John C. Breckinridge Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cabell

Breckinridge's parents were Joseph Cabell Breckinridge and Mary Clay Smith.

Answer: Lexington

Breckinridge was born on January 16, 1821 in Lexington. His father died when he was only two years old.

Answer: John Witherspoon

Breckinridge's mother was the daughter of Princeton University president Samuel Smith, whose father-in-law was Witherspoon, a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Answer: Grandma Blackcap

She gained the nickname "Gramdma Blackcap" because of the type of headwear she always wore.

Answer: Thomas Jefferson

John Breckinridge (born 1760) served during Jefferson's second term, from 1805 till his death in 1806.

Answer: Transylvania

Breckinridge was admitted to the bar in 1841.

Answer: Iowa

Breckinridge and his cousin founded a law office in Burlington, Iowa in 1841. Burlington was just getting started as a town. After two years, he returned home for a visit where he met and eventually married Mary Cyrene Burch.

Answer: 3rd Kentucky

Not a single shot was fired at the 3rd Kentucky during Breckinridge's time with the unit. The 3rd Kentucky was sent home eight and a half months later after the peace treaty was signed.

Answer: 1851

Breckinridge defeat Whig candidate and war hero, Leslie Combs to win election to Washington.

Answer: Spain

Breckingridge served two terms as a congressman but did not run for re-election when the Kentucky legislature redrew his district in such a way that there was no way he could win. President Franklin Pierce offered to appoint him Minister to Spain but he declined, choosing to stay in the U.S.

Answer: Franklin Pierce

Breckinridge originally supported the renomination of Franklin Pierce for a second term as president but switched to Douglas on the 15th ballet, when it became evident that Pierce had no chance of winning the nomination. After 16 ballots, Douglas withdrew his name from consideration and supported the eventual nomineee, James Buchanan.

Answer: 14th

Breckinridge served as the 14th vice-president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He was only 36 years old when he became vice-president.

Answer: False

Due to Breckinridge's support of Pierce at the Democratic National Convention, Buchanan routinely ignored Breckinridge on all matters of state.

Answer: 9 months

Breckinridge was elected to the U.S. Senate by the state legislature of Kentucky in 1859, even though the office would not open up till 1861. Breckinridge took his seat on March 4, 1861 and served until December 4, 1861 when he was expelled by his fellow Senators for his support of the Confederacy.

Answer: Joseph Lane

The first Democratic convention of 1860, held in Charleston, deadlocked and adjourned without picking a nominee. They agreed to meet one month later in Baltimore. In Baltimore, the southern Democrats bolted the convention because of the seating of new delegates.

They reconvened elsewhere in Baltimore and nominated Breckinridge for president and Lane, an Oregon senator, for vice-president.

Answer: 72

Breckinridge would win the electoral votes of 11 states in the general election. He would win all the states that would soon be part of the Confederate States with the exception of Virginia and Tennessee. Breckinridge also won the border states of Delaware and Maryland. However, he would lose his home state of Kentucky to Constitutional Union party candidate John Bell.

Answer: George Thomas

Kentucky was originally neutral when it came to the Civil War and that was generally Breckinridge's view also. However, pro-Union forces eventually took control of the Kentucky legislature and got Union forces to arrest those who they felt supported the Confederacy.
Thomas was commander of Union forces in Kentucky at this time. Thomas issued the arrest warrant but Breckinridge fled south. Later, Ulysses Grant was quoted as saying of Breckinridge, "He was among the last to go over to the south, and was rather dragged into that position."

Answer: Baton Rouge

The attempt to seize Baton Rouge failed because the Confederate forces lacked the troops to successfully do the job.

Answer: none

After the Confederacy surrendered, Breckinridge fled through Florida to Cuba. Over the next three years, he would travel from Canada to England to the Holy Land. He returned to the United States in 1869, after President Andrew Johnson's proclamation of amnesty.

Answer: Henry Clay

Breckinridge died on May 17, 1875 due to lung and kidney troubles. He was only 54 at the time of his death. He is buried in Lexington Cemetery where Henry Clay had been buried some 23 years earlier.