Bringing Down the Colonel

by Patricia Miller

  85 and 100 percent: Miller, Abandoned, 163.

  “The babies die like sheep”: Quoted in Miller, Abandoned, 158.

  “act of humanity”: Miller, Abandoned, 161.

  “Lincoln had consented”: WCPB memo to attorneys, n.d., Pollard Case File, BFP.

  15. HINDERED, NOT RUINED

  “having a perfect circus”: JAT to William Worthington, March 20, 1894, BFP.

  “Why, Aggie, you are more devoted”: Tucker, TRMP, 191.

  “the statue in the circle”: LBD to JAT, March 29, 1894, BFP.

  “might cause me my life”: JAT to Maude Tucker, March 28, 1894, TFP.

  “done so badly”: Tucker, TRMP, 229.

  “this devilish business”: Mrs. Frances to Madeline Pollard, in Tucker, TRMP, 199.

  “did perfectly right”: J. B. Moore Bristor to Madeline Pollard, in Tucker, TRMP, 212.

  “I do believe every word”: A Friend to Madeline Pollard, in Tucker, TRMP, 223.

  “For past times”: J. H. Winter to Madeline Pollard, in Tucker, TRMP, 228.

  “You are not ‘ruined’”: “A Poet” to Madeline Pollard, in Tucker, TRMP, 201.

  “ought to be deposed”: “Congress No Place for Him,” NYT, March 25, 1894.

  “chivalrous people of Kentucky”: “Boston Women Indignant,” NYT, March 27, 1894.

  Moral Education Society: Pivar, Purity Crusade, 80–83.

  “the disrespectful way that many men”: “Resolved,” The Alpha, April 12, 1878.

  “upon women in every station”: “A Woman’s View of Cleveland,” CDT, Sept. 13, 1884.

  “intercourse for procreation only”: “The Alpha Doctrine,” The Alpha, Dec. 1, 1883.

  “that creeping worm of licentious doctrine”: “Colonel Breckinridge Roasted in a Sermon by a Brooklyn Divine,” CE, March 26, 1894.

  “secretly circulating a petition”: “The Colonel’s Scalp Threatened by the Ladies of Lexington,” CE, March 29, 1894.

  “an unusual pallor on his countenance”: “Judge Wilson’s Hint,” WP, April 3, 1894.

  “nefarious conspiracy”: WCPB to “Myall,” March 30, 1894, BFP.

  “cowardly”: WCPB to “Ab,” March 31, 1894, BFP.

  “aged sixteen”: “Miss Pollard’s Age,” WP, March 31, 1894.

  “What advice would you give”: “Judge Wilson’s Hint,” WP, April 3, 1894.

  “There was something internal”: Ibid.

  “Up to that time”: “The Colonel Repeats His Oft-Told Tale,” CE, April 3, 1894.

  “There wasn’t a man”: “Judge Wilson’s Hint,” WP, April 3, 1894.

  “immoral relations”: Ibid.

  “I mean to say”: “The Colonel Repeats His Oft-Told Tale,” CE, April 3, 1894.

  “the same standard”: “A Living Hell,” LCJ, April 3, 1894.

  “feared nothing”: Ibid.

  “won them over”: JAT to Mary Tucker, April 1, 1894, TFP.

  “Miss Pollard’s character”: “Kentucky Men Are Agitated,” New York Herald, March 24, 1894.

  “can’t help it”: “Will Be Battle of Legal Giants,” New York Herald, March 26, 1894.

  the Herald paid for a sitting for Madeline: C. M. Bell Studio Log Books, vol. 4, sitting #41108, Miss Madeline Pollard, paid New York Herald, March 28, 1894.

  “a silly adventure”: “Breckinridge on the Stand,” New York Herald, March 30, 1894.

  “a photo of the adult Madeline”: New York Herald, March 30, 1894.

  “I have been so anxious to know you”: Tucker, TRMP, 240.

  “Oh, you pitiful cur”: Undated letter in May 1894 file, n.d., BFP.

