Page:Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.djvu/69

Rh represent his county in the House of Delegates. This was in the autumn of 1780, when he was only nineteen years of age. He had made no canvass, and was in no true sense a candidate. His election was the result of one of those silent movements when men are brought, under the pressure of events, to select those who can best represent them, without regard to the much-pressed claims of office-seekers. No one could have been more surprised at his election than was John Breckinridge himself, but he cheerfully undertook the task imposed upon him, and set out for Williamsburgh. The House of Delegates, however, set aside the election on account of his youth, feeling, no doubt, that the choice was both unprecedented and out of place in a time so full of danger and demanding the most far-sighted counsels. But the hardy frontiersmen had not made their choice without being convinced of its wisdom, and promptly reelected Mr. Breckinridge. The house again set the election aside, and again the electors cast their ballots as before, and this time the election was acquiesced in, and the young student left his academic pursuits in the one part of the town, and took his seat in the council hall at the other.

The youngest in any body of men is apt to be the object of kindly interest to the older members, especially if he unites to ability and manliness, modesty and deference. Throughout the contest over his seat young Breckinridge had shown the qualities which raised him to eminence in after days, and as soon as he took his seat his quiet,