John Breckinridge (U.S. Attorney General) - U.S. Senator

U.S. Senator

On November 20, 1800, the Kentucky General Assembly elected Breckinridge the U.S. Senate by a vote of 68–13 over John Adair. He was eligible for the special congressional session called for March 4, 1801, but his summons to the session remained undelivered at the Lexington post office until March 5, and he consequently missed the entire session. When he left for Washington, D.C. late in the year, he left several of his pending legal cases in the hands of rising attorney Henry Clay, who would later become U.S. Secretary of State.

Although Democratic-Republicans held a narrow majority in the Senate, the Federalist senators were both experienced and devoted their cause. Breckinridge acted as floor leader for the Democratic-Republicans and newly elected president, Thomas Jefferson. His proposed repeal of the the Federalist-supported Judicial Act of 1801, which had increased the number of federal courts and judges, was particularly controversial. On January 4, 1802, he presented data to prove the new courts and judges were unnecessary. Federalist leader Gouverneur Morris countered that the proposal was unconstitutional; once established, courts were inviolate, he maintained. On January 20, Federalist Jonathan Dayton moved to return the bill to a committee to consider amendments. South Carolina's John E. Colhoun, a Democratic-Republican, voted with the Federalists, and the result was a 15–15 tie. Empowered to break the tie, Jefferson's vice-president, Aaron Burr, voted with the Federalists. The five-man committee consisted of three Federalists, enough to prevent the bill's return to the floor, but when Vermont Senator Stephen R. Bradley, who had traveled home because of a family illness, returned to the chamber, the Democratic-Republicans regained a majority and introduced a successful discharge petition. In one last attempt to derail the legislation in debate, Federalists argued that the judiciary would strike down the repeal as unconstitutional; Breckinridge denied the notion that the courts had the power to invalidate an act of Congress. On February 3, the Senate repealed the act by a vote of 16–15, with the House concurring a month later.