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History and Government—Congressional Biographies—KentuckyJohn BRECKINRIDGE
(1760-1806)
Senate Years of Service:
1801-1805Party: Democratic
RepublicanBRECKINRIDGE, John,
(brother of James Breckinridge, grandfather of John Cabell
Breckinridge and William Campbell Preston Breckinridge,
great-grandfather of Clifton Rodes Breckinridge,
great-great-grandfather of John Bayne Breckinridge, cousin of John
Brown, James Brown, and Francis Preston), a Senator from Kentucky;
born near Staunton, Augusta County, Va., December 2, 1760; educated
at Augusta Academy, near Staunton (now Washington and Lee
University, Lexington, Va.), and at William and Mary College,
Williamsburg, Va.; elected a member of the house of burgesses in
1780 when nineteen years of age, but being under age was not
allowed to take his seat until elected the third time; served as
subaltern in the Virginia Militia during the Revolutionary War;
studied law; admitted to the bar in 1785 and commenced practice in
Charlottesville, Va.; elected as a Democrat to the Third Congress,
but resigned in 1792 before the commencement of the congressional
term; moved to Kentucky in 1793 and resumed the practice of law in
Lexington; unsuccessful candidate for election to the United States
Senate in 1794; appointed attorney general of Kentucky in 1795 and
served until November 30, 1797, when he resigned; member, State
house of representatives 1798-1800, serving as speaker in 1799 and
1800; member of the State constitutional convention in 1799;
elected as a Democratic Republican to the United States Senate and
served from March 4, 1801, until August 7, 1805, when he resigned
to accept the position of Attorney General of the United States in
the Cabinet of President Thomas Jefferson; served in this capacity
until his death at ‘Cabell’s Dale,’ near
Lexington, Ky., December 14, 1806; interment in Lexington Cemetery,
Lexington, Ky.
Bibliography
Dictionary of American Biography; Harrison, Lowell. John
Breckinridge, Jeffersonian Democratic Republican. Louisville:
Filson Club, 1969; Klotter, James C. The Breckinridges of
Kentucky: Two Centuries of Leadership. Lexington: University
Press of Kentucky, 1986.
Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present
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