1860 Breckinridge & Lane National Democratic Ticket
Original ballot
For Presidnet: John C. Breckinridge
For Vice President: Joseph Lane 
 
~ Breckinridge & Lane Camapign ~
Early in 1859, Senator James Henry Hammond of South Carolina reported to a friend that Breckinridge was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, but as late as January 1860, Breckinridge told family members that he had no desire for the nomination. A The New York Times editorial noted that while Buchanan was falling "in prestige and political consequence, the star of the Vice President rises higher above the clouds." Douglas, considered the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, was convinced that Breckinridge would be a candidate; this, combined with Buchanan's reluctant support of Breckinridge and Breckinridge's public support for a federal slave code, deepened the rift between the two.
 
Among Breckinridge's supporters at the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charleston, South Carolina, were several prominent Kentuckians. They were former Kentucky Governor and current Senator Lazarus W. Powell, former Kentucky Representative William Preston (a distant relative), law partner James Brown Clay, and James B. Beck. Breckinridge did not attend the convention, but instructed his supporters not to nominate him as long as James Guthrie remained a candidate.[98] Accordingly, when a delegate from Arkansas nominated Breckinridge for president on the 36th ballot, Beck asked that it be withdrawn, and the request was honored. Over the course of 57 ballots, Douglas maintained a wide plurality, but failed to gain the necessary two-thirds majority; Guthrie consistently ran second. Unable to nominate a candidate, delegates voted to reconvene in Baltimore, Maryland, on June 18.
 
Pro-Southern delegates, who had walked out of the Charleston convention in protest of its failure to adopt a federal slave code plank in its platform, did not participate in the Baltimore convention. The delegates from Alabama and Louisiana – all of whom had walked out at Charleston – had been replaced with Douglas supporters from those states, leading to the nomination of Douglas and Herschel Vespasian Johnson for president and vice president, respectively. The protesting delegates convened five days later in Baltimore. On the first ballot, Breckinridge received 81 votes, with 24 going to former senator Daniel S. Dickinson of New York. Dickinson supporters gradually changed their support to Breckinridge to make his nomination unanimous, and Joseph Lane of Oregon was chosen by acclamation as his vice presidential running mate. Despite concerns about the breakup of the party, Breckinridge accepted the presidential nomination. In August, Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis attempted to broker a compromise under which Douglas, Breckinridge, and Tennessee's John Bell, the nominee of the Constitutional Union Party, would all withdraw in favor of a compromise candidate. Both Breckinridge and Bell readily agreed to the plan, but Douglas was opposed to compromising with the "Bolters", and his supporters retained an intense dislike for Breckinridge that made them averse to Davis's proposal.
 
On February 24, Breckinridge visited Lincoln at Willard's Hotel in Washington, DC, and frequently thereafter he visited his cousin, now the First Lady, at the White House. In the lame duck session following the election, Congress adopted a resolution authored by Lazarus Powell, now in the Senate, calling for a committee of thirteen (Committee of Thirteen on the Disturbed Condition of the Country) "to consider that portion of the President's message relating to the disturbances of the country." Frank Heck wrote that Breckinridge appointed "an able committee, representing every major faction." He endorsed Crittenden's proposed compromise, a collection of constitutional amendments designed to avert secession and appease the South. Breckinridge used his influence as the Senate's presiding officer in an unsuccessful attempt to get it approved by either the committee or the Senate. Ultimately, the committee reported that they were unable to agree on a recommendation. On March 4, 1861, the last day of the session, Breckinridge swore in Hannibal Hamlin as his successor as vice president. Hamlin, in turn, swore in the newly elected senators, including Breckinridge.