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John Cabell Breckinridge

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@ National Portrait Gallery

Unidentified Artist

Description

Born near Lexington, KentuckyIn the presidential campaign of 1856, John C. Breckinridge became James Buchanan's running mate. During Breckinridge's subsequent vice-presidential tenure, he was a spokesman for national unity in the bitter sectional debates that were fast moving the country toward civil war. In the four-way election of 1860, Breckinridge was the presidential candidate of the Southern Democrats. Even when Lincoln's victory set the South on its course toward secession, he continued to urge unity. Yet once secession was accomplished, Breckinridge joined the new Confederacy and served as a general in the Confederate army. In the last months of the Civil War, Breckinridge became the Confederacy's fifth secretary of war. When Richmond fell in early April 1865, he arranged for the military and government records of the Confederacy to be surrendered intact, and these are now housed in the National Archives.
Type:
Image
Format:
Albumen Silver Print
Rights:
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
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Record Contributed By

National Portrait Gallery

Record Harvested From

Smithsonian Institution