Description: Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, a leader in the Equal Suffrage movement in Kentucky and the wife of editor and publisher Desha Breckinridge, wrote this letter to Lucile Atcherson of the Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association on August 25, 1914. Breckinridge was coming to Columbus to do a speaking arrangement for the Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association, and began her letter by outlining the details of her travel plans to Columbus. She also added that in her biography, which the FCWSA had a copy of, Atcherson could omit the lengthy family history included in it from a different speaking engagement. Breckinridge also said she would arrange for a photograph of herself to be sent to Atcherson. She requested that should there be a debate planned, Atcherson arrange for her to go last to give her side of the debate a more lasting impact on the audience. On the second page of the letter, Breckinridge included a paragraph where she explained that she disliked asking for payment to do suffrage speaking engagements, but she needed to ask for money as a form of self-protection. She explained that she had many responsibilities and could not spend all of her time on the road campaigning for suffrage, and some women's clubs had wanted to keep her on the road. She asked Atcherson if she could have the people from the Chautauqua movement pay Breckinridge's fee for the Chautauqua speech she was set to do. However, she said if Atcherson could not get them to pay, she would still do the speech. The Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association was formed in 1912, after the Ohio Constitutional Convention elected to bring to a vote the question of removing the words "white male" from the state constitution with regard to voting rights. Headquartered in the Chamber of Commerce building in Columbus, Ohio, the organization put out regular publications, organized public speeches and meetings, distributed literature and held parades in support of the suffrage movement. Women's suffrage in Ohio was defeated in a special election in 1912 and again in 1914 and 1916 before a resolution narrowly passed in 1917 allowing municipal voting by women in Columbus. In 1920, the 19th Amendment passed, extending the vote to women and prohibiting state and federal government from denying suffrage on the basis of sex. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: MSS1025_B01F01_03_01
Subjects: Women--Suffrage; Social movements; Franklin County Woman Suffrage Association;
Places: Columbus (Ohio); Franklin County (Ohio); Lexington (Kentucky);