Hello, my name is John C. Breckinridge. I was born in Lexington, Kentucky. I attended Transylvania University and the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). I entered politics and became a Kentucky State House of Representatives member when I was 19 in the 1840s.
In 1856, When I was 36, I was selected
as the vice-presidential candidate for the Democratic Party, running alongside presidential candidate James Buchanan. We won the election. I campaigned on a pro-slavery platform, advocating for the rights of slaveholders and the expansion of slavery into the western territories. As the Vice President of the United States under President James Buchanan from 1857 to 1861, I was in a position of power and influence.
I supported the administration's stance on preserving the Union by avoiding actions on the issue of slavery. This approach favored slave owners who sought to protect and expand their rights to own and use enslaved people. After Lincoln's election, several Southern states Left the Union.
At the time, I was a U.S. Senator from Kentucky, supported the Confederate cause, and was expelled from the Senate in December 1860. In the presidential election of 1860, the Democratic Party was deeply divided over the issue of slavery. I was nominated as the candidate of the Southern faction of the party, while Stephen A. Douglas represented the Northern faction. During the Civil War, I served in the Confederate military and held various roles, including Secretary of War for the Confederate States and later as a Confederate general.
I served in that capacity until the war ended in April. After fleeing the country for fear of being imprisoned for treason, I returned to the United States in 1869 after being granted a pardon by President Andrew Johnson. I returned to Lexington, Kentucky, in 1869, where I resumed practicing law.
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