BRECKINRIDGE, Robert Jefferson was born on September 14, 1834 in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, United States. Son of the Presbyterian clergyman Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge and his wife Sophonisba (Preston) and a nephew of John C. Breckinridge.
Private school, southern university.
He attended Centre College in Kentucky and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1852. His marriage to Kate Morrison in 1856 produced two children. A Democrat, Breckinridge served for three years in the U.S. Coastal Survey before resigning in 1854 to practice law in Danville and later in Lexington, Kentucky.
In 1856, he taught law at Transylvania University. Despite the fact that his father remained loyal to the Union, the younger Breckinridge volunteered for service in the Confederate Army when the war broke out. During 1861, he served in the 2nd Kentucky Infantry.
He was elected to the first Confederate House of Representatives in 1862 but soon resigned to become a colonel of cavalry. In the House, he served on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and generally opposed Davis administration legislation. Little is known of his wartime career, save that he was captured in the spring of 1864.
He was paroled when the war ended. After the war, he farmed and practiced law in Lincoln County, Kentucky. In 1873, he moved to New York City, but he later returned to Danville to practice law.
His postwar public career is not known except that he served as a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1876. Thereafter, Breckinridge apparently sank into obscurity.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
