:''For his namesake son, see
Henry Clay, Jr..''
'Henry Clay, Sr.' (
April 12,
1777 –
June 29,
1852) was a nineteenth-century American statesman and
orator who represented
Kentucky in both the
House of Representatives and
Senate. He was a dominant figure in both the
First Party System to
1824, and the
Second Party System after that. Known as "The Great Compromiser" for his ability to bring others to agreement, he was the founder and leader of the
Whig Party and a leading advocate of programs for modernizing the economy, especially tariffs to protect industry, a national bank, and internal improvements to promote canals, ports and railroads. As a
War Hawk in Congress demanding the
War of 1812, Clay made an immediate impact in his first congressional term, including becoming the Speaker of the House.
Although his multiple attempts at the presidency were unsuccessful, to a large extent he defined the issues of the
Second Party System. He was a major supporter of the American system, and had success in brokering compromises on the
slavery issue, especially in
1820 and
1850. He was part of the "
Great Triumvirate", or the "Immortal Trio", along with his colleagues
Daniel Webster and
John C. Calhoun. In
1957 a Senate committee chaired by
John F. Kennedy named Clay as one of the five greatest Senators in American history.
[1]
Early life
Henry Clay was born on
12 April 1777 at the Clay homestead in
Hanover County, Virginia. He was the seventh of nine children of the Reverend John Clay and Elizabeth Hudson Clay.
[2] His father died three years later, leaving his mother in a difficult situation trying to support six children. She soon married Capt. Henry Watkins, who proved himself to be an affectionate stepfather to Clay.
Clay received an elementary education from a British pedagogue before being hired as a shop assistant in
Richmond, Virginia. He later gained employment in the office of the Court of the Chancery, where he displayed an adeptness for understanding the intricacies of law and became friends with Theodore Wythe, the chancellor of the Commonwealth of Virginia. While Clay was employed as Wythe's
amanuensis, the chancellor took an active interest in Clay's future and arranged a position for him with the Virginia attorney general,
Robert Brooke. Clay received formal legal education at the
College of William and Mary in Virginia, studying under
George Wythe. Under Brooke, Clay prepared for the bar, to which he was accepted in 1797.
In search of a locale in which he might establish a lucrative law practice, Clay relocated in November 1797 to
Lexington, Kentucky, near to where his family then resided in
Woodford County. He soon established a reputation for his legal skills and courtroom oratory.
[3]
Speaker of the House
In 1812, at the age of thirty-four, Henry Clay was elected to the United States House of Representatives and, because he had become known as an exceptional leader, was chosen
Speaker of the House on the first day of the session. During the fourteen years following his first election, he was re-elected five times to the House and to the speakership.
Before Clay's entrance into the House, the position of Speaker had been that of a rule enforcer and mediator. Clay turned the speakership into a position of power second only to the president. He immediately appointed members of the
War Hawk faction (of which he was the leader) to all the important committees. This effectively gave him control of the House.
As the Congressional leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, Clay took charge of the agenda, especially as a "
War Hawk," supporting the
War of 1812 with the
British Empire. Later, as one of the peace commissioners, Clay helped negotiate the
Treaty of Ghent and signed it on
December 24,
1814. In 1815, while still in Europe, he helped negotiate a commerce treaty with Great Britain.
Henry Clay's tenure as Speaker of the House shaped the history of Congress. Evidence from committee assignment and roll call records shows that Clay's leadership strategy was highly complex and that it advanced his public policy goals as well as his political ambition. [Strahan et al. 2000]
Henry Clay sympathized with the plight of free blacks and believed that because of "unconquerable prejudice resulting from their color, they never could amalgamate with the free whites of this country."
Henry Clay tried to resolve racial integration through the
American Colonization Society, a group that wanted to send freed slaves to Africa, specifically
Monrovia in
Liberia. On December 21, 1816, a group including
Robert Finley,
James Monroe,
Bushrod Washington,
Andrew Jackson,
Francis Scott Key, and
Daniel Webster met at the
Davis Hotel in Washington, D.C., with Henry Clay presiding over the meeting.
