Political career of John C. Breckinridge
The political career of John C. Breckinridge included service in the state government of Kentucky, the Federal government of the United States, as well as the government of the Confederate States of America. In 1857, 36 years old, he was inaugurated as Vice President of the United States under James Buchanan. He remains the youngest person to ever hold the office. Four years later, he ran as the presidential candidate of a dissident group of Southern Democrats, but lost the election to the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.
A member of the Breckinridge political family, John C. Breckinridge became the first Democrat to represent Fayette County in the Kentucky House of Representatives, and in 1851, he was the first Democrat to represent Kentucky's 8th congressional district in over 20 years. A champion of strict constructionism, states' rights, and popular sovereignty, he supported Stephen A. Douglas's Kansas–Nebraska Act as a means of addressing slavery in the territories acquired by the U.S. in the Mexican–American War. Considering his re-election to the House of Representatives unlikely in 1854, he returned to private life and his legal practice. He was nominated for vice president at the 1856 Democratic National Convention, and although he and Buchanan won the election, he enjoyed little influence in Buchanan's administration.
In 1859, the Kentucky General Assembly elected Breckinridge to a U.S. Senate term that would begin in 1861. In the 1860 United States presidential election, Breckinridge captured the electoral votes of most of the Southern states, but finished a distant second among four candidates. Lincoln's election as president prompted the secession of the Southern states to form the Confederate States of America. Though Breckinridge sympathized with the Southern cause, in the Senate he worked futilely to reunite the states peacefully. After the Confederates fired on Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War, he opposed allocating resources for Lincoln to fight the Confederacy. Fearing arrest after Kentucky sided with the Union, he fled to the Confederacy, joined the Confederate States Army, and was subsequently expelled from the Senate. He served in the Confederate Army from October 1861 to February 1865, when Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed him Confederate States Secretary of War. Then, concluding that the Confederate cause was hopeless, he encouraged Davis to negotiate a national surrender. Davis's capture on May 10, 1865, effectively ended the war, and Breckinridge fled to Cuba, then Great Britain, and finally Canada, remaining in exile until President Andrew Johnson's offer of amnesty in 1868. Returning to Kentucky, he refused all requests to resume his political career and died of complications related to war injuries in 1875.
Formative years
Historian
Most of the Breckinridges were Whigs, but John Breckinridge's posthumous influence inclined his grandson toward the Democratic Party.
Views on slavery
Slavery issues dominated Breckinridge's political career, although historians disagree about Breckinridge's views. In Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol, William C. Davis argues that, by adulthood, Breckinridge regarded slavery as evil; his entry in the 2002 Encyclopedia of World Biography records that he advocated voluntary emancipation.[5][11] In Proud Kentuckian: John C. Breckinridge 1821–1875, Frank Heck disagrees, citing Breckinridge's consistent advocacy for slavery protections, beginning with his opposition to emancipationist candidates—including his uncle, Robert Jefferson Breckinridge—in the state elections of 1849.[12]
Early influences
Breckinridge's grandfather, John, owned slaves, believing it was a necessary evil in an agrarian economy.[13] He hoped for gradual emancipation but did not believe the federal government was empowered to effect it; Davis wrote that this became "family doctrine".[13] As a U.S. Senator, John Breckinridge insisted that decisions about slavery in Louisiana Territory be left to its future inhabitants, essentially the "popular sovereignty" advocated by John C. Breckinridge prior to the Civil War.[14] John C. Breckinridge's father, Cabell, embraced gradual emancipation and opposed government interference with slavery, but Cabell's brother Robert, a Presbyterian minister, became an abolitionist, concluding that slavery was morally wrong.[15][16] Davis recorded that all the Breckinridges were pleased when the General Assembly upheld the ban on importing slaves to Kentucky in 1833.[17]
John C. Breckinridge encountered conflicting influences as an undergraduate at Centre College and in law school at Transylvania University.[18] Centre President John C. Young, Breckinridge's brother-in-law, believed in states' rights and gradual emancipation, as did George Robertson, one of Breckinridge's instructors at Transylvania, but James G. Birney, father of Breckinridge's friend and Centre classmate William Birney, was an abolitionist.[18] In an 1841 letter to Robert Breckinridge, who became his surrogate father after Cabell Breckinridge's death, John C. Breckinridge wrote that only "ignorant, foolish men" feared abolition.[19][20] In an Independence Day address in Frankfort later that year, he decried the "unlawful dominion over the bodies ... of men".[11] An acquaintance believed that Breckinridge's move to Iowa Territory was motivated, in part, by the fact that it was a free territory under the Missouri Compromise.[21]
After returning to Kentucky, Breckinridge became friends with abolitionists
Moderate reputation
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.
