Bringing Down the Colonel
Page 37
Jennie (second from left) and her brothers and sisters in front of Castle Tucker in Wiscasset, Maine, before the family fell on hard times (Photograph by J. C. Higgins, courtesy of Historic New England)
Jennie Tucker loitered along this Pennsylvania Avenue streetcar route in Washington in 1894 in hopes of catching Madeline on a passing trolley. (Getty Images)
Julia Maria Preston Pope Churchill Blackburn violated all the rules of southern propriety when she agreed to testify on Madeline’s behalf, confirming that Col. Breckinridge had told her of their engagement. (Courtesy of the Filson Historical Society)
Mary “Mollie” Desha became a power-house among women leaders in early 1890s Washington and used her influence to turn popular opinion against her brother-in-law W.C.P. Breckinridge. (Photograph by C. M. Bell, Library of Congress)
Even as Breckinridge asserted that he couldn’t be expected to marry a “fallen” woman and women themselves were excluded from the courtroom, Madeline captured the sympathy of the nation with the story of her seduction by a powerful older man and the children she was forced to give up. (Cincinnati Enquirer, April 3, 1894; New York World, March 21, 1894; New York World, March 12, 1894)
The Breckinridges: Rev. Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (top left) was a noted southern opponent of slavery, but his son Willie Breckinridge (top right) fought for the Confederacy as a colonel in the Ninth Kentucky Calvary. Willie’s daughter Sophonisba (bottom left) graduated from Wellesley College at a time when few women had a college education but struggled to carve a professional path for herself. Desha Breckinridge (bottom right) sailed into the law career his sister Nisba longed for but spent much of his father’s trial picking fights and trying to provoke duels. (Robert Breckinridge: Library of Congress; Willie Breckinridge: photograph by James Mullen, Library of Congress; Sophonisba Breckinridge: photograph by Pach Brothers, courtesy of Wellesley College Archives; Desha Breckinridge: photograph by James Mullen, Library of Congress)
The cover of one of several books on the “celebrated” case of Pollard vs. Breckinridge, which fascinated the nation as women streamed into the workforce, raising new questions about how to protect their respectability
In 1901, Sophonisba “Nisba” Breckinridge became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago, launching her career as a leading feminist social scientist. (Library of Congress)
Nisba’s best friend, Madeline, married Desha Breckinridge. Madeline McDowell Breckinridge converted Desha to her progressive politics and became a leader in the fight for woman’s suffrage. (Library of Congress)
The campaign to deny Breckinridge the Democratic nomination was spearheaded by the women of his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, attracting nationwide attention. (Photograph by Lafayette Studios, courtesy of the University of Kentucky Archives)
The powerful and popular Breckinridge’s loss was like the fall “of an archangel,” said the historians James Klotter and Hambelton Tapp. (Cincinnati Enquirer, September 6, 1894)
Notes
The page numbers for the notes that appear in the print version of this title are not in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for the relevant passages documented or discussed.
Sources are given for direct quotations, which are identified by their opening words, for numbers and statistics, and for the attribution of key historical theories. Direct quotations not sourced individually can be cited to the preceding source in that paragraph or, for multiple sources within one paragraph, to the first source in that paragraph. Ephemeral sources cited only once are not listed in the bibliography, nor are newspaper articles. Abbreviations used for newspapers and manuscript collections can be found in the bibliography.
1. GOLD TO BE MADE
severe coastal storms: Monthly Weather Review 22, no. 1, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C., 1894.
“the bottom had dropped out”: Jane Armstrong Tucker (JAT) to Mary Tucker, Dec. 27, 1893, TFP.
“feeble and [grew] childish”: JAT to Richard Tucker, Dec. 15, 1893.
“I’m so tired”: JAT to Maude Tucker, Nov. 20, 1893, TFP.
“I think the shock”: JAT to Mary Tucker, Jan. 5, 1894, TFP.
“bleeding piles”: Mary Tucker to Maude Tucker, Jan. 17, 1894, TFP.
“old duds”: JAT to Mary Tucker, Nov. 15, 1893, TFP.
“Why you, of all persons”: Charles Stoll to JAT, Jan. 21, 1894, TFP.
“pretty, tasteful dress”: Mary Tucker to Maude Tucker, Jan. 17, 1894, TFP.
“My surprise and the feelings”: JAT to Charles Stoll, Jan. 27, 1894, in Tucker, TRMP, 18.
“in the line of detective work”: Charles Stoll to JAT, Jan. 22, 1894, in Tucker, TRMP, 10.