The American System
Main articles: American System (economic plan)
After the war Clay and
John C. Calhoun helped to pass the
Tariff of 1816 as part of the national economic plan Clay called "The
American System" rooted in Alexander Hamilton's
American School. Described later by
Friedrich List, it was designed to allow the fledgling American manufacturing sector, largely centered on the eastern seaboard, to compete with British manufacturing.
After the conclusion of the War of 1812, British factories were overwhelming American ports with inexpensive goods. To persuade voters in the western states to support the tariff, Clay advocated federal government support for internal improvements to infrastructure, principally roads and canals. These internal improvements would be financed by the tariff and by sale of the public lands, prices for which would be kept high to generate revenue. Finally, a national bank would stabilize the currency and serve as the nexus of a truly national financial system.
The American System was supported by both the North and the South at first. Only later with the
Tariff of 1828 did the South break away from their support leading to the
Nullification Crisis. It was ultimately both a cause and a casualty of the increasing sectionalism between north and south (and to some extent between east and west) that was continually to worsen in the decades leading up to the
American Civil War. It would take defeat of the South to restore its protectionist policies.
The Missouri Compromise and 1820s
In 1820 a dispute erupted over the extension of slavery in Missouri Territory. Clay helped settle this dispute by gaining Congressional approval for a plan that was called the "
Missouri Compromise." It brought in Maine as a free state and Missouri as a slave state (thus maintaining the balance in the Senate, which had been 11 free and 11 slave states), and except for Missouri it forbade slavery north of 36-30 (the northern boundary of Arkansas ).
Portrait of Henry Clay
In national terms the old Republican Party caucus had ceased to function by 1820. Clay ran for president in 1824 and came in fourth place. However, none of the candidates had received a majority of the votes, so the House of Representatives chose the victor. Clay used his influence to support
John Quincy Adams, a fellow nationalist, who won despite having trailed
Andrew Jackson in both the popular and electoral votes. Adams then appointed Clay as Secretary of State in what Jackson partisans termed "the corrupt bargain." Clay used his influence to build a national network of supporters, called
National Republicans.
Andrew Jackson, outmaneuvered for the Presidency in 1824, combined with
Martin Van Buren to form a coalition that defeated Adams in 1828. That new coalition became a full-fledged party that (by 1834) called itself
Democrats. By 1832 Clay had merged the National Republicans with other factions to form the
Whig party.
In domestic policy Clay promoted the American System, with a high tariff to encourage manufacturing, and an extensive program of internal improvements (such as roads and canals) to build up the domestic market. After a long fight he did get a high tariff in 1828 but did not get the spending for internal improvements. In 1822 Monroe vetoed a bill to build the Cumberland Road (crossing the Allegheny mountains).
In foreign policy, Clay was the leading American supporter of the independence movements and revolutions in Latin America after 1817. Between 1821 and 1826 the US recognized all the new countries, except Uruguay (whose independence was debated and recognized only later). When in 1826 the US was invited to attend the Columbia Conference of new nations, opposition emerged, and the US delegation never arrived. Clay supported the
Greek independence revolutionaries in 1824 who wished to separate from the Ottoman Empire, an early move into European affairs.
==The
Nullification Crisis==
After the passage of the Tariff Act of 1828, which raised tariffs considerably in an attempt to protect fledgling factories built under previous tariff legislation, South Carolina attempted to
nullify U.S. tariff laws. It threatened to secede from the Union if the United States government tried to enforce the tariff laws. Furious, President Andrew Jackson threatened in return to go to South Carolina and hang any man who refused to obey the law.
The crisis worsened until 1833 when Clay, again a U.S. Senator re-elected by Kentucky in 1831, helped to broker a deal to lower the tariff gradually. This measure helped to preserve the supremacy of the Federal government over the states and would be only one precursor to the developing conflict between the northern and southern United States over economics and slavery.
