John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875) was a politician who served as the 14th vice president of the United States and as a Confederate general during the Civil War (1861-65). He also rejected President Pierce's nomination to serve as minister to Spain and negotiate American annexation of Cuba, despite the Senate's confirmation of his appointment. Breckinridge was elected vice president, having the singular distinction of being the youngest vice president in the history of the Unite… The United States Senate formally expelled him as a traitor. When Boyd ran poorly on the first ballot, the convention switched to Breckinridge and nominated him on the second ballot. He assumed office after the death of President William Henry Harrison (1773-1841), who passed away from pneumonia after just a month in the White House. John C. Breckinridge was James Buchanan's Vice President from 1857 to 1861. Upper left: Southern Democrat John C. Breckinridge arm in arm with retiring president James Buchanan, who was nicknamed “the Buck.” The most dramatic moment of the session occurred on August 1, when Senator Breckinridge took the floor to oppose the Lincoln administration's expansion of martial law. Did you know? Breckinridge next participated in Bragg’s siege at Chattanooga in the fall of 1863. Sen. Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, the champion of popular sovereignty policy, was the Northern Democrats’ candidate, and Vice Pres. Start your free trial today. Walking two-by-two behind him were the political and military leaders of what would soon become the Union and the Confederacy. Most of the Breckinridge’s adhered to the new party, but at about this time young John C. Breckinridge began to find Democratic ideas more persuasive. John C. Breckinridge helped in the formulation and adopting ne… John C. Breckinridge, a former U.S. senator and representative from Kentucky with ties to Douglas, received the vice presidential nomination. John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was a lawyer, U.S. Representative, U.S. He willingly defended slavery and white supremacy against all critics. The platform is quite similar to the platform of the Douglas Democrats, including the… John Breckinridge (December 2, 1760 – December 14, 1806) was a lawyer and politician from the U.S. state of Virginia. "Why, Doctor," the famous stump speaker smiled from his deathbed, "I can throw my voice a mile.". He returned east to the battle of Cold Harbor, and in July 1864 he and General Jubal T. Early led a dramatic raid on Washington, D.C. Breckinridge's troops advanced as far as Silver Spring, Maryland, where they sacked Francis Blair's home but did not destroy it, supposedly at the urging of Breckinridge, who had often been a guest there. A native of Kentucky, Breckinridge began his political career as a state representative before serving in the U.S. Congress from 1851-1855. Breckinridge was elected the 14th vice president of the United States in 1856, and then mounted an unsuccessful presidential bid in 1860. He became increasingly convinced that the South's cause was lost and, as the end of the war drew near, he met with Union general William T. Sherman to discuss surrender terms. Fearing capture by the Union Army, Breckinridge fled to Cuba at the end of the Civil War and then proceeded to the United Kingdom and Canada. “The Political Quadrille, Music by Dred Scott” satirized the four candidates for president in 1860, along with their supporters. He then attended Princeton before returning to Lexington to study law at Transylvania University. After making a failed attempt to wrest the city of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from Union control in August 1862, Breckinridge joined Braxton Bragg’s forces near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. But federal troops halted the Confederates, who retreated back to the Shenandoah Valley. In 1851, Breckinridge shocked the Whig party by winning the congressional race in Clay's home district, a victory that also brought him to the attention of national Democratic leaders. Later, he became the presidential candidate in the 1860 election, after the Democratic Party split into three factions. "They were a high-strung pair," commented Breckinridge's friend Forney. asked Breckinridge. Cutting of New York, almost provoking a duel. They suspected that he held private concerns about the morality of slavery and that he supported gradual emancipation. Questions about Senate History? She often regaled the children with stories of their grandfather, the first John Breckinridge, who, in addition to introducing the Kentucky Resolutions that denounced the Alien and Sedition Acts, had helped secure the Louisiana Purchase and had served during the administration of Thomas Jefferson first as a Senate leader and then as attorney general. The vice president then led a procession to the new chamber. Before the construction was completed, however, the friendship had become deeply strained when Douglas fell out with President