“I leave for Washington Monday”: JAT to Charles Stoll, Jan. 27, 1894, in Tucker, TRMP, 18.
“My lifelong friend”: Charles Stoll to JAT, Jan. 22, 1894, in Tucker, TRMP, 10–11.
“silver-tongued”: “For Breach of Promise,” WP, Aug. 13, 1893.
“the brilliant achievements of its statesmen”: “Breckinridge Defeated,” Louisville Commercial, Sept. 16, 1894.
“Everybody who knows”: “Both Kept Out of View,” WP, Aug. 14, 1893.
“the real motive”: Charles Stoll to JAT, Jan. 22, 1894, in Tucker, TRMP, 12.
“created such a sensation”: Ibid., 13.
“be in a position”: Ibid., 15.
“pitiful tale”: Ibid., 16.
“lying and living a lie”: JAT to Charles Stoll, Jan. 27, 1894, in Tucker, TRMP, 21.
“If I could be the means”: Ibid., 20.
“I have undertaken”: JAT to Mary Tucker, Jan. 28, 1894, TFP.
2. A BRIGHT AND BRAINY WOMAN
virgin forest: Michael Bednar, “Nicholas Lewis House—Charlottesville, Virginia,” University of Virginia, Feb. 2002, http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mjb6g/LewisHouse/nicolaslewishouse.htm.
narrowly escaped: Robert Brickhouse, “University Architects Restore Historic Gem,” (Charlottesville, VA) Daily Progress, July 12, 1995.
sneak home in civilian clothes: Ian Zack, “Couple Buys ‘The Farm’ and a Window to the Past,” WP, Sept. 23, 1995.
Confederate spy, renowned: See Horan, Confederate Agent.
wave of Scotch-Irish Presbyterians: Klotter, Breckinridges of Kentucky, 6.
Mary Hopkins Cabell: Ibid., 11.
six-hundred-acre farm near Lexington and thirty thousand acres: Ibid., 3.
“greater prestige for unborn generations”: Ibid.
“serve[d] the commonwealth”: Ibid., 17.
Kentucky Resolutions of 1789: Ibid., 20.
“They were governors and senators”: Charles Davenport, quoted in Abbott, “Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge,” Social Service Review, 417.
“Breckinridges of Kentucky”: Lexington Herald, March 1, 1914, quoted in Klotter, Breckinridges of Kentucky, ix.
“a reminder of past glories”: Klotter, Breckinridges of Kentucky, 11.
Ann Sophonisba Preston: Ibid., 43.
“Prestons and Breckinridges have intermarried”: Chalkley, Magic Casements, 49.
graduating from Centre College: Klotter, Breckinridges of Kentucky, 140–41.
seventeen-year-old Issa Desha: Ibid., 141.
“I think to lose Kentucky”: Lincoln, Collected Works, 532.
“a bloody repulse”: Klotter, Breckinridges of Kentucky, 141.
“a loving, kind, indulgent father”: Ibid., 139.
John Cabell Breckinridge: Ibid., 117–19.
“I shall never forget your kindness”: Ibid., 142.
“Morgan on the loose”: Foraker, I Would Live It Again, 18.
“the war was over”: Walmsley, “The Last Meeting of the Confederate Cabinet,” 341.
Lexington Observer and Reporter as editor: Klotter, Breckinridges of Kentucky, 146.
“all the elements”: Ibid., 150.
House Ways and Means Committee: Ibid., 156.
“thick growth of
silver-gray hair”: Ibid., 154.
“the most gifted and attractive orator”: Ibid., 153.
“vacillated between the law and theology”: Ibid., 141.
Evangelical Alliance of the United States: “Meeting of the Evangelical Alliance,” WP, Sept. 26, 1887.
Eastern Presbyterian Church: “Calvinistic Philosophy,” WP, Feb. 2, 1891.
“the Bible, book by book”: “The Bible Society,” WP, May 3, 1886.
“monogamic marriage”: “The Pilgrim Fathers,” WP, Aug. 2, 1889.
“the foundation, the corner-stone”: Klotter, Breckinridges of Kentucky, 160.
“useless hand-shaking, promiscuous kissing”: Ibid.
“two days of oratory”: Nevins, Cleveland, 391.
“The money in the Treasury”: “The Tariff Reform Issue,” NYT, Jan. 28, 1888.
“the galleries were filled”: Nevins, Cleveland, 391.