Candidate for president
1844 handbill
As the
Whig Party emerged in 1832-34 he immediately became its dominant leader centering its program around the "American System", a program designed to unify all portions of the country through the economic policies of
Alexander Hamilton in his
Report on Manufactures. The Democratic Party, which emerged from the old Democratic-Republican Party at the same time as the
National Republican Party, opposed the American System of the Whig Party in each successive election until the emergence of the
Republican Party of Abraham Lincoln in the late 1850s.
Clay ran for president five times but was never able to win.
★ In
1824 Clay ran together with
John Quincy Adams,
Andrew Jackson, and
William H. Crawford, all as
Democratic-Republican candidates. There was no clear majority in the
Electoral College. In 1823, Crawford suffered a stroke. Even though he recovered in 1824, this crippled his bid for the presidency.
★
★ The election was thrown to the U.S. House of Representatives. As per the Twelfth Amendment, only the top three candidates in the electoral vote were candidates in the House: Jackson, Adams, and Crawford. Clay was left out, but as Speaker of the House, would play a crucial role in deciding the presidency. Clay detested Jackson and had said of him, “I cannot believe that killing 2,500 Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies for the various, difficult, and complicated duties of the Chief Magistracy.”
[4] Moreover, Clay's American System was far closer to Adams' position on tariffs and internal improvements than Jackson's or Crawford's, so Clay threw his support to Adams. John Quincy Adams was elected President on February 9, 1825, on the first ballot.
[5] [6]
★
★ Adams' victory shocked Jackson, who expected that, as the winner of a plurality of both the popular and electoral votes, he should have been elected President. When President Adams appointed Clay his Secretary of State, essentially declaring him heir to the Presidency—Adams and his three predecessors had all served as Secretary of State—Jackson and his followers accused Adams and Clay of striking a “corrupt bargain”. The Jacksonians would campaign on this claim for the next four years, ultimately leading to Jackson's victory in the Adams-Jackson rematch in 1828. Clay denied this and no evidence has been found to support this claim to date.
★ In
1832 Clay was unanimously
nominated for the presidency by the
National Republicans; Jackson, by the
Democrats. The main issue was the policy of continuing the
Second Bank of the United States. He lost by a wide margin to the highly popular Jackson (55% to 37%).
★ In
1840, Clay was a candidate for the Whig nomination, but he was defeated in the party convention by supporters of war hero
William Henry Harrison. Harrison was chosen because his war record reminded people of Jackson and he was seen as more electable than Clay. If the Whigs had been more-aware of the weakness of
President Van Buren, they would have probably selected Clay.
★ In
1844, he was nominated by the Whigs against
James K. Polk, the Democratic candidate. Clay lost due in part to national sentiment for Polk's program "
54º40' or Fight" campaign which was to settle the northern boundary of the United States with Canada then under the control of the British Empire. Clay also opposed admitting
Texas as a state because he felt it would reawaken the
Slavery issue and provoke
Mexico to declare war. Polk took the opposite view and public sentiment was with him, especially in the Southern United States. Nevertheless, the election was close;
New York's 36 electoral votes proved the difference, and went to Polk by a slim 5,000 vote margin.
Liberty Party candidate
James G. Birney won a little over 15,000 votes in New York and may have taken votes from Clay.
★
★ Clay's warnings came true as annexation led to the
Mexican-American War (1846-1848) while the North and South came to heads over the extending slavery into
Texas and beyond during Polk's Presidency.
★ In
1848,
Zachary Taylor, a
Mexican-American War hero, won the Whig nomination, again depriving Clay of the nomination.
Henry Clay's first two presidential bids were lost by wide margins, representing in his earlier presidential bids a failure to form a national coalition and a lack of political organization that could match the Jacksonian Democrats. And although the Whigs had become as adept at political organizing as the Democrats by the time of Clay's final presidential bid, Clay himself failed to connect to the people, partly because of his unpopular views on slavery and the American System in the South. When Clay was warned not to take a stance against slavery or be so strong for the American System, he was quoted as saying in return, "I'd rather be right than be President!"
