Kate Chase Sprague was born in 1840 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the second daughter to the second wife of a devout but ambitious lawyer. Her father, Salmon P. Chase, rose to prominence in the antebellum years and was appointed secretary of the treasury in Abraham Lincoln's cabinet while aspiring to even greater heights. Beautiful, intelligent, regal and entrancing, young Kate Chase stepped into the role of establishing her thrice-widowed father in Washington society and as a future presidential candidate. Her efforts were successful enough that The Washington Star declared that none outshone her. None, that is, but Mary Todd Lincoln. Though Mrs. Lincoln and her young rival held much in common they could never be friends, for the success of one could come only at the expense of the other.
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