  “full of devotion”: “Mrs. Breckinridge Remains Loyal,” LCJ, March 20, 1894.

  “faith in their father was firm”: “Not a Line Does Mrs. Breckinridge Read,” CE, March 28, 1894.

  “It is the talk of all the saloons”: “Falls Like Lucifer,” KL, March 29, 1894.

  “In that letter did you not say”: “Judge Wilson’s Hint,” WP, April 3, 1894.

  “not the faintest recollection”: “The Colonel Repeats His Oft-Told Tale,” CE, April 3, 1894.

  “several women or females”: “Letters to Louise,” WES, April 3, 1894.

  “in a public place”: Ibid.

  “My Dear Sister Louise”: Ibid.

  “sooner or later, I would hear”: “Firm in His Denials,” WP, April 4, 1894.

  “little Yankee woman”: “Letters and the Writer of ’Em,” CE, April 4, 1894.

  “expressions that a man”: “Witness Steps Down,” WP, April 5, 1894.

  “a young woman of colloquial”: “Jere Let’s the Colonel Go,” CE, April 5, 1894.

  “I was always leaving Mrs. Blackburn”: “Witness Steps Down,” WP, April 5, 1894.

  “old colored midwife”: “Constant the Shifting of Scenes,” CE, April 6, 1894.

  “as coolly as if about to”: Ibid.

  “The writer spoke of the great love”: “Crowning Her Story,” WP, April 6, 1894.

  “one of the nicest lunches”: “Constant the Shifting of Scenes,” CE, April 6, 1894.

  16. THE FRONT PARLOR AND THE BACK GATE

  “perjured testimony”: WCPB to E. P. Holly, April 6, 1894, BFP.

  “women doctors who are abortionists”: WCPB to George O. Graves, April 24, 1894, BFP.

  “ladies who attend conventions”: WCPB to Kerry M. Lawson, April 6, 1894, BFP.

  “secret sins”: WCPB to “Myall,” April 6, 1894, BFP.

  “impregnated the homes of the land”: “Miss Pollard Is a Wonder,” WP, April 8, 1894.

  “a foul, pestilence-breeding contagion”: “Legal Points Argued Pro and Con,” CE, April 8, 1894.

  “lewd and lascivious conduct”: Ibid.

  “the woman of experience”: “Lawyers Now Talk,” WES, April 9, 1894.

  “florid Kentucky oratory”: “Hard Words Used,” WES, April 10, 1894.

  “every decent man”: “Madeline Under Fire,” WP, April 11, 1894.

  “old darky”: “Hard Words Used,” WES, April 10, 1894.

  “honest and virtuous”: “More Eloquence,” WES, April 12, 1894.

  “unnatural”: Ibid.

  “deliberately turned from everything”: “Butterworth Closes His Superb Effort,” CE, April 13, 1894.

  “few pyrotechnic displays”: “Jere Wilson’s Plea,” WP, April 14, 1894.

  “sunlight”: Ibid.

  “I stand here for womanhood”: Ibid.

  “There was a time”: “Sarcasm That Cut to the Quick,” CE, April 14, 1894.

  “clean-shaven, bald-headed”: “Damages Awarded Madge Pollard,” CE, April 15, 1894.

  “one code of morals for men”: “Seeking a New Trial,” WP, April 17, 1894.

  “nor the country girl”: “Damages Awarded Madge Pollard,” CE, April 15, 1894.

  “If it please the court”: “Miss Pollard Wins,” NYW, April 15, 1894.

  “Fifteen thousand for the plaintiff”: Ibid.

  “Oh, isn’t it good”: Ibid.

  “room, board, medical attendance”: Tucker, TRMP, 255.

  “observed of all the observers”: “Victory for Miss Pollard,” New York Sun, April 15, 1894.

  “was to the satisfaction”: “To Fight It Out,” WES, April 16, 1894.

  “not one person”: “Any Verdict a Just One,” LCJ, April 15, 1894.