The Compromise of 1850
After losing the Whig Party nomination to Zachary Taylor in 1848, Clay decided to retire to his Ashland estate in Kentucky. Retired for less than a year, he was in 1849 elected to the U.S. Senate from Kentucky. During his term the Northern and Southern states were again wrangling over slavery extension, as Clay had predicted they would, this time over the admission or exclusion of slavery in the territories recently acquired from Mexico. Always the "Great Compromiser," Clay helped work out what historians have called the
Compromise of 1850.
This plan allowed slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories while admitting California to the Union as a free state. It included a new Fugitive Slave Act
★ and banned the slave trade (but not slavery itself) in the District of Columbia. This compromise may have helped to delay the Civil War for an additional eleven years.
★ The Fugitive Slave Act was an act passed by congress that forced citizens to turn in runaway slaves (North or South) or they can be sentenced to 6 years of prison or fined 1,000+ dollars. Also, it set up courts to handle disputes of runaway slaves. The judges in these courts were paid $5 to let a slave go and $10 to send him back to his owner.
★
Clay in court
According to former U.S. Supreme Court Justice
Sandra Day O'Connor:
:''Some of the cases Clay argued continue to be cited as precedent today. In ''
Osborn v. United States'' [34 U.S. 573 (1824)], Clay argued on behalf of the
Bank of the United States, which was a nationwide bank chartered by Congress. Clay challenged the constitutionality of an Ohio tax levied upon the bank and sought an injunction to force the state's auditor to return the improperly seized taxes. The Supreme Court agreed with Clay and ordered the auditor to return the taxes. In doing so, the Court found that the
Eleventh Amendment — which bars lawsuits against the states — did not apply to the state auditor. Osborn is still relevant today: It has been cited twenty six times since I took the bench in 1981, and was cited just last term by
Justice David Souter in a dissent. [See
Seminole Tribe.] Nor is Osborn the only case argued by Clay to be cited in recent times. Clay also argued on behalf of a Kentucky creditor who sought to collect a debt from a person who declared
bankruptcy under New York law. In that case, ''
Ogden v. Saunders'' [25 U.S. 213 (1827)], the Court concluded that the New York bankruptcy law was constitutional, so that the debtor was no longer liable to the Kentucky creditor. The case has been cited 86 times since it was decided, three times since I came on the bench.''
[1]
Other cases of note include: ''
Groves v. Slaughter'' and ''
Green v. Biddle''.
Photograph of Henry Clay
Personality
According to
Carl Schurz, Clay succeeded for the following reasons:
"Clay's quick intelligence and sympathy, and his irreproachable conduct in youth, explain his precocious prominence in public affairs. In his persuasiveness as an orator and his charming personality lay the secret of his power. He early trained himself in the art of speech-making, in the forest, the field and even the barn, with horse and ox for audience. By contemporaries his voice was declared to be the finest musical instrument that they ever heard. His eloquence was in turn majestic, fierce, playful, insinuating; his gesticulation natural, vivid, large, powerful."
"In public he was of magnificent bearing, possessing the true oratorical temperament, the nervous exaltation that makes the orator feel and appear a superior being, transfusing his thought, passion and will into the mind and heart of the listener; but his imagination frequently ran away with his understanding, while his imperious temper and ardent combativeness hurried him and his party into disadvantageous positions. The ease, also, with which he outshone men of vastly greater learning lured him from the task of intense and arduous study. His speeches were characterized by skill of statement, ingenious grouping of facts, fervent diction, and ardent patriotism; sometimes by biting sarcasm, but also by superficial research, half-knowledge and an unwillingness to reason a proposition to its logical results."
