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John C. Breckinridge

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:800.00 - 1,000.00 USD
John C. Breckinridge

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Auction Date:2014 Apr 16 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Following his term as vice president under James Buchanan, Breckinridge served nine months as a senator from Kentucky before declaring his loyalty to his state and the Confederacy in December of 1861. He later became the Confederacy’s final Secretary of War, promoting Lee to commander of all Confederate forces as his first act. Fantastic ALS, one page, 7.5 x 9.75, May 13, 1856, just two weeks before he would accept the nomination as Buchanan’s running mate. Letter to Governor James Grimes of Iowa. In part: “My nephew, Walter R. Bullock, has settled as a lawyer in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and desires to be commissioner to take acknowledgements on deeds in and for Iowa. He is a young man of good attainments, rather superior talents and fine character. If you can send him a commission…I will regard it as a personal favor to myself…When the great battle of Armigeddon [sic] comes on, if we conquer you, I will protect you on the score of old acquaintance. If you conquer us, I expect the same conduct on your part, for the same reason.” In fine condition, with intersecting folds. An amazing letter penned a year prior to Breckinridge taking office as vice president, anticipating a forthcoming war between the states as inevitable—a surprising acknowledgment, given that he was generally considered an opponent of secession and inclined to compromise. Most chilling, however, is his accurate prediction of the apocalyptic, bloody warfare yet to come, as the Civil War would be the bloodiest in American history.