John Breckinridge

• Vice President to:       James Buchanan - Democrat, from Pennsylvania.
  
  
  • James Buchanan served 1857 - 1861. He died in 1868, at the age of 77.
    
    
• Dates Served: Breckinridge served as Vice President from 1857 - 1861.
  
• Political Party: Breckinridge was a Democrat, from Kentucky
  
• Born: 1821.
  
• Died: 1875, at the age of 54.
  
• The presidential opponents during the 1856 campaign were:
  
  
  • John Fremont - Republican - Former California Senator and court-martialed soldier
    (Fremont was the first nominee running for the new Republican Party)
    
    
  • Millard Fillmore - The American Party, better known as the "Know-Nothing" Party - Former President from New York
    
    
• Campaign issues in 1856:
  
  
  • This was the eve of the Civil War and, naturally, Slavery was the issue on everyone's mind. Specifically, the issue was who had the authority to make decisions regarding it, the Federal government or State governments. The Democrats ran Buchanan as a "safe" candidate who would not upset the status quo, arguing that letting the new Republican Party and their anti-Slavery agenda into power would upset the nation's economy, an argument supported by businesses. It would also lead to war, which no one wanted. The Republicans argued that the current conflicts would just continue as long as the Democrats were allowed to keep appeasing Southern interests. They ran Fremont as a candidate who would bring real change. The new party's official slogan, "Free Speech, Free Press, Free Soil, Free Men, Fremont and Victory!" only convinced many moderate Democrats that they were too unpredictable in an already precarious standoff between North and South. Buchanan, the candidate of the status quo, won by a comfortable margin.
    
    
  
  
• Notable Facts about John Breckinridge:
  
  
  • Breckinridge was a distant relative of Mary Todd Lincoln
    
    
  • Religious affiliation: Presbyterian.
    
    
  • Breckinridge was a lawyer, and he began his political career in the Kentucky Legislature, at age 28, after having fought in the Mexican-American War.
    
    
  • He represented Kentucky in the US House of Representatives for two terms, from 1851 - 1855. He spoke out often in defense of slavery and for the right of secession.
    
    
  • When sworn in as Vice President, Breckinridge was 36 years old, the youngest VP ever.
    
    
  • As a loyal Southern Democrat of the times, he defended Slavery throughout his term, but was opposed to extending it into the new territories.
    
    
  • He later ran against unsuccessfully Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election, as part of a splinter-group of Southern Democrats opposed to the official Democratic platform that had removed a demand for federal protection of Slavery that year. The official Democratic platform was composed mostly of Democrats from the North, and were running Stephen Douglas as their candidate.
    
    
  • After Breckinridge lost the election in 1860 against Lincoln, and his home state of Kentucky decided to remain in the Union, he fled south to join the Confederate army. He served as a General in the Confederate Army, then in the last weeks of the war he served as Secretary of War under Jefferson Davis. After the Surrender, he fled to England and remained away for 3 years, and later returned in 1868 under the general amnesty extended to all former Confederate soldiers.
    
    
  • After the war, Breckinridge was charged with treason for his role in the Confederate government. He became the second ex-Vice President to be so honored, after Aaron Burr who was also charged with treason for plotting to lead an uprising in French and Spanish territories and declare himself their president. Aaron Burr went to trial but was acquitted. Breckinridge fled the country and spent several years wandering around Canada, Britain, and the Middle East. He returned to the US after President Andrew Johnson issued his Amnesty Proclamation, and Breckinridge's charges were dropped.
    

Notable events during his Vice Presidency:

• Since James Buchanan had been Minister to England during the fighting over the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he was considered "safe". His party, naturally, supported the Act, as did he.
  
  
• During the campaign, in 1857, the notorious "Sumner's Cane" incident occured in the Senate chambers, in which a House Representative from South Carolina, Preston Brooks, walked into the Senate and severely beat Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner over the head with his cane. He was angry over an anti-Slavery speech Sumner had given 2 days earlier in which he had insulted a cousin of Brooks. It was an ominous foreshadowing of the Civil War 4 years later, in which Brooks' state would be the first to secede.
  
  Sumner, though seriously injured, survived the beating and Brooks avoided any prosecution for the attack. He resigned from the House, only to be immediately re-elected by his constituents.
  
  
• Dred Scott decision in 1857, in which the Supreme Court decided that the Constitution denied any legal rights to black people. Chief Justice Roger Taney ruled that Congress had no constitutional authority to outlaw Slavery in the territories. He also made the famous pronouncement that black people, whether free or slave, were not considered citizens under the Constitution, and that "black people are beings of an inferior order and altogether unfit to associate with the white race". It seriously undermined the prestige of the Supreme Court for many years.
  
  
• Panic of 1857, which created a depression lasting until the Civil War. Buchanan took no federal action to relieve victims of the depression.
  
  
• Minnesota was admitted into the Union, in 1858.
  
  
• Oregon was admitted into the Union in 1859.
  
  
• Kansas was admitted into the Union in 1861, despite the fact that President Buchanan was opposed to its "free state" status, and wanted it admitted as a slave state.
  
  
• In November of 1861 Abraham Lincoln won the election. Even though he didn't take office until the following March, seven states seceded from the Union between the election and Inauguration day. Buchanan stood by and did nothing, arguing that the federal government lacked the constitutional authority to force any state to remain in the Union. He opposed any military action against the new Confederate States. However, he later supported Lincoln and the Union, despite the fact that he, himself, was a South-friendly Democrat.