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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] John Breckenridge Biography BRECKENRIDGE,
John Cabell, soldier, general, vice-president of the United States, was born
Jan. 16, 1821, near Lexington, Ky. He served as a major of infantry during the
war with Mexico, and while in that country distinguished himself as the counsel
of Major-General Pillow during the famous court martial. On his return from
Mexico he was elected to the state legislature. He was a representative in
congress from the Ashland district from 1851 to 1855. He was elected
vice-president of the United States in 1856, on the ticket with James Buchanan,
and entered upon the duties of his office in March, 1857, as president of the
United States senate. In 1860 he was nominated by the southern democratic party
as their candidate for president. In 1861 he went into the senate as the
successor of Mr. Crittenden. He took part in the great rebellion as a general;
and in 1865 was appointed secretary of war of the confederacy. He died May
17,1875, in Lexington, Ky. Thomas William Herringshaw, Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography of the Nineteenth Century (Chicago: American Publishers' Association, 1901) 144. |