"In private, his never-failing courtesy, his agreeable manners and a noble and generous heart for all who needed protection against the powerful or the lawless, endeared him to hosts of friends. His popularity was as great and as inexhaustible among his neighbors as among his fellow-citizens generally. He pronounced upon himself a just judgment when he wrote: 'If any one desires to know the leading and paramount object of my public life, the preservation of this Union will furnish him the key.'"
Death
Clay continued to serve both the Union he loved and his home state of Kentucky until
June 29,
1852, when he passed away in
Washington, DC, at the age of 75. Clay was the first person to
lie in state in the
United States Capitol. He was buried in
Lexington Cemetery and the eulogy was provided by
Theodore Frelinghuysen.
[7] His headstone reads simply: "I know no North-no South-no East-no West."
Estate
Clay's Lexington home for many years was his farm and mansion, ''
Ashland'', named for the many ash trees on the property. He owned as many as 60 slaves at once. Rebuilt and remodeled by his heirs, Ashland is now a museum. The museum includes about 20 acres (81,000 m²) of the original estate grounds and is located on Richmond Road (US 25) in Lexington. It is open to the public (admission charged). For several years, the mansion was used as a residence for the regent of the
University of Kentucky.
U.S. Senator Henry Clay introduced the
Mint Julep drink to Washington D.C. at the famous Willard Hotel during his residence in the city.
[8]
Monuments and memorials
★ Henry Clay monument in
Pottsville,
Pennsylvania http://www.schuylkillhistory.org/henryclay.html
★ Clay Street in
New Haven,
Connecticut was named in his honor.
★ Ashland Ave. in Chicago, Illinois was named after his estate.
★
Mount Clay in the
Presidential Range of
New Hampshire was named for Clay.
★ The town of Clay in upstate New York is named for Henry Clay and includes Henry Clay Avenue.
★ Fifteen
Clay counties in the United States are named for him:
Clay County,
Alabama,
Clay County,
Florida,
Clay County,
Georgia,
Clay County Illinois,
Clay County,
Indiana,
Clay County,
Kansas,
Clay County,
Minnesota,
Clay County,
Mississippi,
Clay County,
Missouri,
Clay County,
Nebraska,
Clay County,
North Carolina,
Clay County,
South Dakota,
Clay County,
Tennessee,
Clay County,
Texas, and
Clay County,
West Virginia.
★
Ashland County,
Ohio,
Ashland County,
Wisconsin, and
Ashland, Alabama , were named for his estate, as was the city of
Ashland, Kentucky.
★ In
New Orleans: Uptown, Henry Clay Avenue, and Downtown twenty foot tall monument at the center of Lafayette Square.
★ There is a
Henry Clay High School located in
Lexington, Kentucky.
[3] and a Henry Clay Middle School located in
Los Angeles, California.
★ The "Instituto Educacional Henry Clay" located in
Caracas, Venezuela, is a bilingual private school.
★ The Clay Dormitory at
Transylvania University in
Lexington,
Kentucky, is named after Senator Clay.
http://www.bizlex.com/story.php?id=103
Trivia
★ Father of Representative
James Brown Clay-who was related by marriage to Representatives
John Breckinridge,
Thomas Hart Benton and
William Grayson.
★ Father of
Henry Clay, Jr., killed at the
Battle of Buena Vista during the
Mexican-American War on
February 23,
1847.
★ First cousin once removed of
Cassius M. Clay
★ Granduncle by marriage of Texas legislator and CS colonel
James Reily
★ In expectation of his election to the presidency, a massive set of bedroom furniture was commissioned by some of Clay's wealthy supporters that would fit in the White House master bedroom. Clay lost the presidential election, but the towering furniture pieces could not fit in Clay's home or that of anyone they knew. The furniture eventually was given to Rosedown Plantation in St. Francisville, Louisiana, where it can be viewed today.
★ Though a slave owner, he treated his slaves well. The slave quarters at his estate were constructed to standards far above the norm for slave housing of the day.
