Arnaldo PerezHistory of United StatesProf. Miguel Gonzalez

Personal Facts

NAME: Henry Clay

OCCUPATION: U.S.

Representative, lawyer

BIRTH DATE: April 12, 1777

DEATH DATE: June 29, 1852

PLACE OF BIRTH: Hanover

County, Virginia

PLACE OF DEATH: Washington,

D.C.

FULL NAME: Henry Clay Sr.

"The Great Compromiser” and

"The Great Pacifier"

Early Years

Clay was raised with modest wealth, the seventh of nine children born to Reverend John and Elizabeth Hudson Clay.

His link to American history came at an early age. He was 3 years old when he watched the British troops ransack his family home.

After a minimal formal education, In 1797 moved to Kentucky at the age of 20 and settled in Lexington. Clay read law and gained admission to the bar in both Virginia and Kentucky in 1797. With great success, he got aided by his sharp wit and nimble mind.

He became a leading real estate and business lawyer in Frankfort, Kentucky and soon embarked on a career in politics.

Marriage

Lucretia Hart, the daughter

of a wealthy Lexington

businessman, in 1799. The

two remained married for

more than 50 years, having

11 children together.

Political Start

Clay was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1803 and served to 1806. Next, he served as Senator from Kentucky, from 1806 to 1807, and then returned to the State House of Representatives, from 1807 to 1809. In 1810 Clay returned to the Senate and served until 1811.

Democratic-Republican

National Republican

Whig

Jobs at Goverment

United States Senator from Kentucky

9th United States Secretary of State

8th, 10th and 13th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 3rd district

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 2nd district

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 5th district

Controversy in the

Constitution

In 1806, after a stint in

the Kentucky

legislature, he was

elected to fill the

unexpired term of a

U.S. senator who had

resigned. Clay took the

seat, although he was

four months younger

than the constitutional

age requirement of 30.

Treaty of

Ghent

1812-1814

Young Statesman

On other fronts, Clay took

head-on some of the

biggest issues of the day.

He pushed for

independence for several

Latin American republics,

advocated for a national

bank and, perhaps most

significantly, argued

strongly and successfully

for a negotiated

settlement between

slave-owning states and

the rest of the country

over its western policy.

The Missouri

CompromiseWas passed in 1820

between the pro-slavery

and anti-slavery factions

in the United States

Congress, involving

primarily the regulation of

slavery in the western

territories. It prohibited

slavery in the former

Louisiana Territory north

of the parallel 36°30′

north except within the

boundaries of the

proposed state of

Missouri.

Cont.

Clay earned the sobriquet "Great Compromiser" by crafting three major legislative compromises over the course of 30 years. Each time, he pulled the United States from the brink of civil war. In 1820 and 1821, he used his role as Speaker of the House to broker the Missouri Compromise, a series of brilliant resolutions he introduced to defuse the pitched battle as to whether Missouri would be admitted to the Union as a slave state or free state. Although he owned slaves himself, Clay anguished about slavery, which he called a "great evil." He believed slavery would become economically obsolete as a growing population reduced the cost of legitimate labor. Under Clay's compromise, Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state.

The United States in 1819 (the light orange and light green areas

were not then part of the United States). The Missouri

Compromise prohibited slavery in the unorganized territory of the

Great Plains (upper dark green) and permitted it in Missouri

(yellow) and the Arkansas Territory (lower blue area).

Election of 1824 “Corrupt Bargain”

Clay’s appointment as Secretary of State stirred controversy.

After the votes were counted in the U.S. presidential election

of 1824, no candidate had received a majority of the

Presidential Electoral votes, thereby putting the outcome in

the hands of the House of Representatives. To the surprise

of many, the House elected John Quincy Adams over rival

Andrew Jackson. It was widely believed that Henry Clay, the

Speaker of the House at the time, convinced Congress to

elect Adams, who then made Clay his Secretary of State.

Tarrif of 1828The Tariff of May 19, 1828, was a protective tariff passed by the U.S. Congress. It was the highest tariff in U.S. peacetime history up to that point, enacting a 62% tax on 92% of all imported goods. The goal of the tariff was to protect northern U.S. industries by placing a tax on low-priced imported goods, which had been driving northern industries out of business. Nevertheless, the South strongly resisted the Tariff of 1828 for several reasons.

Whig Party

One of the political parties that emerged from the demise

of the Democratic-Republican Party. Members of the

Whig Party believed in a strong federal government, tariff

protection, a strong national bank, and federally

sponsored communication projects. All of this together

was called the "National System," a focus on the

strengthening of the country as a whole through the

federal government, rather than through the state

governments, as was preferred by the newly formed

Democratic Party. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were

important early members of the Whig Party.

Presidency

Clay ran for President, but was beaten. Again in 1832, just as the new party was formed, he ran a second time. Although he was beaten for the Presidency by Andrew Jackson, he was the life and soul of his party. It was his eloquence, the music of his words, that made men Whigs.

On one occasion, Clay spoke on the question of the Abolition of Slavery. Some one said that this might hurt his chances of being President. Clay replied: "I had rather be right than be President.”

Finally, in 1844, he was again the Whig candidate, but he was defeated for the third time. When the Whig party had a good chance of electing a President, they nominated somebody else. When they had a poor chance they nominated Henry Clay!

In 1850, with the question raised of whether California should become part of the U.S. as either a slave state or a free state, Clay stepped to the negotiating table once more. The compromise, Drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and brokered by Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas, avoided secession or civil war and reduced sectional conflict for four years. In addition, the bill covered the settlement of the Texas boundary line, the fugitive slave law and the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

Influence in Abraham

Lincoln

Over the course of his long

career, Clay's skills

became renowned in

Washington, D.C., earning

him the nicknames The

Great Compromiser and

The Great Pacificator. His

influence was so strong

that he came to be

admired by a young

Abraham Lincoln, who

referred to Clay as "my

beau ideal of a statesman."

DeathClay died in 1852. Despite his brilliant service to the country and three separate campaigns, he never attained his greatest ambition–-the presidency. A man of immense political abilities and extraordinary charm, Clay won widespread admiration, even among his adversaries. John C. Calhoun, whom he had bested in the Compromise of 1850, once declared, "I don't like Clay. . . . I wouldn't speak to him, but, by God! I love him.”

“Sir, I would rather be right than to be President.”

“Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.”

“The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity”