Letter from Lexington, Kentucky Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy welcoming Lucy Stuart Fitzhugh into the organization.
The initial success of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UCD) rested with the organization’s modifications of the original constitution in 1895. The changes to the constitution allowed a wider range of white Southern women to join UDC. The inclusive membership triumphed out of a battle between the founders Raines and Goodlett. Raines wanted to membership to be based on recommendations to ensure that only women of a high class and respectability became members. Goodlett sought a more open membership for all white women dedicated to the Confederacy. Goodlett prevailed, the new constitution encouraged open membership for Southern women, but individual states also gained the power to alter their membership admittance policy if they wished to be more selective. In Kentucky, Louisville’s Albert Sydney Johnston Chapter Constitution outlined the qualifications for membership in Article III: “Section 1. Those women entitled to membership in this Chapter are the widows, wives, mothers, sisters, nieces, and lineal descendants of such men as served honorably in the Confederate army, navy, or civil service, or of those persons who loyally gave material aid to the cause, also women and their lineal descendants, wherever living, who can give proof of personal service and loyal aid to the Southern cause during the war.”
