page_title: Political career of John C. Breckinridge
section_title: U.S. Senate
hierarchical_section_title: Political career of John C. Breckinridge / U.S. Senate
caption_attribution_description: John C. Breckinridge. Library of Congress description: "Breckinridge, Hon. John C. Senator from Ky. General in CSA, Sec of War Confederate Cabinet" This is a retouched picture, which means that it has been digitally altered from its original version. Modifications: Scratches removed, cropped, brightness/contrast. The original can be viewed here: John C. Breckinridge - Brady-Handy.jpg. Modifications made by AJCham.
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: Because Republicans controlled neither house of Congress, nor the Supreme Court, Breckinridge did not believe Lincoln's election was a mandate for secession. Ignoring James Murray Mason's contention that no Southerner should serve in Lincoln's cabinet, Breckinridge supported the appointment of Virginian Montgomery Blair as Postmaster General. He also voted against a resolution to remove the names of the senators from seceded states from the Senate roll.
  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. Urging that federal troops be withdrawn from the seceded states, he insisted "their presence can accomplish no good, but will certainly produce incalculable mischief". He warned that, unless Republicans made some concessions, Kentucky and the other border states would also secede.
  When the legislative session ended on March 28, Breckinridge returned to Kentucky and addressed the state legislature on April 2, 1861. 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. 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.
  The Battle of Fort Sumter, which began the Civil War, occurred days later, before the border states convention could be held. 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. 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. 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. 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.
  When the Senate convened for a special session on July 4, 1861, Breckinridge stood almost alone in opposition to the war. Labeled a traitor, he was removed from the Committee on Military Affairs. He demanded to know what authority Lincoln had to blockade Southern ports or suspend the writ of habeas corpus. 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. 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". 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." 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."
  In early September, Confederate and Union forces entered Kentucky, ending her neutrality. On September 18, Unionists shut down the pro-Southern Louisville Cou
caption: Breckinridge as a senator
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