  “All the efforts made”: “A White Life for Two,” Woman’s Tribune, April 21, 1894.

  “perniciousness of the unequal standard”: Woman’s Journal, April 7, 1894.

  “public men [who] hold immoral”: “The Breckinridge Scandal,” The Philanthropist, May 1894.

  “conventional morality”: Kate Field’s Washington, April 11, 1894.

  “the women of the world”: “At Home with the Editor,” Ladies’ Home Journal, June 1894.

  “supposed popular sentiment”: “For Miss Pollard,” WP, April 15, 1894.

  “the ceaseless clamor”: WCPB to John A. Lewis, April 15, 1894, BFP.

>   “reputable society women”: “Not a Line Does Mrs. Breckinridge Read,” CE, March 28, 1894.

  “Breckinridge introduced himself”: “Sustains Miss Pollard,” Cincinnati Tribune, April 18, 1894.

  1870 census: 1870 U.S. Federal Census (database online). Ancestry.com.

  Franklin County birth records: Kentucky Birth Records, 1847–1911 (database online). Ancestry.com.

  1880 census: 1880 U.S. Federal Census (database online). Ancestry.com.

  married the Reverend Felix Struve: Semi-Weekly Bourbon News (Paris, KY), Sept. 25, 1883.

  thirty-six: 1900 U.S. Federal Census (database online). Ancestry.com.

  1920 death certificate: Kentucky Death Records, 1852–1963 (database online). Ancestry.com.

  “Miss Pollard … received company”: Mollie Shindlebower to WCPB, Nov. 25, 1893, BFP.

  “Mary Pollard was considered”: Effie Knight to WCPB, Nov. 25, 1893, BFP.

  Desha confirmed: Desha Breckinridge to WCPB, Sept. 6, 1893, BFP.

  “remarkable”: Tucker, TRMP, 122.

  “first heard from her”: “Breckinridge Guarded,” NYW, Aug. 15, 1893.

  “I wonder how impertinent”: Madeline Pollard to John Hay, May 20, 1890, John Hay Papers, Brown University.

  “too expensive for him”: “Miss Pollard’s Suit,” LCJ, Aug. 16, 1893.

  “glad to do anything”: McTodd to WCPB, Dec. 2, 1893, BFP.

  “nuns are very careful”: Ibid.

  “tried hard”: Effie Knight to WCPB, Nov. 25, 1893, BFP.

  he had gone back to Cincinnati: Burnet House to WCPB, Aug. 23, 1884, BFP.

  “ain’t a good woman”: “Another Assault,” LCJ, Sept. 11, 1894.

  “living child”: WCPB to H. H. Gratz, May 11, 1894, BFP.

  “she would not obey”: Note in Trial Folder, BFP.

  “countrified”: “Gossip’s Tongue,” KL, Aug. 17, 1893.

  “was not introduced into society”: “Will Come Home,” KL, Sept. 14, 1893.

  “into other homes”: “Miss Pollard’s Story of Col. Breckinridge,” NYW, Sept. 17, 1893.

  “had become acquainted”: “Believe Him Innocent,” LCJ, Aug. 14, 1893.

  “senseless waste of time”: Dahlgren, Etiquette of Social Life, 35.

  “Metamorphosis of Negative Matter”: Jacob, Capital Elites, 217.

  “a charitable institution”: “Will Come Home,” KL, Sept. 14, 1893.

  February 1888: “Society,” WP, Feb. 14, 1888.

  “a charitable ball”: “Col. Breckinridge’s Defense,” LCJ, Sept. 13, 1893.

  “Miss Pollard worked her way”: “Will Come Home,” KL, Sept. 14, 1893.

  upper right corner: Dahlgren, Etiquette of Social Life, 58.

  spring of 1890: “Mrs. Dahlgren’s Party,” WP, March 6, 1890.

  “If our good friend”: Madeline Pollard to John Hay, May 20, 1890, John Hay Papers, Brown University.

  “Miss Madeline Pollard”: “Personal Paragraphs,” WP, June 3, 1891.