“The surplus continues to grow”: The Tariff Speech of Hon. W.C.P. Breckinridge of Kentucky, in the House of Representatives, May 18, 1888, in Comparison of Existing Tariff with Bills Submitted to Ways and Means Committee, House of Representatives, Fiftieth Congress First Session. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1888.
“eternal quality that set them”: Wiebe, Search for Order, 33.
possible Speaker of the House: “Breckinridge Holds Off,” WP, Nov. 8, 1890.
“Colonel Breckinridge is an idol”: “Will Be a Battle of Legal Giants,” New York Herald, March 20, 1894.
“remarkably bright girl”: “Was Known in Pittsburgh,” LCJ, March 20, 1894.
“A Bright and Brainy Woman”: “A Bright and Brainy Woman,” WP, June 24, 1893.
“At last, the devil has got his own!”: Ibid.
“was as careful of me”: Tucker, TRMP, 64.
“There is an apparently well authenticated rumor”: CCG, June 18, 1893.
“I am sorry to have announced”: Madeline Pollard to WCPB, June 23, 1893, as reported in “Miss Pollard Is a Wonder,” NYW, March 17, 1894.
“I cannot go to Charlottesville”: WCPB to Madeline Pollard, June 27, 1893, as reported in “Miss Pollard Is a Wonder,” NYW, March 17, 1894.
“denied that there had ever been a possibility”: “Fooled the Newspaper Man,” NYW, March 18, 1894.
“Written [Maj.] Moore”: Cable from WCPB to Madeline Pollard, July 9, as reported in “Miss Pollard Is a Wonder,” NYW, March 17, 1894.
“Col. W.C.P. Breckinridge”: Lexington Gazette, July 13, 1893, as reported in “Miss Pollard Is a Wonder,” NYW, March 17, 1894.
“said what was false”: Madeline Pollard to WCPB, July 15, 1893, as reported in “Miss Pollard Is a Wonder,” NYW, March 17, 1894.
“engagement is announced”: LCJ, July 16, 1893.
“rather testily”: “Fooled the Newspaper Man,” NYW, March 18, 1894.
“created a sensation in the capital”: “A Congressman in Trouble,” NYT, Aug. 13, 1893.
“a great deal of gossip”: “Tongues Wagged,” CE, Aug. 13, 1893.
“quiet in the extreme”: “Col. Breckinridge Wedded,” LCJ, July 19, 1893.
“spent the past three months”: Ibid.
“clear-cut”: LCJ, July 19, 1893.
“ruined about eight months ago”: “Unparalleled. Mrs. Henry Delaney, a Bride of an Hour,” KL, April 6, 1893.
“he had reason to believe”: “Afraid of Miss Pollard,” WES, Aug. 14, 1893.
“He betrayed no sign”: “Is It Blackmail?,” WES, Aug. 14, 1893.
“a married man of 47 years of age”: “Is It Blackmail?,” NYW, Aug. 13, 1894.
“completed his seduction of her”: Celebrated Trial, 10.
“repair the injury”: “Is It Blackmail?,” NYW, Aug. 13, 1894.
“Victorian Americans obsessively feared”: Ireland, “The Libertine Must Die,” 42, note 20.
“The fallen woman”: Bushnell, The Women Condemned, 10.
“a complete riddle”: Charles Stoll to JAT, Jan. 22, 1894, in Tucker, TRMP, 11.
“any woman, whose reputation”: Ibid., 13.
3. A BASTARD CATCH’D
“a steady succession of trials”: Demos, Little Commonwealth, 152.
“seen upon the ground together”: D’Emilio and Freedman, Intimate Matters, 21.
“seven months” rule: Stiles, Bundling, 80.
“for committing carnall coppulation”: Demos, Little Commonwealth, 158.
“a fine of nine lashes”: D’Emilio and Freedman, Intimate Matters, 22.
men and women were punished: Fischer, Albion’s Seed, 89.
“judged the ‘reputed father’”: Ulrich, Midwife’s Tale, 149.
“Massachusetts during the seventeenth century”: Fischer, Albion’s Seed, 89.
“bundled”: See Stiles, Bundling.
“The lover steals”: Ibid., 29.
namzat bezé: Ibid., 43.
“If she blows out the light”: Ibid., 42.
“family is supposed to be”: H. Ling Roth, Natives of Sarawak and British North Borneu, quoted in Stiles, Bundling, 44–45.
“districts in New England”: Aurand, Little Known Facts About Bundling, 5.
“women of a shady reputation”: Ibid., 24.
“prevailed among the young”: Stiles, Bundling, 7.
