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Robert Jefferson Breckinridge (March 8, 1800 – December 27, 1871) was a politician and Presbyterian minister. He was a member of the Breckinridge family of Kentucky, the son of Senator John Breckinridge. A restless youth, Breckinridge was suspended from Princeton University for fighting, and following his graduation from Union College in 1819, was prone to engage in a lifestyle of partying and revelry. But, he was admitted to the bar in 1824 and elected to the Kentucky General Assembly in 1825. A serious illness and the death of a child in 1829 prompted him to turn to religion, and he became an ordained minister in 1832. That year Breckinridge accepted the call to pastor the Second Presbyterian Church of Baltimore, Maryland. While at the church, he became involved in a number of theological debates. During the Old School-New School Controversy within the Presbyterian Church in the 1830s, Breckinridge became a hard-line member of the Old School faction, and played an influential role in the ejection of several churches in 1837. He was rewarded for his stances by being elected moderator of the Presbyterian Church's General Assembly in 1841. After a brief stint as president of Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, Breckinridge returned to Kentucky, where he pastored the First Presbyterian church of Lexington, Kentucky, and was appointed superintendent of public education by Governor William Owsley. The changes he effected in this office brought a tenfold increase in public school attendance and led to him being called the father of the public school system in Kentucky.〔Klotter in ''The Kentucky Encyclopedia'', p. 120〕 He left his post as superintendent after six years to become a professor at Danville Theological Seminary in Danville, Kentucky. As the sectional conflict leading up to the Civil War escalated, Breckinridge was put in the unusual position of being a slaveholder who opposed slavery. His support of Abraham Lincoln for president in the election of 1860 put him at odds with his nephew, John C. Breckinridge. The tragic scenario of brother against brother literally played out in Breckinridge's family, with two of his sons joining each side during the war. Following the war, Breckinridge retired to his home in Danville, where he died on December 27, 1871. ==Early life== Robert Breckinridge was born March 8, 1800 at Cabell's Dale near Lexington, Kentucky. He was the third son born to Senator John and Mary Hopkins (Cabell) Breckinridge. Senator Breckinridge died in 1806, leaving his wife to tend the family's large plantations. Robert soon earned a reputation of misbehaving. In one instance, he and his brother John had a physical altercation because Robert put salt in a blind cousin's coffee; in another, his mother gave him a "tremendous whipping" for beating an old slave.〔Klotter in ''Breckinridges of Kentucky'', p. 42〕 Breckinridge studied education at a classical school operated by Dr. Louis Marshall, the brother of Chief Justice John Marshall, then followed his brothers, Cabell and John, to Princeton in 1817. His behavior problems continued there; in one year, he spent more than $1200.〔 He was suspended for fighting, and although he was later reinstated, the incident soured him on Princeton, and he was granted an honorable release. (The school later awarded him an honorary Master of Arts degree in 1832.) Breckinridge enrolled at Yale University, but after three months, discovered that a one-year residency was required for graduation. Unwilling to complete this requirement, he moved to Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1819.〔Waugh in ''Southern Presbyterian Review''〕 Following his graduation, Breckinridge returned to Kentucky with no clear direction in his life. He began to amuse himself by attending various parties and other social engagements. During a visit to the state capital, he so offended one man that he was challenged to a duel. Though he obtained two pistols, he never accepted the man's challenge, and was branded a coward. The dispute was later settled in the Masonic Lodge of which both Breckinridge and the other man were members.〔 On March 11, 1823, Breckinridge married his cousin, Ann Sophonisba Preston at the bride's home in Abingdon, Virginia; the couple had eleven children. Ann's political heritage rivaled that of her husband. A grandniece of Patrick Henry, she was also a sister to Senator William Campbell Preston and a sister-in-law to South Carolina governor Wade Hampton III, and Virginia governors John B. Floyd and James McDowell.〔Klotter in ''The Breckinridges of Kentucky'', p. 43〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Robert Jefferson Breckinridge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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