John Breckinridge was an American politician and lawyer who served as the 14th Vice President of the United States from 1857 to 1861 under President James Buchanan. He was a member of the Democratic Party and represented the state of Kentucky in the U.S. Senate from 1851 until 1855. During the American Civil War, Breckinridge became a general in the Confederate Army and served as the Secretary of War for the Confederacy in 1865. After the war, he fled to Europe to avoid prosecution and returned to the U.S. in 1868, where he resumed his law practice until his death in 1875.