Moments in Kentucky
Legislative History

Presented by the Kentucky Historical Society

John C. Breckinridge

On November 29, 1861, a joint resolution was reported in the Kentucky House that John C. Breckinridge had resigned his seat in the U.S. Senate, “exchanging his ‘full term in that body for the musket of a soldier’ in the army of the so-called Confederate States.” An election was then scheduled for December 9 to choose his successor.

Portrait of John C. Breckinridge by M. William Clark. Breckinridge, raised near Danville, served in the Kentucky legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives, as vice president under James Buchanan, and the U.S. Senate. He was defeated in a bid for the presidency in 1860 by fellow Kentuckian Abraham Lincoln and later became a Confederate general. KHS Collections.

Kentucky Historical Society, 100 W. Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601
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