Later views
Davis notes that Breckinridge's December 21, 1859, address to the state legislature marked a change in his public statements about slavery.[34] He decried the Republicans' desire for "negro equality", his first public indication that he may have believed blacks were biologically inferior to whites.[34] He declared that the Dred Scott decision showed that federal courts afforded adequate protection for slave property, but advocated a federal slave code if future courts failed to enforce those protections; this marked a departure from his previous doctrine of "perfect non-interference".[34][35] Asserting that John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry proved Republicans intended to force abolition on the South, he predicted "resistance [to the Republican agenda] in some form is inevitable".[19] He still urged the Assembly against secession—"God forbid that the step shall ever be taken!"—but his discussion of growing sectional conflict bothered some, including his uncle Robert.[36]
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.
After losing the election to Abraham Lincoln, Breckinridge worked for adoption of the Crittenden Compromise—authored by fellow Kentuckian John J. Crittenden—as a means of preserving the Union.[41] Breckinridge believed the Crittenden proposal—restoring the Missouri Compromise line as the separator between slave and free territory in exchange for stricter enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 and federal non-interference with slavery in the territories and Washington, D.C.—was the most extreme proposal to which the South would agree.[42][43] Ultimately, the compromise was rejected and the Civil War soon followed.[44]
Early political career
A supporter of the
Kentucky House of Representatives
In October 1849, Kentucky voters called for a constitutional convention.[49] Emancipationists, including Breckinridge's uncles William and Robert, his brother-in-law John C. Young, and his friend Cassius Marcellus Clay, nominated "friends of emancipation" to seek election to the convention and the state legislature[49] In response, Breckinridge, who opposed "impairing [slavery protections] in any form",[50] was nominated by a bipartisan pro-slavery convention for one of Fayette County's two seats in the Kentucky House of Representatives.[6][50] With 1,481 votes, 400 more than any of his opponents, Breckinridge became the first Democrat elected to the state legislature from Fayette County, which was heavily Whig.[31][51]
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.[24] Funding internal improvements was traditionally a Whig stance, but Breckinridge advocated conducting a state geologic survey, making the Kentucky River more navigable, chartering a turnpike, incorporating a steamboat company, and funding the Kentucky Lunatic Asylum.[52] As a reward for supporting these projects, he presided over the approval of the Louisville and Bowling Green Railroad's charter and was appointed director of the asylum.[54]
Resolutions outlining Kentucky's views on the proposed Compromise of 1850 were referred to the Committee on Federal Relations.[55] The committee's Whig majority favored one calling the compromise a "fair, equitable, and just basis" for dealing with slavery in the territories and urging Congress not to interfere with slavery there or in Washington, D.C.[55] Feeling this left open the issue of Congress's ability to legislate emancipation, Breckinridge asserted in a competing resolution that Congress could not establish or abolish slavery in states or territories.[31][55] Both resolutions, and several passed by the state Senate, were laid on the table without being adopted.[55]
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.[56] To distract from his grief, he campaigned for ratification of the new constitution, objecting only to its difficult amendment process.[57] He declined renomination, citing concerns "of a private and imperative nature".[58] Davis wrote that the problem was money, since his absence from Lexington had hurt his legal practice, but his son's death was also a factor.[58]
U.S. House of Representatives
At an October 17, 1850, barbecue celebrating the Compromise of 1850, Breckinridge toasted its author, Whig Party founder Henry Clay.[59] Clay reciprocated by praising Breckinridge's grandfather and father, expressing hope that Breckinridge would use his talents to serve his country, then embracing him.[60][61] Some observers believed that Clay was endorsing Breckinridge for higher office, and Whig newspapers began referring to him as "a sort of half-way Whig" and implying that he voted for Taylor in 1848.[61]
First term (1851–1853)
Delegates to the Democrats' January 1851 state convention nominated Breckinridge to represent Kentucky's eighth district in the U.S. House of Representatives.[30][62] Called the "Ashland district" because it contained Clay's Ashland estate and much of the area he once represented, Whigs typically won there by 600 to 1,000 votes.[30] A Democrat had not represented it since 1828, and in the previous election no Democrat had sought the office.[30][63] Breckinridge's opponent, Leslie Combs, was a popular War of 1812 veteran and former state legislator.[64] As they campaigned together, Breckinridge's eloquence contrasted with Combs' plainspoken style.[65][66] Holding that "free thought needed free trade", Breckinridge opposed Whig protective tariffs.[31] He only favored federal funding of internal improvements "of a national character".[31] Carrying only three of seven counties, but bolstered by a two-to-one margin in Owen County, Breckinridge garnered 54% of the vote, winning the election by a margin of 537.[64][67]
Considered for
