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Henry S. Breckinridge

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Henry Skillman Breckinridge (May 25, 1886 - May 2, 1960) was a United States lawyer and politician, best known as Charles Lindbergh's attorney during the Lindbergh kidnapping trial and the only serious opponent of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1936 Democratic primaries. Born in Chicago, Illinois to a a prominent family, he graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School. In 1913 at the age of 27, he was appointed United States Assistant Secretary of War by President Woodrow Wilson, a fellow Democrat. At the same time, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy was Roosevelt himself. Breckinridge resigned, along with Secretary Lindley M. Garrison, in 1916. He was also a member of the fencing teams at the 1912 and 1928 Summer Olympics, and was captain of the latter. During World War I he served as commander of a battalion. After the war, he went to New York and soon became a prominent attorney. He was president of the Navy League of the United States from 1919 to 1921 and at that time organized the first Navy Day, which was celebrated in 1920. In 1933 he was counsel to the Joint Congressional Committee to Investigate Dirigible Disasters. He ran for the United States Senate from New York as the nominee of the minor Constitutional Party, temporarily breaking with the Democrats. Breckinridge, a strong opponent of the New Deal, was the only serious candidate opposing the highly popular incumbent Roosevelt in the 1936 Democratic primaries. FDR was otherwise opposed within the party only by favorite son candidates. Breckinridge's test of the popularity of the New Deal among Democrats failed, as he lost by wide margins. However, in New Jersey, President Roosevelt did not file for the preference vote and lost that primary to Breckinridge. Roosevelt did receive 19% of the vote on write-ins. Roosevelt's candidates for delegate swept the race in New Jersey and elsewhere. In other primaries, Breckinridge's best showing was his 15% in Maryland. Roosevelt won a total of 4,830,730 votes in all state primaries combined (93.19%) against Breckinridge's 136,407 (2.63%). Breckinridge endorsed Republican nominee Alf Landon against Roosevelt in the general election^[1]. Breckinridge was married three times: First on July 7, 1910, to Ruth Bradley and by this marriage had two daughters: Elizabeth Foster, who married John Stephens Graham, and Louise Dudley; he was divorced from his first wife in 1925; Second in Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 1927, to Aida de Acosta; he was divorced from his second wife in 1947 and third on March 27, 1947, to Margaret Lucy, daughter of John Raymond Smith of Gloucestershire, England, a horticulturist, and by this marriage had a daughter, Madeline Houston. He died in New York City.