Many saw him as a potential president until events caused him to align himself with the Democratic Party's most vehement states' rights faction. After running on a pro-slavery ticket and losing to Republican Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Breckinridge reluctantly joined the newly formed Confederacy and took up arms against the nation he loved. He fought valiantly in some of the bloodiest conflicts of the Civil War as a Confederate general and went into exile at the war's end. He eventually returned home and, at the time of his death, was hailed by old friends and opponents alike as a statesman of courage and integrity.
A Political Family
Breckinridge seemed destined to enter politics. His grandfather had served as a U.S. senator and attorney general under Thomas Jefferson; his father had been a Speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives. After graduating from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky in 1839, Breckinridge read law under Judge William Owsley, a future Kentucky governor. He attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and completing his legal studies at the Transylvania Institute in Lexington, Kentucky. Admitted to the bar in 1840, he moved to Iowa Territory a year later and practiced law there.
This is a free page. This page contains 199 words. This
biography contains 1,639 words (approx. 5 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our John Cabell Breckinridge Access Pass.
