customs were retained at Kingston Hall-all the servants wore livery, and when the family traveled it was in a coach and four with outriders. Young Carroll commenced his academic studies at Charlotte Hall School, in St. Mary's county. In 1802 he entered Washington Academy, Somerset county, where he continued for the following eight years, leaving that institution in 1810. He then became a member of the junior class of the University of Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated in 1811. In the fall of that year he began to study law in the office of Ephraim King Wilson, in Snow Hill, where he continued until 1813. He then entered the office of Gen. Robert Goodloe Harper, of Baltimore, and completed his law studies, qualifying at the bar of Somerset county in June, 1814. He had determined to practice law in Baltimore, but the sudden death of his father upset his plans and changed considerably the course of his life. When the elder Carroll died Thomas King Carroll abandoned law, and returning to Kingston Hall undertook the management of his father's large estate. The year 1814 was an eventful one in Mr. Carroll's life |