Despite his father's Unionist position (the elder Breckinridge supported the election of Lincoln), William entered the Confederate States Army in 1861, and was commissioned as a Captain.He served in the cavalry under John Hunt Morgan.By the end of the war, he was Colonel of the 9th Kentucky Cavalry. He also served as a bodyguard to Jefferson Davis during his flight from Richmond.
William Jennings Bryan, Bryan, William Jennings Born March 19, 1860 (Salem, Illinois) Lawyer and politician "[It is] better to trust in the Rock of Ages [Christianity] than… F. Lee Bailey, F. Lee Bailey F. Lee Bailey Francis Lee Bailey (born 1933) is a high-profile superstar attorney and best-selling author. "The legal profession is a b… Bruno Richard Hauptmann, Bruno Richard Hauptmann ...
Title: Bringing down the Colonel: a sex scandal of the Gilded Age, and the â•œpowerlessâ•š woman who took on Washington, Patricia Miller (book review)
Pollard sued Congressman William Breckinridge for breach of promise. Such suits were not uncommon. They recognized that marriage was women’s primary career in those days, that was a real financial hardship if you had kind of aged out of the desirable marriage age.
But these suits were designed to protect the reputation of respectable women. What was revolutionary was that Pollard admitted she was a “fallen” woman. She had been Breckinridge’s longtime mistress, and when his wife died, he did not marry her as he had promised. In those days, if a woman was “fallen,” she was a social pariah. She couldn’t get a respectable job or live in a respectable home. And she could certainly never make a respectable marriage.
Pollard was determined to challenge the different standards set out for men and women. “As chastity became central to the definition of a respectable woman in the nineteenth century, women found it was their sexual conduct, not the actions of men, that was really on trial,” writes Miller.
Pollard demanded the sexual morality of men and women be judged the same way. Of course, you still see remnants of the Victorian double standard today, but Pollard and her compatriots helped create a new world for women, just as the women speaking up in the #MeToo movement are.
Madeline Pollard as she appeared during the five-week trial in the spring of 1894. Her entanglement with Col. Breckenridge made national headlines. (Photograph by C. M. Bell, Library of Congress)
There were only 200 women lawyers in the country at the time. It was so hard for women to break into the profession, because most states wouldn't even admit women into the bar. They said, “Well, women just clearly cannot be lawyers. We just won't admit them to the bar.”.
Bringing Down the Colonel. In "Bringing Down the Colonel," journalist Patricia Miller tells the story of Madeline Pollard, an unlikely nineteenth-century women’s rights crusader. After an affair with a prominent politician left her “ruined,” Pollard brought the man―and the hypocrisy of America’s control of women’s sexuality―to trial.
Pollard sued Congressman William Breckinridge for breach of promise. Such suits were not uncommon. They recognized that marriage was women’s primary career in those days, that was a real financial hardship if you had kind of aged out of the desirable marriage age.
But these suits were designed to protect the reputation of respectable women. What was revolutionary was that Pollard admitted she was a “fallen” woman. She had been Breckinridge’s longtime mistress, and when his wife died, he did not marry her as he had promised. In those days, if a woman was “fallen,” she was a social pariah. She couldn’t get a respectable job or live in a respectable home. And she could certainly never make a respectable marriage.
Pollard was determined to challenge the different standards set out for men and women. “As chastity became central to the definition of a respectable woman in the nineteenth century, women found it was their sexual conduct, not the actions of men, that was really on trial,” writes Miller.
Pollard demanded the sexual morality of men and women be judged the same way. Of course, you still see remnants of the Victorian double standard today, but Pollard and her compatriots helped create a new world for women, just as the women speaking up in the #MeToo movement are.
Madeline Pollard as she appeared during the five-week trial in the spring of 1894. Her entanglement with Col. Breckenridge made national headlines. (Photograph by C. M. Bell, Library of Congress)
There were only 200 women lawyers in the country at the time. It was so hard for women to break into the profession, because most states wouldn't even admit women into the bar. They said, “Well, women just clearly cannot be lawyers. We just won't admit them to the bar.”.
Bringing Down the Colonel. In "Bringing Down the Colonel," journalist Patricia Miller tells the story of Madeline Pollard, an unlikely nineteenth-century women’s rights crusader. After an affair with a prominent politician left her “ruined,” Pollard brought the man―and the hypocrisy of America’s control of women’s sexuality―to trial.