The speech made Breckinridge a target of Whigs, Young Americans, and Douglas supporters.[73] Humphrey Marshall, a Kentucky Whig who supported incumbent President Millard Fillmore, attacked Breckinridge for claiming Fillmore had not fully disclosed his views on slavery.[74] Illinois' William Alexander Richardson, a Douglas backer, tried to distance Douglas from Sanders' attacks on Butler, but Breckinridge showed that Douglas endorsed the Democratic Review a month after it printed its first anti-Butler article.[75] Finally, Breckinridge's cousin, California's Edward C. Marshall, charged that Butler would name Breckinridge Attorney General in exchange for his support and revived the charge that Breckinridge broke party ranks, supporting Zachary Taylor for president.[76] Breckinridge ably defended himself, but Sanders continued to attack him and Butler, claiming Butler would name Breckinridge as his running mate, even though Breckinridge was too young to qualify as vice president.[77]
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.[79] Clay died June 29, 1852, and Breckinridge garnered nationwide praise and enhanced popularity in Kentucky after eulogizing Clay in the House.[69][80] Days later, he spoke in opposition to increasing a subsidy to the Collins Line for carrying trans-Atlantic mail, noting that Collins profited by carrying passengers and cargo on mail ships.[81] In wartime, the government could commandeer and retrofit Collins's steamboats as warships, but Breckinridge cited Commodore Matthew C. Perry's opinion that they would be useless in war.[81] Finally, he showed Cornelius Vanderbilt's written statement promising to build a fleet of mail ships at his expense and carry the mail for $4 million less than Collins.[81] Despite this, the House approved the subsidy increase.[82]
Second term (1853–1855)
With Butler's chances for the presidential nomination waning, Breckinridge convinced the Kentucky delegation to the 1852 Democratic National Convention not to nominate Butler until later balloting when he might become a compromise candidate.[82] He urged restraint when Lewis Cass's support dropped sharply on the twentieth ballot, but Kentucky's delegates would wait no longer; on the next ballot, they nominated Butler, but he failed to gain support.[82] After Franklin Pierce, Breckinridge's second choice, was nominated, Breckinridge tried, unsuccessfully, to recruit Douglas to Pierce's cause.[83] Pierce lost by 3,200 votes in Kentucky—one of four states won by Winfield Scott—but was elected to the presidency, and appointed Breckinridge governor of Washington Territory in recognition of his efforts.[83][84] Unsure of his re-election chances in Kentucky, Breckinridge had sought the appointment, but after John J. Crittenden, rumored to be his challenger, was elected to the Senate in 1853, he decided to decline it and run for re-election.[85]
Election
The Whigs chose Attorney General
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.[92] Breckinridge estimated that the donations, which came from as far away as New York and included contributions from the Collins Line, totaled $30,000; Whig George Robertson believed it closer to $100,000.[66][93] Washington, D.C., banker William Wilson Corcoran contributed $1,000 to Breckinridge, who raised a few thousand dollars.[92] Out of 12,538 votes cast, Breckinridge won by 526.[94] He received 71% of the vote in Owen County, which recorded 123 more votes than registered voters.[94] Grateful for the county's support, he nicknamed his son, John Witherspoon Breckinridge, "Owen".[90]
Service
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
During the debate on the bill, New York's Francis B. Cutting demanded that Breckinridge retract or explain a statement he had made, which Breckinridge understood as a challenge to duel.[64] Under the code duello, the challenged party selected the weapons and the distance between combatants; Breckinridge chose rifles at 60 paces and suggested the duel be held in Silver Spring, Maryland, on the estate of his friend, Francis Preston Blair.[64][103] Cutting had not meant his remark as a challenge, but insisted that he was now challenged and selected pistols at 10 paces.[64] While their representatives tried to clarify matters, Breckinridge and Cutting made amends, averting the duel.[64] Had it taken place, Breckinridge could have been removed from the House; the 1850 Kentucky Constitution prevented duelers from holding office.[103]
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.[104] Breckinridge's friends, W. W. Corcoran and Jesse D. Bright, were two of Texas's major creditors.[104] The bill, which was approved, paid only those debts related to powers Texas surrendered to Congress upon annexation.[105] Breckinridge was disappointed that the House defeated a measure to pay the Sioux $12,000 owed them for the 1839 purchase of an island in the Mississippi River; the debt was never paid.[105] Another increase in the subsidy to the Collins Line passed over his opposition, but Pierce vetoed it.[105]
Retirement from the House
In February 1854, the General Assembly's Whig majority
Breckinridge and
U.S. vice president
Two Kentuckians—Breckinridge's friend,
Election
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 James Buchanan's nomination.[119] After Douglas's floor manager, William Richardson, suggested that nominating Breckinridge for vice president would help Buchanan secure the support of erstwhile Douglas backers in the general election, Louisiana's J. L. Lewis nominated him.[120] Breckinridge declined in deference to Linn Boyd but received 51 votes on the first ballot, behind Mississippi's John A. Quitman with 59, but ahead of third-place Boyd, who garnered 33.[121] On the second ballot, Breckinridge received overwhelming support, and opposition delegates changed their votes to make his nomination unanimous.[122]
The election was between Buchanan and Republican
Service
