Breckinridge supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act in the hope that it would take slavery in the territories out of national politics, but the act had entirely the opposite effect. 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. An entrepreneur who ran ...read more. 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 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. Please join us in our mission to incorporate The Congressional Evolution of the United States of America discovery-based curriculum into the classroom of every primary and secondary school in the United States of … "And from what are you suffering?" Lane's embrace of the secessionist spirit attracted him to the Southern Democrats. The father, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, a rising young politician, died at the state capital at the age of thirty-five. When Douglas withdrew as a gesture toward party unity, the nomination went to Buchanan. When Boyd ran poorly on the first ballot, the convention switched to Breckinridge and nominated him on the second ballot. Senator from Kentucky and the Vice President of the United States. The nominee was thirty-six years old—just a year over the constitutional minimum age for holding the office—and his election would make him the youngest vice president in American history. Breckinridge commanded the Reserve Corps at the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, and his unit incurred nearly 50 percent casualties during heavy fighting at an area known as the “Hornet’s Nest.” He earned a promotion to major general shortly thereafter. Early in 1859 a New York Times correspondent in Washington wrote that "Vice President Breckinridge stands deservedly high in public estimation, and has the character of a man slow to form resolves, but unceasing and inexorable in their fulfillment." They held their own convention in Baltimore and nominated Breckinridge as their presidential candidate. June 23, 1860 ... One of the greatest necessities of the age, in a political, commercial, postal and military point of view, is a speedy communication between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts. He served as Vice-President from 1857 to 1861, under President James Buchanan. Walking two-by-two behind him were the political and military leaders of what would soon become the Union and the Confederacy. Within months of this exchange, Senator Baker was killed while leading his militia at the Battle of Ball's Bluff along the Potomac River, and Senator Breckinridge was wearing the gray uniform of a Confederate officer. 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." John C. Calhoun (1782-1850), was a prominent U.S. statesman and spokesman for the slave-plantation system of the antebellum South. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (1821–75). Most disappointingly, he lost Kentucky to Bell. In 1860 Breckinridge ran for president as part of the Southern faction of the Democratic Party. Breckinridge next served as a volunteer during the Mexican-American War (1846-48), but saw no combat. The vice president then led a procession to the new chamber. In his brief life John C. Breckinridge embraced the roles of lawyer, politician, statesman, soldier, exile, and businessman. John Bell By Patrick Eakin In 1860 the Constitutional Union Party nominated John Bell for President of the United States. Breckinridge may also have been harboring even greater ambitions. On several occasions, however, he visited his cousin Mary Todd Lincoln at the White House. Although he was only fifty-four, his health declined severely and he died on May 17, 1875. Breckinridge next participated in Bragg’s siege at Chattanooga in the fall of 1863. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault. John C. Breckinridge and a Party Divided. Although Tennessee's Governor Andrew Johnson grumbled that Breckinridge's lack of national reputation would hurt the ticket, Buchanan's managers were pleased with the choice. A graduate of the Virginia Military Institute, he was a World War I staff officer and later became assistant commandant at the U.S. Infantry School. In 1841 he and his law partner Thomas W. Bullock settled in the Mississippi River town of Burlingame, in the Iowa Territory. When the Confederates were defeated, Breckinridge's personal secession forced him into exile abroad, bringing his promising political career to a bitter end. Fleeing Richmond, Breckinridge commanded the troops that accompanied Davis and his cabinet. Instead, the race ended Lane's political career entirely, and Oregon became a Republican state. 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. He spoke at a number of peace rallies, proclaiming that, if Kentucky took up arms against the Confederacy, then someone else must represent the state in the Senate. During those debates in March 1854, the normally even-tempered Breckinridge exchanged angry words on the House floor with Democratic Representative Francis B. 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. 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. They suspected that he held private concerns about the morality of slavery and that he supported gradual emancipation. Breckinridge began his political career in 1849, when he won a seat in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Breckinridge next reinforced the Army of Northern Virginia for the Battle of Cold Harbor, in which his men repulsed a heavy assault by Union troops. Breckinridge counseled against secession. 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. 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 … 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. John C. Breckinridge helped in the formulation and adopting ne… John Cabell Breckinridge was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on January 16, 1821. Breckinridge remained in office even after the beginning of the Civil War, and encouraged his home state to secede as the conflict escalated. He decided against running for county clerk of Scott County after his law partner complained that he spent too much time in politics. “The Political Quadrille, Music by Dred Scott” satirized the four candidates for president in 1860, along with their supporters. All Rights Reserved. Once in office, however, the two were unable to fend off the country’s sectional conflict. But in December, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida left the Union. For Vice-President, Joseph Lane, of Oregon. John C. Breckinridge, in full John Cabell Breckinridge, (born January 21, 1821, near Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.—died May 17, 1875, Lexington), 14th vice president of the United States (1857–61), unsuccessful presidential candidate of Southern Democrats (November 1860), and Confederate officer during the American Civil War (1861–65).. Loss at Chattanooga in the Iowa Territory and Bragg experienced a falling-out in the North, where he received bachelor. 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