★ In 1809 Clay fought a duel with the Federalist Humphrey Marshall, in which both men were wounded.
★ In 1824 Clay challenged Virginia Representative John Randolph, who had referred to Clay as "this being, so brilliant yet so corrupt, which, like a rotten mackerel by moonlight, shined and stunk." The first time both fired and missed. The second time Clay shot a hole in Randolph’s coat. Randolph fired into the air and then offered Clay a handshake saying, “You owe me a coat, Mr. Clay." Clay shook Randolph’s hand, saying, “I am glad the debt is no greater." Thomas Hart Benton called this "the last high-toned duel I have witnessed."
Notes
1. The "Famous Five"
2. Van Deusen, 4
3. "Death of Henry Clay: Sketch of His Life and Public Career", ''New York Times''. Now you can visit the Henry Clay Estate in Lexington, Kentucky!!!!! June 30, 1852, p. 1
4. Henry Clay to Francis Preston Blair, January 29, 1825.
5. Adams, John Quincy; Adams, Charles Francis (1874). Memoirs of John Quincy Adams: Comprising Portions of His Diary from 1795 to 1848. J.B. Lippincott & Co., 501–505. ISBN 0-8369-5021-6. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
6. United States Congress (1825). House Journal, 18th Congress, 2nd Session, February 9, 219–222. Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
7. Henry Clay. Eulogy Delivered by Hon. Theodore Frelinghuysen, at Newark, on the 13th of July.
8. [2]
References
★ Baxter, Maurice G. ''Henry Clay and the American System'' (1995)
★ Baxter, Maurice G. ''Henry Clay the Lawyer'' U. Press of Kentucky, 2000.
★ Brown, Thomas. ''Politics and Statesmanship: Essays on the American Whig Party'' (1985) ch 5
★ 'Clay, Henry'. ''The Papers of Henry Clay'', 1797-1852. Edited by James Hopkins, Mary Hargreaves, Robert Seager II, Melba Porter Hay et al. 11 vols. University Press of Kentucky, 1959-1992.
vol 1 online, 1797-1814
★ 'Clay, Henry'. ''Works of Henry Clay'', 7 vols. (1897)
★ Eaton, Clement. ''Henry Clay and the Art of American Politics'' (1957)
★ Gammon, Samuel R. ''The Presidential Campaign of 1832'' (1922)
★ Holt, Michael F. ''The Rise and Fall of the American Whig Party: Jacksonian Politics and the Onset of the Civil War'' (1999)
★ Knupfer, Peter B. "Compromise and Statesmanship: Henry Clay’s Union." in Knupfer, ''The Union As It Is: Constitutional Unionism and Sectional Compromise, 1787-1861'' (1991), pp. 119-57.
★ Mayo, Bernard. ''Henry Clay, Spokesman of the West'' (1937)
★ Peterson, Merrill D. ''The Great Triumvirate: Webster, Clay, and Calhoun'' (1987)
★ Poage, George Rawlings. ''Henry Clay and the Whig Party'' (1936)
★ Remini, Robert. ''Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union'' (1991)
★
Schurz, Carl. ''Life of Henry Clay: American Statesmen''. 2 vol. (1899)
★ Strahan, Randall; Moscardelli, Vincent G.; Haspel, Moshe; and Wike, Richard S. "The Clay Speakership Revisited" ''Polity'' 2000 32(4): 561-593. ISSN 0032-3497
★ Van Deusen, Glyndon G. ''The Life of Henry Clay'' (1937)
★ Watson, Harry L. ed. ''Andrew Jackson vs. Henry Clay: Democracy and Development in Antebellum America'' (1998)
★ Zarefsky, David. "Henry Clay and the Election of 1844: the Limits of a Rhetoric of Compromise" ''Rhetoric & Public Affairs'' 2003 6(1): 79-96. ISSN 1094-8392
External links
★
Clay's Ashland Home web site, (HenryClay.org)
★
★
★
Find-A-Grave profile for Henry Clay
----
★
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