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. In an early address to that body, he promised, "It shall be my constant aim, gentlemen of the Senate, to exhibit at all times, to every member of this body, the courtesy and impartiality which are due to the representatives of equal States."[136] Historian Lowell H. Harrison wrote that, while Breckinridge fulfilled his promise to the satisfaction of most, acting as moderator limited his participation in debate.[33] Five tie-breaking votes provided a means of expressing his views. Economic motivations explained two—forcing an immediate vote on a codfishing tariff and limiting military pensions to $50 per month ($1760.77 in present-day currency).[137] A third cleared the floor for a vote on Douglas's motion to admit Oregon to the Union, and a fourth defeated Johnson's Homestead Bill.[138] The final vote effected a wording change in a resolution forbidding constitutional amendments that empowered Congress to interfere with property rights.[139] The Senate's move from the Old Senate Chamber to a more spacious one on January 4, 1859, provided another opportunity.[33] Afforded the chance to make the last address in the old chamber, Breckinridge encouraged compromise and unity among the states to resolve sectional conflicts.[33]
Despite irregularities in the approval of the Lecompton Constitution by Kansas voters, Breckinridge agreed with Buchanan that it was legitimate, but he kept his position secret, and some believed he agreed with his friend, Stephen Douglas, that Lecompton was invalid.[140] Breckinridge's absence from the Senate during debate on admitting Kansas to the Union under Lecompton seemed to confirm this, but his leave—to take his wife from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she was recovering from an illness, to Washington, D.C.—had been planned for months.[141] The death of his grandmother, Polly Breckinridge, prompted him to leave earlier than planned.[142] During his absence, both houses of Congress voted to re-submit the Lecompton Constitution to Kansas voters for approval.[143] On resubmission, it was overwhelmingly rejected.[144]
By January 1859, friends knew Breckinridge desired the U.S. Senate seat of John J. Crittenden, whose term expired on March 3, 1861.[33][145] The General Assembly would elect Crittenden's successor in December 1859, so Breckinridge's election would not affect any presidential aspirations he might harbor.[145] Democrats chose Breckinridge's friend Beriah Magoffin over Linn Boyd as their gubernatorial nominee, bolstering Breckinridge's chances for the senatorship, the presidency, or both.[146] Boyd was expected to be Breckinridge's chief opponent for the Senate, but he withdrew on November 28, citing ill health, and died three weeks later.[147] The Democratic majority in the General Assembly elected Breckinridge to succeed Crittenden by a vote of 81 to 53 over Joshua Fry Bell, whom Magoffin had defeated for the governorship in August.[147]
After
Presidential election of 1860
Breckinridge's lukewarm support for Douglas in his
Nomination
Breckinridge asked James Clay to protect his interests at the
Breckinridge's communication with his supporters between the meetings indicated greater willingness to become a candidate, but he instructed Clay to nominate him only if his support exceeded Guthrie's.[156] Many believed that Buchanan supported Breckinridge, but Breckinridge wrote to Beck that "The President is not for me except as a last necessity, that is to say not until his help will not be worth a damn."[156][157] After a majority of the delegates, most of them Douglas supporters, voted to replace Alabama and Louisiana's walk-out delegates with new, pro-Douglas men in Baltimore, Virginia's delegation led another walk-out of Southern Democrats and Buchanan-controlled delegates from the northeast and Pacific coast; 105 delegates, including 10 of Kentucky's 24, left, and the remainder nominated Douglas.[158] The walk-outs held a rival nominating convention, styled the National Democratic Convention, at the Maryland Institute in Baltimore.[159] At that convention on June 23, Massachusetts' George B. Loring nominated Breckinridge for president, and he received 81 of the 105 votes cast, the remainder going to Daniel S. Dickinson of New York.[158] Oregon's Joseph Lane was nominated for vice-president.[5]
Breckinridge told Beck he would not accept the nomination because it would split the Democrats and ensure the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln.[160] On June 25, Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis proposed that Breckinridge should accept the nomination; his strength in the South would convince Douglas that his own candidacy was futile.[161] Breckinridge, Douglas, and Constitutional Unionist John Bell would withdraw, and Democrats could nominate a compromise candidate.[161] Breckinridge accepted the nomination, but maintained that he had not sought it and that he had been nominated "against my expressed wishes".[156][162] Davis's compromise plan failed when Douglas refused to withdraw, believing his supporters would vote for Lincoln rather than a compromise candidate.[163]
Election
The election effectively pitted Lincoln against Douglas in the North and Breckinridge against Bell in the South.[164] Far from expectant of victory, Breckinridge told Davis's wife, Varina, "I trust I have the courage to lead a forlorn hope."[5][154] Caleb Cushing oversaw the publication of several Breckinridge campaign documents, including a campaign biography and copies of his speeches on the occasion of the Senate's move to a new chamber and his election to the Senate.[165] After making a few short speeches during stops between Washington, D.C. and Lexington, Breckinridge stated that, consistent with contemporary custom, he would make no more speeches until after the election, but the results of an August 1860 special election to replace the deceased clerk of the Kentucky Court of Appeals convinced him that his candidacy could be faltering.[163] He had expressed confidence that the Democratic candidate for the clerkship would win, and "nothing short of a defeat by 6,000 or 8,000 would alarm me for November". Constitutional Unionist Leslie Combs won by 23,000 votes, prompting Breckinridge to make a full-length campaign speech in Lexington on September 5, 1860.[166]
Breckinridge's three-hour speech was primarily defensive; his moderate tone was designed to win votes in the north but risked losing Southern support to Bell.
