Where love meets legal? Weeks of accusations, lurid details about premarital sex and money and the nation was following it all. Current and a familiar story? The first “He said, She said” that went viral begins in 1894. Keep in mind viral in the 1890’s was newspaper coverage and person-to-person gossip. This story is considered a turning point for a culture that considered the best work for women to be a wife.
  This type of scandal feels very familiar today – an older married politician in Washington DC having an affair with a much younger girl but in 1894 America it was shocking. The case is recognized today as an important legal precedent as well as a shift in perceptions about the power of men over women in relationships. Before we get to the month-long trial…

  Madeline V. Pollard was born in 1860 in Frankfurt, KY as one of seven children. After the death of her father when she was twelve, she was sent to live with an aunt in another state. She soon realized that without an education, housework and financial dependence would become her future and that was unacceptable to her. Proposed to by a much older man named James Rhodes she offered him a counter proposal. She offered to marry him IF he loaned her money for her schooling and she failed to pay him back once she began teaching. This agreement was drawn up as a contract and signed by Madeline. Things did not go smoothly at school with James Rhodes in her life and her next plan was to attend college.
In those days a woman could not interview for admission without a “respectable” man to do the introduction first. Rankin Rossell made the introduction on her behalf and she was admitted to Wesleyan College in Cincinnatti.

   On a train trip home from college, she encountered Colonel William Campbell Preston Breckinridge. He was from a very prominent political family and a lawyer who was also running for the House of Representatives. He had served with Jefferson Davis during the Civil War and was a Colonel in the Confederate Army. He was widowed when his first wife Lucretia Clay, the young granddaughter of Henry Clay, died after childbirth. He then married Issa Dessa, the 17-year-old granddaughter of a Kentucky governor. He and Issa had 5 surviving children. She knew he was married with children.

  There are two versions (of course) of how they became acquainted on the train, how old Madeline was at the time and many other events during their years together. He said, she said, but one thing that is clear is that he was forty seven and she claimed she was seventeen. She asked his advice on how to get out of the contract she had made with James Rhodes. Breckinridge met with her at her college in Cincinnatti and this was the beginning of their affair. She was moved to a college in Kentucky to be closer to Breckinridge and was supported by him while she was still receiving payments from James Rhodes. Her attendance was spotty and she did not graduate. Breckinridge was elected to one of 4 terms in the House of Representatives and subsequently moved Madeline to Washington D.C. where he was spending a lot of time. So far he had moved her twice and continued to see her and support her. The “he” of the story is pictured here, Colonel William C.P. Breckinridge, representative to Congress from Kentucky.

Part Two begins next week with Madeline having became pregnant twice during their affair. All resources will be listed at the end of Part Two for further reading.