Buchanan over slavery in Kansas. Davis was captured, but Breckinridge evaded arrest and imprisonment by fleeing through Florida to Cuba. Because of his centrist position, Breckinridge became a very attractive candidate for the Democratic Party in 1856. Forewarned, he packed his bag and fled to Virginia. Left without resources, his wife took her children back to Cabell's Dale to live with their grandmother, known affectionately as "Grandma Black Cap." For Vice-President, Joseph Lane, of Oregon. During this time Breckinridge established himself as a leading Southern politician, known for his eloquent speeches on the House floor. The Democratic Party split in two. Public outrage throughout the North caused the Whig party to collapse and new antislavery parties, the Republican and the American (Know-Nothing) parties, to rise in its wake. ", On Christmas Day, 1868, departing President Andrew Johnson issued a blanket pardon for all Confederates. Baker demanded. Narrow, secretive, petty, vindictive, and blind to corruption within his administration, he proved unable to bind together either the factions of his party or the regions of his nation. Breckinridge ultimately finished third in the popular vote behind Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas. He studied law at Transylvania University and after graduating he set up as a lawyer. John C. Breckinridge was James Buchanan's Vice President from 1857 to 1861. As the Democratic convention approached in 1856, the three leading contenders—President Pierce, Senator Douglas, and former Minister to Great Britain James Buchanan—all courted Breckinridge. He then ran as the Southern Democratic candidate in the 1860 election and after losing to Abraham Lincoln was elected to the United States Senate from Kentucky.. After the Civil War began, Breckinridge was an outspoken advocate of the Confederacy.After being expelled from the Senate for his views in … Reunited with his family in Toronto, he then embarked on an extended tour of Europe. He served as Vice-President from 1857 to 1861, under President James Buchanan. Once in office, however, the two were unable to fend off the country’s sectional conflict. Breckinridge began his political career in 1849, when he won a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. The Illinois senator pointed out that, while not all of Breckinridge's followers were secessionists, every secessionist was supporting him. The New York native drafted the state’s first constitution in 1777, and was chosen president of the Continental Congress the following year. Commissioned a brigadier general, and later a major general, Breckinridge went west to fight at Shiloh, Stone's River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. Historian James C. Klotter has speculated that, had John C. Breckinridge's father, Cabell, lived, he would have steered his son to the Whig Party and the Union, rather than the Democratic Party and the Confederacy, but the Kentucky Secretary of State and former Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives died of a fever on September 1, 1823, months before his son's third birthday. He joined the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War and served as a brigade commander at the Battle of Shiloh. Lincoln and Breckinridge became friends, despite their differences in party and ideology. Are they not intended for disorganization in our very midst?" During those debates in March 1854, the normally even-tempered Breckinridge exchanged angry words on the House floor with Democratic Representative Francis B. In Congress, Breckinridge became an ally of Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas. In Mexico, Major Breckinridge won the support of his troops for his acts of kindness, being known to give up his horse to sick and footsore soldiers. Born at "Cabell's Dale," the Breckinridge family estate near Lexington, Kentucky, on January 16, 1821, John Cabell Breckinridge was named for his father and grandfather. The former vice president practiced law and became active in building railroads. With the Democrats divided North and South, and many voters fearing the radical ideas of the Republican party, Bell was presented as the reasonable alternative. The election was a three-way race among the Democrats under Buchanan, the Republicans under John Charles Frémont, and the Know-Nothings under former President Millard Fillmore. Many in Washington doubted that he planned to offer much support to the Union or the war effort. The father, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, a rising young politician, died at the state capital at the age of thirty-five. Forced to choose sides, Breckinridge joined his friends in the Confederacy. He was born into one of America’s wealthiest families and parlayed an elite education and a reputation as a ...read more, John Jay was an American statesman and Founding Father who served the United States in numerous government offices. Shortly after the election, he met for the first time the Illinois legislator who had married his cousin