Scope and Content Note
The papers of the Breckinridge Family consist of approximately 205,000 manuscripts and span the years 1752-1980. The papers are organized into twelve series: Family Papers, Henry Breckinridge Papers, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge Papers, Madeline McDowell Breckinridge Papers, Robert J. Breckinridge Papers, Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge Papers, William Campbell Preston Breckinridge Papers, Mary Desha Papers, Other Family Papers, Addition I, Addition II, and Oversize.
The Family Papers contain the papers of John Breckinridge (1760-1806) and John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875), and other family members. The papers of Robert J. Breckinridge (1800-1871), William Campbell Preston Breckinridge (1837-1904), Joseph Cabell Breckinridge (1842-1920) in the Family Papers series are in addition to and complement the content found in their respective series described below. The Family Papers are in 515 bound volumes, span the years 1752-1904, and include correspondence, legal papers, surveys, bills and receipts arranged in chronological order.
Volumes 1-31 of the Family Papers contain the papers of John Breckinridge, which are among the most important of the entire collection. 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 Family Papers also include the papers of John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875). These materials 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. Additional material from this time period can be found in Addition I and Addition II . 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 Anderson Early, James Guthrie, John Marshall Harlan, and Robert E. Lee.
Papers of other Breckinridge family members are located within bound volumes 1-515 and in the Other Family Papers in containers 828-850.
The Henry Breckinridge Papers consist of diaries, correspondence, speeches, and articles for the years 1909-1954. In 1913, at the age of twenty-seven, Henry Breckinridge (1886-1960) was appointed to serve as assistant secretary of war in President Woodrow Wilson’s first cabinet, a position 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 Preston Breckinridge, and from business acquaintances and friends. Among the more significant correspondents are Harold Dodds, president of Princeton University, Alfred M. Landon, Hjalmar Johan Fredrik Procopé, Finish minister to the United States (1939-1944), James Wolcott 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 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.
The Joseph Cabell Breckinridge Papers cover the years 1844-1909 and number approximately 55,000 items. With the beginning of the Civil War, Jospeh Cabell Breckinridge (1842-1920) 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 Conant Church, Edward Miner Gallaudet, A. W. Greely, John Marshall Harlan, Rutherford B. Hayes, Henry Ware Lawton, Henry Cabot Lodge, William McKinley, Nelson Appleton Miles, Horace Porter, Redfield Proctor, and Theodore Roosevelt.
The Madeline McDowell Breckinridge Papers number approximately 11,000 items and span the years 1895-1921. Madeline Breckinridge (1872-1920), wife of Desha 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 Robert J. Breckinridge Papers , 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 Robert J. Breckinridge (1800-1871) 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 Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge Papers number about 14,000 items and cover the years 1873-1949. Sophisba Preston Breckinridge (1866-1948) was a social worker and the bulk of the manuscripts is made up of correspondence which covers the entire range of her activities in the field: 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 Preston 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 William Barkley, Ernest Gruening, Cordell Hull, Harold L. Ickes, Frances Perkins, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Fred M. Vinson.
The William Campbell Preston Breckinridge Papers 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. William Campbel Preston Breckinridge (1837-1904) graduated from the Louisville (Kentucky) Law College in 1857 then practiced law in Lexington until he joined the Confederate forces of Gen. John Hunt 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 Other Family Papers series. 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 Mary Desha Papers consist of approximately 2,000 items, span the years 1892-1910, and contain a small group of correspondence, a subject file, and miscellaneous items. Mary Desha (1850-1911), William Campbell Preston 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.
Other Family Papers span the years 1779 to 1965 and are alphabetically arranged by family member. Within this series, the papers of Desha Breckinridge (1867-1935), editor and publisher of the Lexington Morning Herald from 1897 to 1935, are of particular interest. This series contains additional papers of John Breckinridge, John C. Breckinridge, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, and Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge, among others.
Addition I spans the years 1816-1980. The series contains papers relating to 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 A. Herbert, Tom Loftin Johnson, T. O. Selfridge, Adlai E. Stevenson and Oscar Straus. Letters written by Clifton Rodes 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 and in the papers of her aunt, Susanna Preston Lees. There are also additional papers of Civil War general John C. 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.
Addition II spans the years 1847-1969 and contains correspondence, financial papers, clippings, and newspapers. The series consists primarily of John C. Breckinridge’s correspondence from the years 1847 to 1875. The correspondence documents his family relationships, service in Congress, exile in Europe after the Civil War, and post-political career as a lawyer and businessman. His activities as a businessman include real estate transactions and efforts to expand railroad service in Kentucky with the Elizabethtown, Lexington, and & Big Sandy Railroad Co. Significant correspondents include his wife, Mary Breckinridge (1826-1907), his son, Clifton Rodes Breckinridge, Montgomery Blair, George B. Kinkead, Beriah Magoffin, Ambrose Dudley Mann, Henry Rice Mower and Jacob Thompson. Addition II also includes financial papers and miscellany consisting of political pamphlets, poll books, clippings and newspapers and materials relating to John C. Breckinridge’s estate.
The Oversize series contains certificates, commissions, documents, drawings, discharges, photographs, and newspapers. The series is organized and described according to the series and folders from which the items were removed.