William Campbell Preston Breckinridge, orator and journalist, was born
at Baltimore, Maryland, August 28, 1837, the son of Rev. Robert J.
Breckinridge (1800-1871), and an own cousin of John C. Breckinridge
(1821-1875). He was graduated from Centre College, Danville, Kentucky,
in the famous class of '55, after which he studied medicine for a
year, when he abandoned it to enter the Louisville Law School. Before
he was of age he was admitted to the Fayette County Bar, and he was a
member of it when he died. In July, 1862, he entered the Confederate
Army as a captain in John Hunt Morgan's command; and during the last
two years of the war was colonel of the Ninth Kentucky Cavalry. The
war over, Colonel Breckinridge returned to Lexington and became editor
of _The Observer and Reporter_, which he relinquished a few years
later in order to devote his entire attention to the law. In 1884
Colonel Breckinridge was elected to the lower House of Congress from
the Ashland district, and he took his seat in December, 1885, which
was the first session of the Forty-ninth Congress. One of his
colleagues from Kentucky was the present Governor of the Commonwealth,
James B. McCreary; another was John G. Carlise, who was chosen speaker
over Thomas B. Reed of Maine. Colonel Breckinridge served ten years in
the House, closing his career there in the Fifty-third Congress. In
Washington he won a wide reputation as a public speaker, being
commonly characterized as "the silver tongue orator from Kentucky." In
1894, after the most bitter congressional campaign of recent Kentucky
history, he was defeated for re-election; and two years later as the
"sound money" candidate he again met defeat, Evan E. Settle, who was
also known in Congress as a very eloquent orator, and who hailed from
the Kentucky county of "Sweet Owen," triumphing over him. Colonel
Breckinridge was never again a candidate for public office. In 1897 he
resumed his newspaper work, becoming chief editorial writer on _The
Lexington Herald_, which paper was under the management of his son,
Mr. Desha Breckinridge, the present editor. During the last eight
years of his life Colonel Breckinridge achieved a new and fresh fame
as a writer of large information upon State and national affairs.
Simplicity was the goal toward which he seemed to strive in his
discussions of great and small questions. His articles upon the Goebel
tragedy were really State papers of importance. Upon more than one
occasion his editorial utterances were wired to a New York paper,
appearing simultaneously in that paper and in his own. He declined
several offers to become editor of metropolitan newspapers. While at
the present time Colonel Breckinridge is remembered by the great
common people as an orator of unsurpassed gifts, and while a great
memorial mass of legends have grown about his name, it is as a writer
of real ability, who had all the requisites and inclinations of a man
of letters save one of the chief essentials: leisure. When his
speeches and writings are collected and his biography written his true
position in the literature of Kentucky will be more clearly and
generally appreciated than it now is. Colonel Breckinridge died at
Lexington, Kentucky, November 19, 1904.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. The eulogy of John Rowan Allen is the finest summing
up of Colonel Breckinridge's life and labors (_Lexington Leader_,
November 23, 1904); _Kentucky Eloquence_, edited by Bennett H.
Young (Louisville, Kentucky, 1907). His papers, together with
those of his grandfather and father, are now in possession of the
Library of Congress.
"IS NOT THIS THE CARPENTER'S SON?"
[From _The Lexington Herald_ (Christmas Day, 1899)]
"And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." And this has
been the universal truth since those days--the one unchangeable,
pregnant, vital truth of development, of progress, of civilization, of
happiness, of freedom, of charity. The perpetual presence, the
ceaseless personal influence, the potent force of His continual
association alone renders human history intelligible or makes possible
the solution of any grave problem which man meets in his upward march
to better life and more wholesome conditions. And to-day the accepted
anniversary of the birth of the "carpenter's son" is the one day whose
celebration is in all civilized nations, among all independent people
and in all learned tongues. The world has not yet accepted Him; there
are nations very large in numbers, very old in histories, very devout
in their accepted religions, which have not accepted His claim to be
divine, nor bowed to the reign of His supreme authority. And the
contrast between such nations and those who have accepted His claim
and modeled their laws upon His teachings form the profoundest reason
for the verity of that claim and the beneficence of those teachings.
Millions to-day will assemble themselves in their accustomed houses of
worship, and with songs and instruments of music, with garlands and
wreaths, with glad countenances and uplifted hearts, render adoration
to the carpenter's son of Nazareth; adoration to the lowly Jew who was
born in a manger and died upon a cross. Many millions will not attend
worship, but still render unconscious testimony to the wondrous power
which He has exercised through the centuries in the glad happiness
which springs from conditions which are only possible under His
teachings and by the might of His perpetual presence. They will not
know that "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by," but the day is full of joy,
the homes are radiant with happiness, the cheer is jovial and the
laughter jocund, the eye brightens under the glances of loved
ones--because He has passed by and scattered love and charity with
profuse prodigality along the pathway He trod.
He has walked through the gay hearts of little children, and joy has
sprung up as wild flowers where His footsteps fell; He has lingered at
the mother's bedside and ineffable love has filled the heart of her
who felt His gentle presence. In carpenter shops like unto that in
which He toiled for thirty years, in humble homes, in the counting
rooms of bankers, in the offices of lawyers and doctors, in the
charitable institutions which are memorials of His teachings, He has
passed by; those within may not have been conscious thereof; they were
possibly too absorbed to feel the sweet and pervading fragrance of the
omnipotent force which He always exerts; yet over them and their
thoughts He did exert that irresistible power; and to-day the world is
better, sweeter, more joyful, more loving, because of Him.
It is in its secular aspect that we venture to submit these thoughts;
it is His transforming power secularly to which we call attention this
sweet Christmas morning. "Christ the Lord Has Risen," but it is Jesus
the man--Jesus of Nazareth, the son of the carpenter, the new teacher
of universal brotherhood, the man who went about doing good; the
obscure Jew who brought the new and nobler era of charity and
forgiveness and love into actual existence that _The Herald_, a mere
secular paper, desires to hold up.
And peculiarly to that aspect of His life that was social; the friend
of Lazarus; the diner at the table of Zaccheus; the pleased and kindly
guest at the wedding of Cana; the man who leaned His head on the breast
of His friend, the simple gentleman who took little children in His arms
and loved them; the obedient son, the loyal friend, the forbearing
associate, the forgiving master, the tender healer of disease, the
loving man who was touched with a sense of all our infirmities.
To-day with jollity let us turn the water of our common lives into the
wine of sweet domestic happiness; let us take the children of
misfortune to our breast; let us be loyal to our weaker friends; let
us share our fullness with our brethren who are lean in this world's
goods, and, shedding smiles and kind words, and pleasant phrases
through the day, it may be that some stricken heart made glad may say:
"Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."