Sen. John Cabell Breckinridge

Former Senator for Kentucky

Breckinridge was a senator from Kentucky and was a Democrat. He served from 1861 to 1861.

He was previously Vice President of the United States as a Democratic from 1857 to 1861; the representative for Kentucky’s 8^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1853 to 1855; and the representative for Kentucky’s 8^th congressional district as a Democrat from 1851 to 1853.

Bioguide

Photo of Sen. John Cabell Breckinridge [D-KY, 1861-1861]

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Misconduct

Breckinridge faced an allegation of disloyalty to the union. On Dec. 4, 1861, the Senate expelled him, 36-0.

Dec. 4, 1861

Senate expelled, 36-0

Legislators who enslaved Black people

Breckinridge was among more than 1,800 legislators who enslaved Black people. The Washington Post compiled the first database of slaveholding members of Congress by examining thousands of pages of census records and historical documents. Breckinridge was one of them.

Voting Record

Missed Votes

From Mar 1861 to Aug 1861, Breckinridge missed 28 of 121 roll call votes, which is 23.1%. This is on par with the median of 20.5% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Aug 1861. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.

Show the numbers...

Time Period	Votes Eligible	Missed Votes	Percent	Percentile
Dec 1851-Mar 1852 (House)	96	22	22.9%	56^th
1852 Apr-Jul (House)	180	88	48.9%	78^th
1852 Aug-Aug (House)	65	19	29.2%	44^th
Dec 1852-Mar 1853 (House)	114	60	52.6%	78^th
Dec 1853-Mar 1854 (House)	114	29	25.4%	50^th
1854 Apr-Jul (House)	305	99	32.5%	43^rd
1854 Aug-Aug (House)	33	11	33.3%	64^th
Dec 1854-Mar 1855 (House)	155	52	33.5%	57^th
1861 Jul-Aug (Senate)	79	25	31.6%	73^rd
1861 Mar-Mar (Senate)	42	3	7.1%	21^st

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:

unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
United States Congressional Roll Call Voting Records, 1789-1990 by Howard L. Rosenthal and Keith T. Poole.
Martis’s “The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress”, via Keith Poole’s roll call votes data set, for political party affiliation for Members of Congress from 1789 through about year 2000
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress for the photo