“having sat up as long”: Ibid., 71.
“pursue his wooing”: Ibid., 73.
“frolicking” and “night walking”: Godbeer, Sexual Revolution, 237–39.
“very frequently get together”: Ibid., 239.
one-fifth of births in Somerset County: Daniel Scott Smith, “The Long Cycle in American Illegitimacy,” in Bastardy and Its Comparative History, 370.
fewer than 10 percent and more than 20 percent: Smith and Hindus, “Premarital Pregnancy,” 561.
“the only social condition”: Wells, “Illegitimacy and Bridal Pregnancy,” in Bastardy and Its Comparative History, 351.
nearly two-thirds of cases: Godbeer, Sexual Revolution, 23.
prosecutions practically disappeared: Wells, “Illegitimacy and Bridal Pregnancy,” in Bastardy and Its Comparative History, 352.
“fertility testing”: Laslett, “Comparing Illegitimacy,” in Bastardy and Its Comparative History, 8.
“hand-fasting”: James Browne, A History of the Highlands, and the Highland Clans, London, 1853, quoted in Stiles, Bundling, 18.
“a high proportion”: Laslett, “Comparing Illegitimacy,” in Bastardy and Its Comparative History, 54.
“to make its appearance”: Stiles, Bundling, 30.
the standard fine for fornication: Demos, Little Commonwealth, 158.
“There is no evidence”: Ulrich, Midwife’s Tale, 149.
“such liberties in company-keeping”: Marsden, Jonathan Edwards, 130.
“Persons of Rank and figure”: Adams, Diary, vol. 1, 196.
one-third of all brides: Smith and Hindus, “Premarital Pregnancy,” 561.
In one Massachusetts parish: Stiles, Bundling, 80.
Just under 40 percent: Ulrich, Midwife’s Tale, 155.
“Was called … to go”: Ibid., 156.
“Sally declard [sic] that my son”: Ibid., 147.
percentage of truly illegitimate births: Wells, “Illegitimacy and Bridal Pregnancy,” in Bastardy and Its Comparative History, 353.
“rise to profound and widespread anxiety”: Godbeer, Sexual Revolution, 265.
“disintegration of the traditional”: Smith and Hindus, “Premarital Pregnancy,” 558–59.
“a favorite custom”: Stiles, Bundling, 78–79.
“virtuous domesticity”: Godbeer, Sexual Revolution, 289.
widespread reports of sexual assaults: Ibid., 293.
“A New Bundling Song”: Stiles, Bundling, 83–89.
“no girl had the courage”: Ibid., 82.
“The Forsaken Fair One”: Godbeer, Sexual Revolution, 264.
“ruined female”: Ibid., 265.
“By the late 1700s”: Ibid., 266.
“sup
erstitious rite”: Washington Irving, A Knickerbocker’s History of New York, quoted in Stiles, Bundling, 52.
“to have had a child before marriage”: Yankee (Portland, ME), Aug. 13, 1828, quoted in Stiles, Bundling, 120–21.
“an object of disgust and loathing”: From the Middlesex Washingtonian, reprinted in the Advocate for Moral Reform 10 (1844).
about 20 percent of brides: Smith and Hindus, “Premarital Pregnancy,” 561.
innately less sexual desire: See Cott, “Passionless-ness: An Interpretation of Victorian Sexual Ideology,” 219–36.
“the majority of women”: William Acton, Functions and Disorders of the Reproductive Organs, quoted in Degler, “What Ought to Be and What Was,” 1467.
“priceless jewel”: Middlesex Washingtonian, reprinted in the Advocate for Moral Reform 10 (1844).
“who is not engaged”: Deuteronomy 22:29.
“goes with a man clandestinely”: Stiles, Bundling, 35.
seduction lawsuits could be filed: Gonda, “Strumpets and Angels,” 36.
“in the eyes of this law”: Dall, Women’s Rights, 44.
“engaging herself to another”: Demos, Little Commonwealth, 157.
“materially affected by the treachery”: Grossberg, Governing the Hearth, 36.
“the delicacy of the sex”: Ibid., 38.
“woman who falls from virtue”: Ibid., 41–42.
“It is enough to say”: Ibid., 42.
“without sexual fault”: “Is It Blackmail?,” NYW, Aug. 13, 1894.
4. THE LEFT-HAND ROAD
“A Sensational Suit”: “A Sensational Suit,” WES, Aug. 12, 1893.
“A Congressman in Trouble”: “A Congressman in Trouble,” NYT, Aug. 13, 1893.