  “in strict confidence”: Tucker, TRMP, 58.

  “Clothes were really clothes then”: Foraker, I Would Live It Again, 158.

  “quite well”: Tucker, TRMP, 113.

  modeled on Madeleine Dahlgren: Jacob, Capital Elites, 216.

  “seemed to have become a tourist fashion”: Adams, Education of Henry Adams, 258.

  “it represented a figure wrapped in meditation”: Tucker, TRMP, 113–14.

  “pioneer of Catholic light literature”: “Ella Loraine Dorsey,” A Woman of the Century, 254.

  “some years ago”: “Writing Boys’ Stories,” WP, April 12, 1891.

  “I honestly believe”: “The Women of Breckinridge’s District,” CE, March 3, 1894.

  “she was to be one of the party”: WCPB, note to file, BFP.

  “went away and had the advantage”: “His Story in Detail,” WP, March 31, 1894.

  “scandal was current”: “Mrs. Breckinridge Remains Loyal,” LCJ, March 20, 1894.

  “I see you are endorsed by Col. Breckinridge”: Ibid.

  charity garden party: “Social and Personal,” WES, June 1, 1893.

  Smith-Judson wedding: “Social and Personal,” WES, June 7, 1893.

  “In Washington gossip”: Carpenter, Carp’s Washington, 9.

  “It is said that the story”: “Is It Blackmail?,” WES, Aug. 14, 1893.

  “faults—grievous ones”: “Miss Pollard Corroborated,” CCG, Aug. 16, 1893.

  “some of her visiting cards”: Nannie White to WCPB, March 5, 1894, BFP.

  “man and wife”: A. L. Hall to WCPB, March 17, 1894, BFP.

  “making a very loud noise”: Mrs. J. Ambrose to WCPB, March 3, 1894, BFP.

  Johnstown flood: Note from WCPB, 1893, Pollard case file, BFP.

  “shy, absent-minded”: Chalkley, Magic Casements, 84.

  “good deal of work”: “Now for Her Scrub Woman,” CCG, Aug. 18, 1893.

  “array of costly dresses”: “Miss Pollard’s Story of Col. Breckinridge,” NYW, Sept. 17, 1893.

  “irregular amounts”: “Letters and the Writer of ’Em,” CE, April 4, 1894.

  “My expenses are very heavy”: Madeline Pollard to James C. Rhodes, Jan. 30, 1890, BFP.

  casual prostitution: Stansell, City of Women, 180.

  “Many a female clerk”: Carpenter, Carp’s Washington, 3–4.

  17. THE CAVALIER AND THE PURITANS

  “social conversation”: “Pure Men in Congress,” WP, April 16, 1894.

  “combat the enforcement of”: “For Expulsion,” LCJ, April 16, 1894.

  “The Washington women”: “Declare War on Gay Congressmen,” CDT, April 16, 1894.

  “take some definite action”: “Pure Men in Congress,” WP, April 16, 1894.

  “I do believe”: JAT to Mary Tucker, April 22, 1894, TFP.

  “We are confident of success next time”: Ibid.

  “scheme for some work”: JAT to Mary Tucker, April 1, 1894, TFP.

  “enough money to my credit”: JAT to Mary Tucker, April 22, 1894, TFP.

  “Nisba and I have become”: Ibid.

  “have been through a hard trial”: JAT to Mary Tucker, May 7, 1894, TFP.

  “I shall cut off my hair”: Tucker, TRMP, 153.

  “might write in a little room”: Ibid., 293.

  “temptations and sorrows”: Ibid., 273.

  “religious cranks”: Ibid., 270.

  “exhibition”: Ibid., 232.

  “much easier life”: Ibid., 293.

  “going on the stage”: “Miss Pollard Speaks,” NYW, April 16, 1894.

  “nothing can induce me”: “Madeline Pollard’s Hope,” New York Sun, April 18, 1894.

  “forty cents”: Tucker, TRMP, 314.