Breckinridge finished third in the popular vote with 849,781 votes to Lincoln's 1,866,452, Douglas's 1,379,957, and Bell's 588,879.[40] He carried 12 of the 15 Southern states and the border states of Maryland, Delaware and North Carolina but lost his home state to Bell.[40] His greatest support in the Deep South came from areas that opposed secession.[170] Davis pointed out that only Breckinridge garnered nearly equal support from the Deep South, the border states, and the free states of the North.[171] His 72 electoral votes bested Bell's 59 and Douglas's 12, but Lincoln received 180, enough to win the election.[167]
Aftermath
Three weeks after the election, Breckinridge returned to Washington, D.C., to preside over the Senate's
One of Breckinridge's final acts as vice-president was announcing the vote of the Electoral College to a joint session of Congress on February 13, 1861.[174] Rumors abounded that he would tamper with the vote to prevent Lincoln's election.[175] Knowing that some legislators planned to attend the session armed, Breckinridge asked Winfield Scott to post guards in and around the chambers.[175] One legislator raised a point of order, requesting that the guards be ejected, but Breckinridge refused to sustain it; the electoral vote proceeded, and Breckinridge announced Lincoln's election as president.[176] After Lincoln's arrival in Washington, D.C., on February 24, Breckinridge visited him at the Willard Hotel.[177] After making a valedictory address on March 4, he swore in Hannibal Hamlin as his successor as vice president; Hamlin then swore in Breckinridge and the other incoming senators.[178]
U.S. Senate
Because Republicans controlled neither house of Congress, nor the Supreme Court, Breckinridge did not believe Lincoln's election was a mandate for secession.
Working for a compromise that might yet save the Union, Breckinridge opposed a proposal by Ohio's Clement Vallandigham that the border states unite to form a "middle confederacy" that would place a buffer between the U.S. and the seceded states, nor did Breckinridge desire to see Kentucky as the southernmost state in a northern confederacy; its position south of the Ohio River left it too vulnerable to the southern confederacy should war occur.[180] Urging that federal troops be withdrawn from the seceded states, he insisted "their presence can accomplish no good, but will certainly produce incalculable mischief".[182] He warned that, unless Republicans made some concessions, Kentucky and the other border states would also secede.[182]
When the legislative session ended on March 28, Breckinridge returned to Kentucky and addressed the state legislature on April 2, 1861.[182] He urged the General Assembly to push for federal adoption of the Crittenden Compromise and advocated calling a border states convention, which would draft a compromise proposal and submit it to the Northern and Southern states for adoption.[183] Asserting that the states were coequal and free to choose their own course, he maintained that, if the border states convention failed, Kentucky should call a sovereignty convention and join the Confederacy as a last resort.[179][183][184]
The Battle of Fort Sumter, which began the Civil War, occurred days later, before the border states convention could be held.[183] Magoffin called a special legislative session on May 6, and the legislature authorized creation of a six-man commission to decide the state's course in the war.[185] Breckinridge, Magoffin, and Richard Hawes were the states' rights delegates to the conference, while Crittenden, Archibald Dixon, and Samuel S. Nicholas represented the Unionist position.[185] The delegates were only able to agree on a policy of armed neutrality, which Breckinridge believed impractical and ultimately untenable, but preferable to more drastic actions.[185] In special elections held June 20, 1861, Unionists won nine of Kentucky's ten House seats, and in the August 5 state elections, Unionists gained majorities in both houses of the state legislature.[179]
When the Senate convened for a special session on July 4, 1861, Breckinridge stood almost alone in opposition to the war.[186] Labeled a traitor, he was removed from the Committee on Military Affairs.[187][188] He demanded to know what authority Lincoln had to blockade Southern ports or suspend the writ of habeas corpus.[189] He reminded his fellow senators that Congress had not approved a declaration of war and maintained that Lincoln's enlistment of men and expenditure of funds for the war effort were unconstitutional.[189] If the Union could be persuaded not to attack the Confederacy, he predicted that "all those sentiments of common interest and feeling ... might lead to a political reunion founded upon consent".[189] On August 1, he declared that if Kentucky supported Lincoln's prosecution of the war, "she will be represented by some other man on the floor of this Senate."[186] Asked by Oregon's Edward Dickinson Baker how he would handle the secession crisis, he responded, "I would prefer to see these States all reunited upon true constitutional principles to any other object that could be offered me in life ... But I infinitely prefer to see a peaceful separation of these States, than to see endless, aimless, devastating war, at the end of which I see the grave of public liberty and of personal freedom."[190]
In early September, Confederate and Union forces entered Kentucky, ending her neutrality.
