Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-08-28
AGAINST COL. BRECKENRIDGE
Miss Mary Desha Appeals to the Voters
of Kentucky.
She Urges the Defeat Of Her Former
Brother-in-Laxv and Denounces
kentucky Congressmen.

Miss Mary Desha, sister of Col. w. C. P.
Breckinridge's first wife, has written an
open letter to the voters of the Ashland
district of Kentucky, appealing to them to
defeat her former brother-in- law. Miss
Deshas letter, in full is:
ITO the Men and Women of the Blue Grass:
Il have hesitated for many days before
writing this letter. because / know the pre-
JUDGES of Kentucky men and their opinion
that If a woman lifts her voice against the
established order of iniquity' she is out of
her sphere. But the occasion is SO grave
that venture, even at the risk of shocking
my friends, to tell you some truths which
1t is necessary for you to know. knowing
Wen you will never hear them from Ken
lucky men who have been in Washing ton.
They are bound to keeping silence, either
from the feeling of loyalty, which is much
stronger in man than woman, from a
fellow feeling that makes them wondrous
kind.
That Colonel Breckenridge will be re-
turned to Congress has never for one mo-
ment entered my mind. The very thought
of 1t is an insult to the state whose boast
has been that her men were brave and her
women virtuous. By indorsing Col. Brock
trridge you would accept his and Col.
Thompson's platform-that all men are
libertines If all the men of the state are
nbertiaes, the women cannot be pure, and
your vote for him would be an announce
ment to the world of the unchastity of your
women. l am not troubled about his re-
election, but am afraid that the politicians
Will send some one like unto him. If they
succeed In renominating him or some other
immoral man, will the reputable portion of
the community unite on a man, regardless
of politics, who can lift the soiied banner of
the Ashland district, cleanse its stains by a
pure life. and bear ii with such honor that
we. who live in Washington, and have been
deeply Inundated may again be able to
say, with uplifted heads. We are Ken
tuckians?'
The plain truth Is that of all the i'm
moral delegations in Congress that of Ken
lucky has the reputation of being the worst
With the Taulbee and Breckenridge scandals
and the low obscenity of Thompson, you
Will not wonder at 1t. What we need from
the Ashland district Is clean, pure man.
with brains enough to know that 1t is a
mans actions and not his religious twaddIe
that make for righteousness, and not brains
ell ough to fool a whole community for half
a century into thinking him a Christian and
gentleman when he is directly the re-
verse. See to IT If you must have allitera
ton on your banners that instead of .Breck-
inrldge and brains you have a name that
Will go well with morality
TO the women Of the blue grass I give
NY grateful thanks that they have remem.
Dered my sister-her faithful beautiful life
and have shown by every means in thei,
power their appreciation of it and their de.
testation of the man who dishonored he,
while living. who has desecrated her mem.
DRY and disgraced her children
TO the confederate veterans l would say
living she never forgot you; in persecu-
tion, In trial. in exile her own people were
always remembered. You passed resolu-
tons of respect when she died and followed
her to the grave with almost the honors
given to soldier. Slow that your protes
tations were sincere by retiring to private
life the man who has committed the un-
pardonable sin against her, and by sending
to Congress respectable. reputable honest
man to lift kentucky-the state she loved
so well-back to it's proud place among its
sister states.
with pride in Kentucky's past. with
shame and confusion that even one man is
left within her borders who is willing to
see her humiliated with an abiding trust ir
the final triumph of law and order, deccncy
ard morality in her midst, / am
MARY DESHA.
| "A Citizen of the Ashland District OF Ky