The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1894-04-18
BRECKENRIDGE.
The New York Sun and Several
Other Women Review the Nasty
Damage Suit
And Roast Mrs. Bullitt for Taking
the Part Of the ver-Tongued
Statesman.
THE CODE OF MORALS.

the Breckinridge case. The editorial is
headed "An Undeserved Feminine De-
fense." The Sun says .I.r.
"Mrs. Cuthbert Bullitt of Kentucky,
exhorts the women of that State not to
be too hard on Col. Breckinridge.' She
asks for him consideration at their hands
on the same ground that it waa asked by
his counsel at Washington, namely, that
he was the victim OF OF a smooth
tongued siren, and with mans passion,
which is different from a woman's he
could not tear himself from her.
"The condemnation which listens to
no excuse or palliation, she would visit
on Miss Pollard alone. The moral of
the case, in her view, is that women do
not punish such an offence in woman
severely enough. Let the ladies be
sterner with their own SEX she says,
and such disgraceful things as the
Breckenridge case will in the future be
unknown She thus imposes on women
a moral obligation different from that to
which she holds men, on the plea that
the discrimination is justified by the
difference in their passions
Undoubtedly this discrimination is
often made by women. There is fem
mime disposition to extenuate in men a
RIGHTEOUSNESS which they refuse utter
ly to tolerate in women. Thus they are
already stern toward their on SEX but
lenient to men. That this sternness
could hardly be made any sterner is
proved by Mrs. Bullitt's tenderness to-
ward Col. Breckenridge and her uncom-
promising denuncination of Miss Pollard.
The woman knew the man was married,
she says, and therefore she was a 'brazen
brute But to Col. Breckenridge. who
also knew he was married, she has no
term of indignant reproach to apply.
| She insists that something is due him.
in spite Of his perfidy, but she has no
liberation for Miss Pollard. The infer
ence from her letter is that a man is a
brute naturally and necessarily, but
woman can make herself brute only
by violating and outraging her natural
instincts.
at is that discrimination in favor of
men rather than any failure OF women
to be sufficiently stern with their own
sex, which incites such disgraceful
things as the Breckenridge CASE and it
will continue to incite them in the flu
ture. A cowardly man takes advantage
of this feminine disposition to palliate
masculine depravity on the theory that
il is natural in man. Such a base iel-
low is always ready to defend himself
by saying that the woman tempted me:'
that he was lead astray by a smooth
tongued siren, and with mans passion,
which is different from a woman's, he
could not tear himself from her.
"The distinction, however, is justified
neither in morals nor by the constitution
OF man. 1t cannot be accepted without
destroying the safeguards Of society. If
RIGHTEOUSNESS in men is excusable be-
cause Of it, whenever they yield to any
other OF their brutal instincts they are
equally defensible. 1t makes of men
savages who are not amenable to the
moral law, and restricts the obligations
of that law and its enforcement to wo-
men. II women do not keep men
straight by keeping straight themselves,
it makes the iniquity OF men pardonable.
1t is merciiul toward mans infdelity,
but the woman with whom he offends,
it denounces numerically as 'brazen
brut. who knew he could moi marry
her. But he knew also that he could
not marry her; and, moreover, he had
solemnly pledged himself to fidelity to
his wife, while his paramour was free
from the pledge OF marriage, and was
under obligation to the general moral
law only.
"Mrs. Bullitt is all wrong about men.
They are fully as capable as women of
obeying their moral and civil obligations.
They are no less capable OF selfrestraint,
and society advances from savagery so
far as they exercise that capability. The
iuktituiioh VI haii"eV, cosouiiohoN a.
barbarian even, is for the protection OF
men no less than women, and its obliga-
tons rest on them equally. 1t is the
center about which the social organiza-
ton is built up, and an outrage against
1t, whether committed by woman or
by man, is capital offense against So
ciety, as all men know. A man might
as we'll expect excuse for yielding to any
other brutal impulse punishable by the
law OF society as to expect palliation OF
his perfidy in the marriage relation. II
he cannot control his brutal passions UNI
der criminal temptation he is not fit TO
be abroad in civilization. He ought TO
be locked up rs wild man dangerous TO
society. II he shows himself to be
beast In his RIGHTEOUSNESS, more espec-
tally in spite Of the obligations and the
protection OF marriage, he is unfit for as
ISOLATION with decent women. So far
from deserving extenuation because he
Is male being, he deserves the severer
punishment. II a mans passion Is diff