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64 preferment now seemed secure, and thenceforth his rise was rapid. He strenuously opposed the means used to bring about the second constitutional convention of 1799, but when that convention became a settled fact, he accepted a place in it, and was so active that it has been said that the constitution then produced was more the work of his hand than of any other man's. He was elected to the legislatures of 1799 and 1800, and by both of them he was chosen Speaker. In the former he further distinguished himself by the resolutions of 1799, and in the latter the promise of six years before was fulfilled, and he was elected to the Senate of the United States, to succeed his old competitor, Humphrey Marshall. He was now just forty years of age, and had been in politics twenty years, during which time he had surely and steadily risen in the eyes of the people with an almost unbroken career of success.

Mr. Breckinridge took his seat in the Senate upon the inauguration of his old chief, Mr. Jefferson, in March, 1801. He had set out from Kentucky taking his whole family with him, but was advised in Virginia to leave them with his relatives in that State, as the much-talked-of "Federal town" of Washington had very ill accommodation to offer the great throng of people crowding thither. He followed this advice, and upon arriving in the town, if it can be dignified with such a name, found it difficult to obtain even a lodging for himself. The new President and the new Congress were alike Republican, the Senate for the first time, and