On October 2, 1861, the Kentucky General Assembly passed a resolution declaring that neither of the state's U.S. Senators—Breckinridge and Powell—represented the will of the state's citizens and requesting that both resign.[193] Governor Magoffin refused to endorse the resolution, preventing its enforcement.[193] Writing from Bowling Green on October 8, Breckinridge declared, "I exchange with proud satisfaction a term of six years in the Senate of the United States for the musket of a soldier."[186] Later that month, he was part of a convention in Confederate-controlled Russellville, Kentucky, that denounced the Unionist legislature as not representing the will of most Kentuckians and called for a sovereignty convention to be held in that city on November 18.[194] Breckinridge, George W. Johnson, and Humphrey Marshall were named to the planning committee, but Breckinridge did not attend the convention, which created a provisional Confederate government for Kentucky.[194] On November 6, Breckinridge was indicted for treason in a federal court in Frankfort.[186] The Senate passed a resolution formally expelling him on December 2, 1861; Powell was the only member to vote against the resolution, claiming that Breckinridge's statement of October 8 amounted to a resignation, rendering the resolution unnecessary.[193]
Confederate Secretary of War
Breckinridge served in the Confederate Army from November 2, 1861, until early 1865.
Some Confederate congressmen were believed to oppose Breckinridge because he had waited so long to join the Confederacy, but his nomination was confirmed unanimously on February 6, 1865.[195][199] At 44 years old, he was the youngest person to serve in the Confederate president's cabinet.[198] Klotter called Breckinridge "perhaps the most effective of those who held that office", but Harrison wrote that "no one could have done much with the War Department at that late date".[167][200] While his predecessors had largely served Davis's interests, Breckinridge functioned independently, assigning officers, recommending promotions, and consulting on strategy with Confederate generals.[200]
Breckinridge's first act as secretary was to meet with assistant secretary John Archibald Campbell, who had opposed Breckinridge's nomination, believing he would focus on a select few of the department's bureaus and ignore the rest.[201] During their conference, Campbell expressed his desire to retain his post, and Breckinridge agreed, delegating many of the day-to-day details of the department's operation to him.[199][202] Breckinridge recommended that Davis appoint Isaac M. St. John, head of the Confederate Nitre and Mining Bureau, as permanent commissary general.[203] Davis made the appointment on February 15, and the flow of supplies to Confederate armies improved under St. John.[203][204] With Confederate ranks plagued by desertion, Breckinridge instituted a draft; when this proved ineffective, he negotiated the resumption of prisoner exchanges with the Union in order to replenish the Confederates' depleted manpower.[205]
By late February, Breckinridge had concluded that the Confederate cause was hopeless.[200] He opposed the use of guerrilla warfare by Confederate forces and urged a national surrender.[32] Meeting with Confederate senators from Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri, and Texas, he urged, "This has been a magnificent epic. In God's name let it not terminate in a farce."[204] In April, with Union forces approaching Richmond, Breckinridge organized the escape of the other cabinet officials to Danville, Virginia.[206] Afterward, he ordered the burning of the bridges over the James River and ensured the destruction of buildings and supplies that might aid the enemy.[199][200] During the surrender of the city, he helped preserve the Confederate government and military records housed there.[32]
After a brief rendezvous with
After the failed negotiations, Confederate Attorney General
Discharging most of the remaining escort, Breckinridge left Washington with a small party on May 5, hoping to distract federal forces from the fleeing Confederate president.
Later life
Besides marking the end of the Confederacy and the war, Davis's capture left Breckinridge as the highest-ranking former Confederate still at large.[5] Fearing arrest, he fled to Cuba, Great Britain, and Canada, where he lived in exile.[167] Andrew Johnson issued a proclamation of amnesty for all former Confederates in December 1868, and Breckinridge returned home the following March.[167] Friends and government officials, including President Ulysses S. Grant, urged him to return to politics, but he declared himself "an extinct volcano" and never sought public office again.[5][32] He died of complications from war-related injuries on May 17, 1875.[222]
Notes
- ^ "Loco-foco" was by then a derogatory term used by Whigs to describe the Democratic Party; see locofocos.
