Educated by her father and in private schools, Kate Chase became the emotional focus of her father's life after the deaths of her mother and stepmother. By the age of 16 she was acting as his official political hostess, and by the age of 20 she was striving earnestly to secure the Republican presidential nomination for him at the Chicago convention in 1860.

Moving to Washington when Salmon Chase was appointed treasury secretary, Kate Chase quickly emerged as the toast of capital society and fashion queen of the nation. On Nov. 12, 1863, she married William Sprague in an elaborate and highly publicized wedding. She used Sprague's wealth to further her father's political ambitions at the expense of Lincoln. And in 1868 she waged another vigorous campaign to win the Republican nomination for him.

The economic crisis of 1873 put the Spragues in financial difficulty, and an already troubled marriage began to fall apart. Their quarrels were detailed in newspapers, as were the eventual divorce proceedings. In 1882 Kate Chase Sprague, newly divorced, sailed for Europe with her three daughters. She returned to Washington in 1886 and lived there the rest of her life in poverty.