Although he owned a number of slaves, and his marriage to Virginia Shelby had left him with a good many more, Breckinridge had been a supporter of gradual emancipation and colonization of blacks since his early political career. As the sectional crisis worsened, this led him into several high-profile debates, notably with fellow Kentuckian Robert Wickliffe, the uncle of Robert C. Wickliffe. His support of Abraham Lincoln for president in the election of 1860 pitted him against his own nephew, Vice President John C. Breckinridge.