  “You are safe in saying”: “House Will Do Nothing, It Is Said,” NYT, April 17, 1894.

  “said we were making”: “He Talked Kindly,” LMT, April 5, 1894.

  “generous people”: WCPB to S. L. Yager, April 6, 1894, BFP.

  “until Mr. Davis”: WCPB to Robert Tucker, Dec. 21, 1893, BFP.

  “I shall possibly get”: JAT to Mary Tucker, April 1, 1894, TFP.

  “Athens of the West”: Hollingsworth, Lexington, 26.

  eight thousand of the twenty thousand: “Mr. Breckinridge,” Cincinnati Tribune, April 19, 1894.

  “buttonhole the voters”: WCPB to C. H. Reed, Jan. 31, 1894, BFP.

  “I never saw a campaign”: “Mr. Breckinridge,” Cincinnati Tribune, April 19, 1894.

  “I couldn’t look my wife and daughters in the face”: Ibid.

  “50 ladies—wives and sisters”: “The Women of Breckinridge’s District,” CE, March 3, 1894.

  “allowed the open expression”: D’Emilio and Freedman, Intimate Matters, 19.

  “distressed Cavaliers”: Fischer, Albion’s Seed, 213.

  “held to the strictest”: Ibid., 300.

  “until the blood flowed”: Ibid., 299.

  “a virgin as a girl”: Ibid., 303.

  one in five
female servants: Carr and Walsh, “The Planter’s Wife,” 548.

  “Masters could abuse the law”: D’Emilio and Freedman, Intimate Matters, 33.

  “if the father of a bastard”: Wells, “Illegitimacy and Bridal Pregnancy in Colonial America,” 357.

  “humble, obedient, careful and thoughtful”: Scott, The Southern Lady, 15, note 40.

  “the thing we can’t name”: Woodward, Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, 28.

  “Every lady tells you”: Ibid.

  “If the countless thousands”: “Miss Madeline Pollard Giving Breckinridge and South Hard Time,” Cleveland Gazette, March 24, 1894.

  “Many prominent society women”: “Not a Line Does Mrs. Breckinridge Read,” CE, March 28, 1894.

  “when they knew”: “Women Up In Arms,” LMT, March 29, 1894.

  “fools”: JAT to Mary Tucker, May 15, 1894, TFP.

  “deeply humiliated”: “They Take a Hand,” LMT, May 5, 1894.

  “Clinching his hands”: “Col. Breckinridge Pleads in Public,” NYT, May 6, 1894.

  “Every one says”: JAT to Mary Tucker, May 7, 1894, TFP.

  “was no great swarming of the aisles”: “Confession and Defiance,” LCJ, May 6, 1894.

  “upon the plea”: “The Breckinridge Candidacy,” LCJ, May 7, 1894.

  “very feeble”: SPB to WCPB, May 4, 1894, BFP.

  “Are you to choose”: “In Ashland,” LCJ, May 8, 1894.

  “conspiracy to destroy me”: WCPB to Henry S. Halley, April 24, 1894, BFP.

  “a case of the Cavalier”: John Phillips to WCPB, April 16, 1894, BFP.

  “there should be the same”: “Dress and Divorce,” CDT, May 9, 1894.

  “moral purity should be”: “Women’s Clubs Adjourn,” WP, May 12, 1894.

  “higher obligation”: “Not Women Alone,” LMT, May 13, 1894.

  “outside a few women’s suffrage cranks”: “Breckinridge Is Denounced,” LCJ, May 15, 1894.

  “Miss Pollard knew from the beginning”: “She Defends Breckinridge,” New York Sun, March 30, 1894.

  “in grave danger”: SPB to WCPB, May 7, 1894, BFP.

  “one great treat”: JAT to Mary Tucker, May 22, 1894, TFP.

  “seems almost like home”: JAT to Mary Tucker, May 22, 1894, TFP.

  “systematic course of English literature”: Tucker, TRMP, 335.

  “unless she went away”: Ibid., 334.

  “dead, practically, in Congress”: Ibid., 335.