During his short tenure, Dixon's major accomplishment was convincing Stephen Douglas to include language in the Kansas–Nebraska Act that explicitly repealed the Missouri Compromise's prohibition on slavery north of latitude 36°30'.
He represented his county and his state in a number of failed conventions that sought to resolve the upcoming conflict before it began.
Archibald Dixon was born near Red House, Caswell County, North Carolina on April 2, 1802.
[2] His grandfather, Colonel Henry Dixon, was born in Kirkmichael, South Ayrshire in 1729 and emigrated to America as a child in 1739.
His paternal grandfather was born in Newtownards, Uster in 1734 and emigrated in 1751[2] In 1805, Captain Dixon lost all of his property and moved the family to Henderson, Kentucky.
[7] On December 17, 1851, Henry Clay submitted a letter of resignation of his seat in the U.S. Senate, to be effective September 1 of the following year (1852).
By contrast, if he had waited until September 1 to announce his resignation the Assembly would already have closed its session, and Governor Powell, a Democrat, would appoint a temporary successor until the legislature convened again two years later.
By a vote of 71–58, they chose Dixon over Democrat James Guthrie to assume Clay's seat effective September 1.
He chose Democrat David Meriwether, who served those two months, then, with respect to the original commission issued by the legislature (or by simply not returning to the Senate upon the commencement of the next session), effectively relinquished the seat to Dixon.
[10] After a lengthy Senate debate on the validity of his commission—it having been issued prior to Clay's death, with an effective date subsequent to the executive appointment of a successor—Dixon was sworn in on December 20, 1852.
In an attempt to allay southern fears, Stephen Douglas introduced a bill in January 1854 that included a provision that "all questions pertaining to slavery in the territories, and in the new states to be formed therefrom are to be left to the people residing therein, through their appropriate representatives.
"[12] Douglas hoped to placate southerners with this language, which allowed for the possibility of legalized slavery in the potential state without specifically addressing the issue of the Missouri Compromise.
After a promise of support from Tennessee senator James C. Jones, Dixon introduced the amendment on January 16, 1854.
[14] This forced Douglas to confront the Missouri Compromise issue outright, and two days later, he visited Dixon to discuss his position.
"[15] Over the next several days, Douglas incorporated Dixon's suggestion and other pro-slavery measures into the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which President Franklin Pierce signed into law on May 30, 1854.
[16] On June 1, 1852, the stockholders of the Henderson and Nashville Railroad met at Madisonville, Kentucky and elected Archibald Dixon as president of the company.
Kentucky governor Beriah Magoffin, John C. Breckinridge, and Richard Hawes represented the southern sympathizers.
After the pro-Union men defeated a proposal to call a sovereignty convention, the six arbiters recommended a position of neutrality, which the General Assembly adopted.
[20] In March 1864, Dixon accompanied Kentucky Governor Thomas E. Bramlette and John Marshall Harlan, the state's attorney general, to an audience with President Lincoln to protest the recruitment of blacks into the ranks of the Union Army.
Genealogical records, including death certificates of Dixon's children, also give the first wife's name as Elizabeth R. Cabell, with a marriage date of March 13, 1834, in Henderson County, Kentucky.