The Breckinridge Family Papers

A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Grover Batts and Thelma Queen
Revised and expanded by Grover Batts, David Mathisen, and others

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

1995

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 1997

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms997003

Latest revision: 2009 January

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Personal Names

Organizations

Subjects

Locations

Related Names

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Microfilm:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Notes

Henry Breckinridge

John Breckinridge

John Cabell Breckinridge

Joseph Cabell Breckinridge

Madeline (McDowell) Breckinridge

Robert Jefferson Breckinridge

Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge

William Campbell Preston Breckinridge

Clifton Rodes Breckinridge

Chronological List of the Names of Major Family Members, Their Spouses, and Children

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The Breckinridge Family Papers contain the manuscripts of Katherine Carson Breckinridge (1853-1921), Clifton Rodes Breckinridge (1846-1932), John Breckinridge (1760-1806), Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (1800-1871), John Cabell Breckinridge (1821-1875), William C. P. Breckinridge (1837-1904), Joseph Cabell Breckinridge(1866-1948), Mary Desha (1850-1911), Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge (1866-1948), Madeline (McDowell) Breckinridge (1872-1920), Henry [Skillman] Breckinridge (1886-1960), and other members of the Breckinridge family. The papers were given to the Library of Congress by Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, Desha Breckinridge, Henry Breckinridge, Clifton R. Breckinridge, Mrs. Jefferson Patterson, Mrs. James Carson Breckinridge, James T. Breckinridge, Edith Abbott, and others over the years 1905-1988.

The papers of the Breckinridge family were arranged and described in 1980. Additional material received between 1980 and 1988 was incorporated into the collection and the description revised and expanded in 1982, 1984, 1988, and 1995.

Photographs, engravings, maps, sheet music, and other material have been transferred to the appropriate divisions of the Library where they are identified as part of these papers.

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of the Breckinridge family is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

A microfilm edition of the papers of Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, comprising containers 739-78 of the Breckinridge family papers, is available on 37 reels. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Breckinridge Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Notes

(A Chronological list of the names of major family members, their spouses, and children is also available.)

Chronological List of the Names of Major Family Members, Their Spouses, and Children

Papers of the individuals listed here make up the greater part of the Breckinridge Family Papers. Names of children who are known not to have survived to adulthood are omitted.

Hereinafter cited as Henry Breckinridge ("Skillman" appears to have been dropped after his early years).

Scope and Content Note

The Breckinridge Family Papers consist of approximately 200,000 manuscripts and span the years 1752-1965. While there are some manuscripts of other family members, the bulk of the collection is composed of the papers of John Breckinridge, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge, John Cabell Breckinridge, William C. P. Breckinridge, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, Mary Desha, Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge, Madeline (McDowell) Breckinridge, and Henry Breckinridge.

The papers of John Breckinridge (1760-1806), which are among the most important of the entire collection, are located in volumes 1-31. They relate to his service as attorney general of Kentucky, his work in the Kentucky state legislature as representative of Fayette County, and his career in the U.S. Senate and as attorney general of the United States. Of particular significance are those manuscripts relating to the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798 and 1799, opposing the Alien and Sedition Acts enacted by Congress. The Resolutions of 1798 were written by Breckinridge's close friend Thomas Jefferson and were guided through the Kentucky legislature by Breckinridge. In 1799, Breckinridge composed the second set of resolutions. Among the outstanding correspondents represented in John Breckinridge's papers are Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall, James Monroe, and Isaac Shelby, the first governor of Kentucky.

The papers of Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (1800-1871), numbering approximately 9,000 items, are dated from 1807 through 1871 and consist of a diary, correspondence, a small subject file, a speech, article, and book file, and miscellaneous items. Although Breckinridge was trained as a lawyer and engaged in legal practice for the first six years of his career, the death of two of his children and the sudden decline in his own health caused him to turn to religion. He joined the Presbyterian church and became a minister in 1832. Within his correspondence are letters from Samuel Miller, an eminent professor of Christian history and government at Princeton University, from other theologians, and from members of his family. The bulk of his papers consists of speeches, sermons, articles, and the holograph of his most notable book, The Knowledge of God.

The papers of John Cabell Breckinridge (1821-1875) are most numerous for the years 1854-1857. They consist mainly of letters from constituents during the time he served in Congress. There is little correspondence for the years 1861-1867 when he served in the Confederate Army and, following the war, lived in exile in Europe. However, his papers resume in 1868 when he returned to America and entered into law practice in Lexington, Kentucky. There are a few letters which he received from Braxton Bragg, Jubal A. Early, James Guthrie, John Marshall Harlan, and Robert E. Lee.

The papers of William Campbell Preston Breckinridge (1837-1904) cover the years 1851 through 1904 and consist of approximately 14,000 items, including a journal, correspondence, subject files, a speech and article file, financial papers, and miscellaneous items. Following his graduation from the Louisville (Kentucky) Law College in 1857, Breckinridge practiced law in Lexington until he joined the Confederate forces of Gen. John H. Morgan in July 1862 and served as colonel in command of the 9th Kentucky Cavalry. His papers contain a letterbook of official army correspondence for the years 1862-1864. A large number of letters he wrote to his wife, Issa, during this period are with her manuscripts in the last group of Breckinridge family papers ( Other Family Members). After the war he resumed his law practice and was editor of the Lexington Observer and Reporter until his election to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1884, where he served until 1894. He was a superb speaker, and his papers contain the texts of many of his most notable addresses. His last years were clouded by a paternity suit, and there is much correspondence as well as items in the subject file concerning this suit, Pollard v. Breckinridge.

The papers of Joseph Cabell Breckinridge (1842-1920) cover the years 1844-1909 and number approximately 55,000 items. With the beginning of the Civil War, J. C. Breckinridge joined the Union Army in Kentucky in August of 1861 and remained in military service until his retirement in 1903. Although there is only a small amount of material relating to the Civil War, the remainder of his career, including the period from 1889 to 1903 when he served as inspector general of the Army, is well documented. One of his major interests was the organization, Sons of the American Revolution. He was vice president general of the group from 1892 to 1899 and president general from 1900 to 1901. Approximately one-fourth of his correspondence relates to this subject. It is also prominent in his subject file, and there is also a large body of speeches and articles prepared for the Sons of the American Revolution and other military-oriented groups. Among the correspondents are William C. Church, Edward M. Gallaudet, Adolphus Washington Greely, John M. Harlan, Rutherford B. Hayes, Henry W. Lawton, Henry Cabot Lodge, William McKinley, Nelson A. Miles, Horace Porter, Redfield Proctor, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Approximately 2,000 items of Mary Desha (1850-1911) span the years 1892-1910 and contain a small group of correspondence, a subject file, and miscellaneous items. Mary Desha, William C. P. Breckinridge's sister-in-law, was one of three founders of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and the greater part of her manuscripts relate to that organization for the period 1894-1910.

The papers of Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge (1866-1948) number about 14,000 items and cover the years 1873 through 1949. The bulk of the manuscripts is made up of correspondence which covers the entire range of her activities in the field of social work: studies of delinquent children, juvenile court legislation, administration of aid to needy mothers, and numerous other aspects of the developing social welfare programs of the United States. The greater part of Sophonisba P. Breckinridge's correspondence dates from 1933 to 1948, for although she retired as professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago in 1933, she continued to use her office at the university to correspond and work for the passage of social legislation until her death. In 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed her as a delegate to the Pan-American Conference in Montevideo, Uruguay, and her work there is fully documented in the papers. Among the outstanding correspondents who are well represented in her papers are Jane Addams, Alben W. Barkley, Ernest H. Gruening, Cordell Hull, Harold L. Ickes, Frances Perkins, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Fred M. Vinson.

The papers of Madeline (McDowell) Breckinridge (1872-1920), wife of Desha Breckinridge, number approximately 11,000 items and span the years 1895 to 1921. Madeline Breckinridge was extraordinarily active and effective in bringing about social reforms on the local level in the city of Lexington and throughout the state of Kentucky and the nation. Her correspondence, speeches and articles, and an extensive subject file concern her work with civic leagues, women's clubs, and various state commissions. She was chairman of the Legislative Committee of the Kentucky Federation of Women's Clubs for four years, during which time she helped secure legislation to create a state library commission and a forestry commission. Large portions of her subject file deal with her efforts to create a state tuberculosis commission, to establish parks and playgrounds, and to build a model vocational school. The largest part of the subject file concerns her work on behalf of woman suffrage (1901-1920). Within her correspondence are numerous letters from Carrie Chapman Catt, Antoinette Funk, Ruth Hanna McCormick Simms, Anna Howard Shaw, Jouett Shouse, and Stephen S. Wise.

The papers of Henry Breckinridge (1886-1960) consist of diaries, correspondence, speeches, and articles for the years 1909-1954. In 1913, at the age of twenty-seven, Breckinridge was appointed to serve as assistant secretary of war in President Woodrow Wilson's first cabinet, a which he held until his resignation three years later due to disagreement with the administration's defense policies. This phase of his career is well documented in diaries, correspondence, and speeches. Of particular interest are his diary entries for August 6 through September 28, 1914, which describe his trip to Europe to render assistance to thousands of Americans stranded there since the beginning of World War I. After the United States entered the war, Breckinridge served in Europe as commander of an army battalion. He returned to his law practice in New York City in 1919.

Henry Breckinridge's correspondence contains letters from other members of the family, mainly Desha and Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, and from business acquaintances and friends. Among the more significant correspondents are Harold Dodds, president of Princeton University, Alfred M. Landon, Hjalmar J. Procope, Finnish minister to the United States (1939-1944), James W. Wadsworth, and William Allen White. After the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son in 1932, Breckinridge was engaged by Lindbergh as his legal counsel during the ransom negotiations. The papers contain Breckinridge's correspondence with Dr. John F. Condon (Jafsie) who acted as Lindbergh's intermediary. A substantial part of Breckinridge's correspondence and speech and article file reflects his interest in national politics. In 1934 he ran unsuccessfully as the candidate of the Constitutional Party for U.S. Senator from New York, and in 1936 he entered presidential preferential primaries in four states opposing President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.

Papers of other Breckinridge family members are also located within bound volumes 1-515, chronologically arranged for the period 1752-1904, and in containers 828-849, which are alphabetically arranged by family member. Within this latter group, the papers of Desha Breckinridge (1867-1935) editor and publisher of the Lexington Morning Herald from 1897 to 1935, are of particular interest.

Among a group of additional items given to the Library in 1981 by James T. Breckinridge are papers of Clifton Rodes Breckinridge, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1883 to 1894 and was American minister to Russia, 1894-1897. Among his correspondents are Henry T. Allen, President Grover Cleveland, Hilary Abner Herbert, Tom L. Johnson, Thomas O. Selfridge, Adlai E. Stevenson and Oscar S. Straus. Letters written by Clifton Breckinridge's wife, Katherine Carson Breckinridge, over the years 1894-1897 give a detailed and fascinating picture of life in czarist Russia. These letters are located within her own correspondence (containers 852-853) and in the papers of her aunt, Susanna Preston Lees (container 866). There are also additional papers of Civil War general John Cabell Breckinridge. They include correspondence with members of his family and others for the years 1849-1875, as well as diaries describing his travels in England, Europe, Palestine and Egypt (August 1866-March 1868) during his exile from America following the Civil War.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in eleven series:

• Breckinridge Family Papers, 1752-1904
• Henry Breckinridge Papers, 1909-1954, n.d.
• Joseph Cabell Breckinridge Papers, 1844-1909, n.d.
• Madeline (McDowell) Breckinridge Papers, 1895-1921, n.d.
• Robert Jefferson Breckinridge Papers, 1807-1871, n.d.
• Sophonisba P. Breckinridge Papers, 1873-1949, n.d.
• William C. P. Breckinridge Papers, 1851-1904, n.d.
• Mary Desha Papers, 1892-1910, n.d.
• Other Family Papers, 1779-1965, n.d.
• Addition, 1816-1980, n.d.
• Oversize, 1930-1954

Description of Series

Container List