A famous incident, recounted in many memoirs of the era, took place at a dinner party that the vice president attended. In Breckinridge's grandfather, John, owned slaves, believing it was a necessary evil in an agrarian economy.John C. Breckinridge encountered conflicting influences as an undergraduate at After returning to Kentucky, Breckinridge became friends with abolitionists Because Breckinridge defended both the Union and slavery in the General Assembly, he was considered a By the time he began his political career, Breckinridge had concluded that slavery was more a constitutional issue than a moral one.Davis notes that Breckinridge's December 21, 1859, address to the state legislature marked a change in his public statements about slavery.Klotter wrote that Breckinridge's sale of a female slave and her six-week-old child in November 1857 probably ended his days as a slaveholder.In October 1849, Kentucky voters called for a constitutional convention.When the House convened in December 1849, a member from Breckinridge's first speech favored allowing the Kentucky Colonization Society to use the House chamber; later, he advocated directing Congress to establish an African freedmen colony, and to meet the costs of transporting settlers there.Resolutions outlining Kentucky's views on the proposed Breckinridge left the session on March 4, 1850, three days before its adjournment, to tend to John Milton Breckinridge, his infant son who had fallen ill; the boy died on March 18.At an October 17, 1850, barbecue celebrating the Compromise of 1850, Breckinridge toasted its author, Whig Party founder Delegates to the Democrats' January 1851 state convention nominated Breckinridge to represent Kentucky's eighth district in the U.S. House of Representatives.The speech made Breckinridge a target of Whigs, Young Americans, and Douglas supporters.After his maiden speech, Breckinridge took a more active role in the House.Beginning in April, Breckinridge made daily visits to an ailing Henry Clay.With Butler's chances for the presidential nomination waning, Breckinridge convinced the Kentucky delegation to the Cassius Clay, Letcher's political enemy, backed Breckinridge despite their differences on slavery.When Letcher confessed doubts about his election chances, Whigs began fundraising outside the district, using the money to buy votes or pay Breckinridge supporters not to vote.Of 234 representatives in the House, Breckinridge was one of 80 re-elected to the In January 1854, Douglas introduced the Kansas–Nebraska Act to organize the In the second session of the 33rd Congress, Breckinridge acted as spokesman for Ways and Means Committee bills, including a bill to assume and pay the debts Texas incurred prior to its annexation.In February 1854, the General Assembly's Whig majority Pierce was unable to secure the nomination at the national convention, so Breckinridge switched his support to Stephen Douglas, but the combination of Pierce and Douglas supporters did not prevent When Breckinridge asked to meet with Buchanan shortly after the inauguration, Buchanan told him to come to the As vice president, Breckinridge was tasked with presiding over the debates of the Senate. You were tricked by a cabal that wanted only to see elected the man who was anathema to their region, and then divide the Union (fictional statement by Francis Preston Blair to John C. Breckinridge, Safire, 1987: p. 33). The former vice president practiced law and became active in building railroads. Walking two-by-two behind him were the political and military leaders of what would soon become the Union and the Confederacy. "Why, sah, we are suffering from the oppression of the Federal Government. 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." A proslavery minority there had sent to Washington a new territorial constitution—known as the Lecompton Constitution. Between these two poles, the vice president vainly sought to steer a neutral course. 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. The Illinois senator pointed out that, while not all of Breckinridge's followers were secessionists, every secessionist was supporting him. 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. Introduction . Despite these endorsements and the financial levies that the Buchanan administration made on all Democratic officeholders for him, Breckinridge failed to carry any northern states. 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. The grandfather might well have become president one day but, like his son, he died prematurely. There he might have entered politics and pursued a career relatively free from the divisive issue of slavery, but Iowa's fierce winter gave him influenza and made him homesick for Kentucky. Cutting of New York, almost provoking a duel.
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. 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.