John C. Breckinridge

John Cabell Breckinridge was a Kentucky lawyer, congressman, vice president, Confederate general, and one of the most prominent political figures of the years immediately preceding the Civil War. He became the youngest vice president in American history when he took office in 1857 at the age of thirty-six and later became a presidential candidate in the deeply divided election of 1860. After Kentucky's neutrality collapsed during the Civil War, Breckinridge joined the Confederacy, eventually becoming its Secretary of War and one of its senior military commanders.

Breckinridge was born on January 16, 1821, at Cabell's Dale in Kentucky, into a prominent political family. His grandfather, John Breckinridge, had served as attorney general of the United States under Thomas Jefferson, while his father, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, was a Kentucky politician. Breckinridge attended Centre College and studied at Princeton before studying law at Transylvania University. He established a legal practice in Lexington and married Mary Cyrene Burch in 1843.

Breckinridge entered public life as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1851 to 1855. He became associated with the Democratic Party and developed a reputation as a strong advocate for states' rights and the interests of slaveholding states. During the Mexican-American War he also served as a volunteer soldier, reinforcing his political reputation as a statesman with military experience.

In 1856 James Buchanan selected Breckinridge as his vice-presidential running mate, and the Democratic ticket won the election. Breckinridge became vice president at thirty-six and simultaneously served as president of the Senate. In 1859 he was elected to the U.S. Senate from Kentucky, creating the unusual situation of a sitting vice president later serving as a senator. In the fractured election of 1860 he became the presidential candidate of the Southern Democrats, winning the electoral votes of much of the Deep South but losing the presidency to Abraham Lincoln.

Breckinridge left the Senate in March 1861 as the country moved toward civil war and eventually joined the Confederacy after Kentucky's Unionist government remained aligned with the United States. He served as a Confederate general and later became Confederate Secretary of War in 1865, attempting to reorganize the Confederacy's increasingly desperate military position. After the Confederate surrender he fled the country and spent several years in exile before returning to Kentucky in 1869; he resumed his law practice and died in Lexington on May 17, 1875.

Breckinridge's legacy is inseparable from his transition from prominent U.S. statesman to Confederate leader. His career illustrates the collapse of the national Democratic Party and the political divisions over slavery and secession that preceded the Civil War. His military service and tenure as Confederate Secretary of War also make him one of the highest-ranking former U.S. officials to join the Confederacy.