Mary Todd. When Douglas introduced the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and left the issue of slavery in the territories to the settlers themselves—a policy known as "popular sovereignty"—Breckinridge worked hard to enact the legislation. He would eventually serve as president of the Elizabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad as well as the Kentucky branch of the Piedmont and Arlington Life Insurance Company of Virginia. Privately, he told Mrs. Jefferson Davis, "I trust that I have the courage to lead a forlorn hope." The only vice president ever to take up arms against the government of the United States, John Cabell Breckinridge completed four years as vice president under James Buchanan, ran for president as the Southern Democratic candidate in 1860, and then returned to the Senate to lead the remnants of the Democratic party for the first congressional session during the Civil War. A famous incident, recounted in many memoirs of the era, took place at a dinner party that the vice president attended. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Early in the new administration, when the vice president asked for a private interview with the president, he was told instead to call at the White House some evening and ask to see Buchanan's niece and hostess, Harriet Lane. One Arkansas delegate admired "his manner, his severely simple style of delivery with scarcely an ornament [or] gesture and deriving its force and eloquence solely from the remarkably choice ready flow of words, the rich voice and intonation." www.senate.gov, Senator Baker was killed while leading his militia at the Battle of Ball's Bluff. Taken prisoner after his plane was shot down, he suffered five and a half years of torture and confinement before his release in 1973. Viewed as a traitor in the North, Breckinridge travelled to Virginia and offered his services to the Confederacy. There, at Winchester, Virginia, they confronted Union troops commanded by Philip H. Sheridan. During the special session, which lasted until August 6, 1861, Breckinridge remained firm in his belief that the Constitution strictly limited the powers of the federal government, regardless of secession and war. All Rights Reserved. The new vice president bought property in the District of Columbia and planned to construct, along with his good friends Senator Douglas and Senator Henry Rice of Minnesota, three large, expensive, connected houses at New Jersey Avenue and I Street that would become known as "Minnesota Row." Created / Published In Richmond he volunteered for military service, exchanging, as he said, his "term of six years in the Senate of the United States for the musket of a soldier." Title For President, John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky. Breckinridge practiced law in Iowa and Kentucky after leaving school, and in 1843 he married Mary Cyrene Burch. Serving in the U.S. Senate at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was expelled after joining the Confederate Army. In 1860, the Democratic convention met in Charleston, South Carolina. He was courted by the major candidates for the presidency: Franklin Pierce, the incumbent; Senator Stephen A. Douglas; and James Buchanan, the former minister to England. He was a member of the Democratic party. In his brief life John C. Breckinridge embraced the roles of lawyer, politician, statesman, soldier, exile, and businessman. When these discussions fell through, Breckinridge helped Jefferson Davismake his way through the Deep South to avoid capture. He represented Kentucky in both houses of Congress and became the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. On several occasions, however, he visited his cousin Mary Todd Lincoln at the White House. Breckinridge was proud that Kentucky voted for a Democratic presidential ticket for the first time since 1828. From there he sailed for England. When another large peace rally was scheduled for September 21, the legislature sent a regiment to break up the meeting and arrest Breckinridge. Given the circumstances, a slightly different electoral slate might have engineered his defeat. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (1821–75). "And from what are you suffering?" Once it became clear that neither party considered himself the challenger, they gained a face-saving means of withdrawing from the "code of honor" without fighting the duel. John C. Breckinridge: John C. Breckinridge. King Successor Hannibal Hamlin Full Name John Cabell Breckinridge Birth January 16, 1821 Lexington, Kentucky Father Joseph Cabell Breckinridge … "use strict";(function(){var insertion=document.getElementById("citation-access-date");var date=new Date().toLocaleDateString(undefined,{month:"long",day:"numeric",year:"numeric"});insertion.parentElement.replaceChild(document.createTextNode(date),insertion)})(); FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. On January 4, 1859, when the Senate met for the last time in its old chamber, he used the occasion to deliver an eloquent appeal