- ^ "Democracy" here refers to the U.S. Democratic Party, not the form of government.
- ^ The role of White House hostess was typically filled by the First Lady (the president's wife), but Buchanan was unmarried. His niece, Harriet Lane, functioned as the mansion's official hostess during his term.
- ^ For a list of individuals expelled from the U.S. Senate, see List of United States senators expelled or censured. For a list of seceded states and their dates of secession, see Confederate States of America#States.
References
- ^ Klotter, pp. 96–97
- ^ Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 97
- ^ Klotter, p. 108
- ^ a b Heck, p. 1
- ^ a b c d e f "John Cabell Breckinridge". Encyclopedia of World Biography
- ^ a b Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 103
- ^ Heck, pp. 11, 13
- ^ Davis, p. 27
- ^ a b Heck, p. 14
- ^ Heck, p. 15
- ^ a b Davis, p. 19
- ^ a b c Heck, p. 163
- ^ a b Davis, p. 5
- ^ Davis, p. 7
- ^ Davis, p. 8
- ^ a b Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 109
- ^ Davis, p. 17
- ^ a b Davis, pp. 14, 17
- ^ a b c d e f g Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 113
- ^ a b Davis, p. 16
- ^ Davis, p. 21
- ^ a b Davis, p. 43
- ^ Davis, pp. 19, 44
- ^ a b Davis, p. 47
- ^ Heck, p. 31
- ^ a b "John Cabell Breckinridge, 14th Vice President (1857–1861)". United States Senate
- ^ Davis, p. 59
- ^ Heck, pp. 163–164
- ^ Klotter in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, p. 117
- ^ a b c d Heck, p. 33
- ^ a b c d e f g h Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 104
- ^ a b c d e f Current, "John C. Breckinridge"
- ^ a b c d e f Harrison, p. 127
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 208
- ^ Heck, p. 80
- ^ Davis, p. 209
- ^ Heck, p. 167
- ^ a b c Harrison and Klotter, p. 184
- ^ Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 117
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 245
- ^ Davis, p. 250
- ^ a b c d Heck, p. 95
- ^ Davis, p. 251
- ^ Davis, p. 253
- ^ Davis, p. 30
- ^ Heck, p. 19
- ^ a b Davis, p. 31
- ^ a b Heck, p. 20
- ^ a b Heck, p. 26
- ^ a b Heck, p. 27
- ^ Davis, p. 45
- ^ a b c d Davis, p. 46
- ^ Heck, p. 29
- ^ Davis, pp. 46, 48
- ^ a b c d Heck, p. 30
- ^ Davis, p. 48
- ^ Davis, pp. 47–48
- ^ a b Davis, p. 49
- ^ Davis, p. 50
- ^ Heck, p. 32
- ^ a b Davis, p. 51
- ^ Davis, p. 52
- ^ Davis, p. 53
- ^ a b c d e f Harrison, p. 126
- ^ a b Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 105
- ^ a b c Heck, p. 34
- ^ Davis, pp. 55–56
- ^ Davis, pp. 58–59
- ^ a b c d Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 107
- ^ a b Davis, p. 61
- ^ Heck, p. 40
- ^ Davis, pp. 62–63
- ^ Davis, pp. 65–66
- ^ Davis, p. 66
- ^ Davis, pp. 66–67
- ^ Davis, p. 67
- ^ a b c d Davis, p. 68
- ^ a b c d e Heck, p. 39
- ^ Davis, p. 69
- ^ Davis, p. 70
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 71
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 72
- ^ a b Davis, p. 73
- ^ Heck, pp. 37–38
- ^ Davis, p. 76
- ^ Davis, pp. 76–77
- ^ Davis, p. 77
- ^ Davis, p. 81
- ^ a b Davis, p. 82
- ^ a b Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 106
- ^ a b Davis, p. 80
- ^ a b Davis, p. 91
- ^ Davis, p. 90
- ^ a b Heck, p. 35
- ^ a b Heck, p. 37
- ^ Davis, pp. 98–99
- ^ Davis, p. 121
- ^ Davis, p. 100
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 101
- ^ Davis, pp. 104–105
- ^ Heck, pp. 42, 55
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 119
- ^ a b Heck, p. 45
- ^ a b Davis, p. 128
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 129
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 124
- ^ Davis, p. 126
- ^ Davis, p. 127
- ^ Davis, pp. 127–128
- ^ a b Heck, p. 48
- ^ Heck, p. 50
- ^ Heck, pp. 50–51
- ^ Heck, p. 51
- ^ Heck, p. 53
- ^ Heck, pp. 53–54
- ^ Davis, p. 137
- ^ Davis, p. 138
- ^ Davis, p. 139
- ^ Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 110
