Breckinridge

Breckinridge, John Cabell. United States vice-president, was born in 1821, near Lexington, Kentucky. After practising law, he served as a volunteer in the Mexican war, sat in Congress from 1851 to 1855, became vice-president in 1856 under Buchanan, stood as an opponent of Lincoln, on the slave question, for the presidency, and after fighting in the Confederate army, and being secretary for war in Jefferson Davis's government, fled in 1868 to Europe. He died in 1875 at Lexington.