Throughout his time in the General Assembly, Breckinridge had battled with typhoid fever. In an 1828 letter to his wife, who was visiting relatives in Virginia, he recounted that he had been bedridden and near death for two months. Finally, in February 1829, the illness subsided. Only then could he be told about the death of his daughter, Louisiana, which had occurred a month earlier. The illness, combined with the news of the death of his daughter, caused Breckinridge to turn to religion.