- ^ Davis, p. 144
- ^ Davis, p. 145
- ^ Heck, p. 59
- ^ Heck, p. 60
- ^ a b Davis, p. 158
- ^ a b Davis, p. 159
- ^ Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 111
- ^ Heck, p. 63
- ^ a b Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 112
- ^ a b Heck, p. 67
- ^ Heck, p. 68
- ^ Davis, p. 171
- ^ Davis, p. 168
- ^ Davis, pp. 169–170
- ^ Davis, pp. 181, 192
- ^ Davis, pp. 250–251
- ^ Davis, p. 167
- ^ Davis, p. 184
- ^ Davis, pp. 184, 195
- ^ Davis, p. 259
- ^ Davis, pp. 178, 182
- ^ Davis, pp. 182–184
- ^ Davis, p. 182
- ^ Davis, p. 183
- ^ Davis, p. 190
- ^ a b Heck, p. 77
- ^ Heck, p. 78
- ^ a b Heck, p. 79
- ^ a b Davis, p. 185
- ^ Davis, p. 197
- ^ a b c d e Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 114
- ^ Davis, pp. 212–213
- ^ a b Heck, p. 82
- ^ a b Davis, p. 218
- ^ a b Harrison and Klotter, p. 183
- ^ Heck, p. 83
- ^ a b c Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 115
- ^ Davis, p. 212
- ^ a b Heck, p. 84
- ^ Melzer, p. 218
- ^ Davis, p. 224
- ^ a b Davis, p. 225
- ^ Heck, p. 85
- ^ a b Heck, p. 86
- ^ Harrison, p. 128
- ^ Davis, p. 233
- ^ a b c Heck, p. 87
- ^ a b c d e Klotter in The Kentucky Encyclopedia, p. 118
- ^ Heck, p. 88
- ^ Heck, p. 89
- ^ Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, pp. 117–118
- ^ Davis, p. 246
- ^ Heck, p. 92
- ^ a b Heck, p. 94
- ^ Harrison and Klotter, p. 185
- ^ a b Davis, p. 257
- ^ Davis, p. 258
- ^ Heck, p. 97
- ^ Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 118
- ^ a b c Harrison, p. 129
- ^ a b Davis, p. 261
- ^ Davis, p. 262
- ^ a b c Heck, p. 98
- ^ a b c Harrison and Klotter, p. 187
- ^ Davis, p. 264
- ^ a b c Harrison and Klotter, p. 188
- ^ a b c d e Harrison, p. 130
- ^ Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 120
- ^ Davis, p. 268
- ^ a b c Klotter, p. 119
- ^ Davis, p. 276
- ^ Davis, p. 285
- ^ a b Heck, p. 104
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 296
- ^ a b Harrison and Klotter, p. 192
- ^ a b Heck, p. 132
- ^ Davis, p. 478
- ^ Davis, pp. 478–479
- ^ a b c d Davis, p. 480
- ^ a b c Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 128
- ^ a b c d Harrison, p. 131
- ^ Davis, pp. 485–486
- ^ Davis, p. 486
- ^ a b Davis, p. 487
- ^ a b Heck, p. 133
- ^ Davis, p. 491
- ^ Heck, p. 134
- ^ Davis, p. 507
- ^ Heck, p. 135
- ^ Heck, pp. 135–136
- ^ Harrison, p. 138
- ^ Heck, p. 136
- ^ a b Davis, p. 518
- ^ a b Heck, p. 137
- ^ Davis, pp. 519–520
- ^ a b Klotter in The Breckinridges of Kentucky, p. 129
- ^ Davis, p. 520
- ^ Heck, pp. 137–138
- ^ Heck, p. 138
- ^ Davis, p. 524
- ^ Davis, p. 525
- ^ Davis, p. 528
- ^ Heck, p. 160
Bibliography
- Current, Richard Nelson, ed. (1993). "John C. Breckinridge". Encyclopedia of the Confederacy. New York City, New York: Simon & Schuster. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-8071-0068-4.
- Harrison, Lowell H. (April 1973). "John C. Breckinridge: Nationalist, Confederate, Kentuckian". Filson Club History Quarterly. 47 (2). Archived from the original on May 2, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-2008-9.
- Heck, Frank H. (1976). Proud Kentuckian: John C. Breckinridge, 1821–1875. ISBN 978-0-8131-0217-7.
- "John Cabell Breckinridge". Dictionary of American Biography. New York City, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. 1936. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
- "John Cabell Breckinridge". Encyclopedia of World Biography. Vol. 22. Detroit, Michigan: Gale. 2002. Retrieved November 20, 2012.
- "John Cabell Breckinridge, 14th Vice President (1857–1861)". United States Senate. Retrieved November 27, 2012.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-9165-2.
- ISBN 978-0-8131-1772-0. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
- Melzer, Dorothy Garrett (July 1958). "Mr. Breckinridge Accepts". Register of the Kentucky Historical Society. 56 (3).