for national unity. In 1851 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat and served until 1855. He would later play an important role at the Battles of New Market and Cold Harbor before serving as the final Confederate secretary of war in 1865. Breckinridge next served as a volunteer during the Mexican-American War (1846-48), but saw no combat. They held their own convention in Baltimore and nominated Breckinridge as their presidential candidate. Breckinridge and Bell agreed, but Douglas refused, arguing that northern Democrats would take Lincoln before they voted for any candidate that the southern firebrands had endorsed. In November 1864 he undertook an expedition into Tennessee and won a victory at the Battle of Bull’s Gap. When Gordon urged him to be careful, Breckinridge replied, "Well, general, there is little left for me if our cause is to fail." An Illustrious Political Family. He had not been back in Kentucky since he fled eight years before. South Carolina Representative Lawrence Keitt repeatedly denigrated Kentucky's compromising tendencies. John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was an American lawyer, politician, and soldier. Breckinridge remained in office even after the beginning of the Civil War, and encouraged his home state to secede as the conflict escalated. Viewing Breckinridge as part of the Pierce-Douglas faction, Buchanan almost never consulted him, and rarely invited him to the White House for either political or social gatherings. Taking this as a rebuff, the proud Kentuckian left town without calling on either Miss Lane or the president. When the spread of Know-Nothing lodges in his district jeopardized his chances of reelection in 1855, Breckinridge declined to run for a third term. Background. Similarly snubbed, Breckinridge quickly discovered that he held less influence with Buchanan as vice president than he had as a member of the House with Pierce. "I tell you, sah, we can not stand it any longer; we intend to fight," said the officer. Two other political parties competed in this election as well. Named chief of staff when World ...read more, John Tyler (1790-1862) served as America’s 10th president from 1841 to 1845. He was then placed in command of troops in southwestern Virginia. He received no answer. Commissioned a brigadier general in November 1861, he was placed in command of the so-called “Orphan Brigade,” a Kentucky unit whose troops felt abandoned by their home state. Had the four-way election of 1860 not been decided by the electoral college but been thrown into Congress, the Democratic majority in the outgoing Senate might well have elected him vice president. At the upper right Republican Abraham Lincoln prances arm-in-arm with a black woman, a pejorative reference to his party's alignment with the abolitionists. When the Democratic Party split over the issue in the summer of 1860, Breckinridge emerged as the presidential nominee of the pro-slavery Southern Democrats. During the Battle of Chattanooga in November, his unit was routed by Union General George H. Thomas’s attack on Missionary Ridge. In Canada he met other Confederate exiles, including the freed Jefferson Davis. Lane's embrace of the secessionist spirit attracted him to the Southern Democrats. When he returned home on a visit in 1843, he met and soon married Mary Cyrene Burch of Georgetown. Senator from Kentucky and was the 14th Vice President of the United States (1857–1861), to date the youngest vice president in U.S. history, elected at age 35 and inaugurated at age 36.. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault. Republicans rallied around John C. Frémont, a U.S. senator from California, with William L. Dayton, a former U.S. senator from New Jersey as his running mate. Breckinridge faced a campaign against three old friends: Stephen Douglas, the Democratic candidate; Abraham Lincoln, the Republican; and John Bell of Tennessee, the Constitutional Union party candidate. When Cutting refused, Breckinridge interpreted this as a challenge to a duel. People noted that his uncle, Robert Breckinridge, was a prominent antislavery man, and that as a state legislator Breckinridge had aided the Kentucky Colonization Society (a branch of the American Colonization Society), dedicated to gradual emancipation and the resettlement of free blacks outside the United States. As James Buchanan’s vice president, John C. Breckinridge had a front row seat to witness the nation’s growing political division over the expansion of slavery. When Breckinridge finished, Baker challenged him: "These speeches of his, sown broadcast over the land, what meaning have they? John C. Breckinridge was an American statesman and who served as the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President of the United States; he served from 1857 to 1861, in the administration of James Buchanan. Breckinridge and Bragg experienced a falling-out in the wake of the battle and remained on poor terms for the rest of their tenure together. 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