Henry Clay

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Henry Clay Sr. (April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1882), an American lawyer and statesman who represented Kentucky in both the Senate and House of Representatives, and he served as the ninth U.S. secretary of state.

In the 1824, 1832, and 1844 presidential elections, he received electoral votes for president and helped found both the National Republican Party and the Whig Party.

He was given the nickname of the "Great Compromiser" because of his role in defusing sectional crises. Clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1777, and began his legal career in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1797.

Clay, a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, gained election to the Kentucky state legislature in 1803 and in 1810 to the United States House of Representatives.

He was elected speaker of the House in early 1811 and, along with President James Madison, led the US into the War of 1812 against Britain against Britain.

He assisted in the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which brought an end to the War of 1812.

Early life

Henry Clay was born in Hanover, Virginia, on April 12, 1777. He was the seventh of nine children born to Reverend John Clay and Elizabeth (née Hudson) Clay. Almost all of Henry's older siblings died before adulthood. Henry and his brothers were slaves each when they died in 1781; his father, a Baptist minister, had 18 slaves and 464 acres (188 ha) of land; he also left his wife 18 slaves and 464 acres (188 ha) of land. Clay was of solely English descent; his ancestor, John Clay, settled in Virginia in 1613. The Clay family was a well-known political family, with three other US senators, several state legislators, and Clay's cousin Cassius Clay, a leading anti-slavery activist active in the mid-19th century.

The British searched Clay's house shortly after his father's death, leaving the family in a precarious financial situation. The widow Elizabeth Clay married Captain Henry Watkins, who was both an affectionate stepfather and a lucrative planter. Elizabeth will have seven more children with Watkins, totaling 16 children. Clay remained in Hanover County, where he learned how to read and write after his mother's divorce. Watkins, a native of Kentucky, and his brother, Robert, joined him in the search of fertile new lands in the West in 1791. Clay did not follow as Watkins obtained his interim employment in a Richmond emporium, with the promise that Clay would be given the next open clerkship at the Virginia Court of Chancery.

Clay had served at the Richmond emporium for a year, and he obtained a clerkship that was not open at the Virginia Court of Chancery. Clay adapted to his new position, and his handwriting caught him the notice of College of William & Mary professor George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, mentor of Thomas Jefferson, and judge on Virginia's High Court of Chancery. Wythe selected Clay as his secretary and amanuensis, a position in which Clay will continue for four years. Wythe, Clay's study had a major influence on Clay's worldview, with Clay embracing Wythe's argument that the United States' example would help spread human liberty around the world. Wythe then found a position for Clay with Virginia attorney general Robert Brooke, with the understanding that Brooke would finish Clay's legal investigation. Clay was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1797 after completing his studies under Brooke.

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Early law and political career

Clay moved to Lexington, Kentucky, near where his parents and siblings lived in November 1797. The Bluegrass area, which includes Lexington, had quickly expanded in the previous decades, but the threat of Native American raids had only recently been eliminated. Lexington was a thriving town that welcomed Transylvania University, the first university west of the Appalachian Mountains. Clay obtained a Kentucky license to practice law right away after passing the Virginia Bar exam. Clay founded his own law firm after apprenticing himself to Kentucky lawyers like George Nicholas, John Breckinridge, and James Brown, mainly focusing on debt collection and land disputes. Clay soon developed a reputation for its exceptional legal abilities and courtroom oratory. He was appointed to the faculty of Transylvania University, where he taught, including future Kentucky Governor Robert P. Letcher and Robert Todd, Abraham Lincoln's future father-in-law.

Aaron Burr, Clay's most prominent client, was charged with treason in the Burr conspiracy. In 1807, Clay and his law partner John Allen successfully protected Burr without a single cent. Burr had been found guilty of the charges after Thomas Jefferson told Clay that he had been innocent. Clay's courtroom had been a shining after his aspirations to Congress. Clay filed the Supreme Court's first amicus curiae in the 1823 case Green v. Biddle. However, he was disqualified from the lawsuit.

After arriving in Kentucky, Clay entered politics shortly. He condemned the Alien and Sedition Acts, federalists' attempts to discourage opposition during the Quasi-War with France in his first political address. Clay, like most Kentuckians, was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party, but he disagreed with state party leaders over a state constitutional convention. Clay, who uses the term "Scaevola" (in reference to Gaius Scaevola), advocated for direct elections for Kentucky elected officials and the gradual emancipation of slaves in Kentucky. The direct election of public officials was included in the 1799 Kentucky Constitution, but the state did not endorse Clay's scheme for gradual emancipation.

Clay obtained the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1893. His first legislative proposal was the partisan gerrymander of Kentucky's Electoral College districts, which ensured that all of Kentucky's presidential electors voted for President Jefferson in the 1804 presidential election. Clay fought with legislators who attempted to reduce the power of Clay's Bluegrass region, and he unsuccessfully pushed for the transfer of the state capitol from Frankfort to Lexington. Clay has often criticized populist firebrand Felix Grundy, and he has helped defeat Grundy's attempt to strip away the state-owned Kentucky Insurance Company's banking privileges. He advocated for internal changes, a theme that would remain consistent throughout his public career. Clay's clout in Kentucky state politics was sorely that he was elected to the Senate of the Kentucky legislature in 1806. Clay pushed for the construction of various bridges and canals, including a canal connecting the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River during his two-month tenure in the Senate.

Clay was first elected speaker of the state house of representatives after returning to Kentucky in 1807. President Jefferson arranged the Embargo Act of 1807 that year, in response to threats against American shipping during the Napoleonic Wars. Clay proposed a bill requiring legislators to wear homespun suits rather than imported British broadcloth in favor of Jefferson's policy, which restricted trade with foreign powers. The overwhelming majority of members of the state house supported the measure, but Humphrey Marshall, a "aristocratic lawyer with a sarcastic mouth," voted against it. Clay challenged Marshall to a duel in early 1809, which took place on January 19. Although many contemporary duels were called off or fought against with the intention of killing one another, Clay and Marshall fought the duel with the intention of killing their adversary. They each had three turns to fire; both were struck by bullets, but both survived. Clay recovered quickly from his injury and received only a minor censure from the Kentucky legislature.

The United States began in 1810, a colony in the United States. Senator Buckner Thruston resigned to accept the appointment of as a federal judge, and Clay was chosen by the legislature to fill Thruston's seat. Clay arose quickly as a vocal critic of British attacks on American shipping, becoming part of a loose group of "war hawks" who favour expansionist policies. He also supported the partition of West Florida, which had been dominated by Spain. Clay helped with the recharter of the First Bank of the United States, claiming that it interfered with state banks and violated state rights. Clay decided that the Senate's rules were ineffective after serving in the Senate for a year and, instead, ran for office in the United States House of Representatives. In late 1810, he ran unopposed in the poll.

Later career

Despite Clay's resignation, President Jackson continued to see Clay as one of his top opponents, and Jackson suspects Clay of being behind the Petticoat affair, a controversy involving his Cabinet members' wives. Clay strongly opposed the 1830 Indian Removal Act, which allowed the government to relocate Native Americans to land west of the Mississippi River. Clay and Jackson's latest rivalry was the route from Maysville, Kentucky, to the National Road in Zanesville, Ohio; transportation campaigners hoped that later extensions would connect the National Road and New Orleans. Jackson vetoed the proposal in 1830, both because he felt that the road did not constitute interstate trade and also because he generally opposed using the federal government to promote economic growth. Although Jackson's veto received approval from infrastructure developers, it destroyed his base of support in Clay's home state, Kentucky. Clay won the Senate over Richard Mentor Johnson in a 73 to 64 election in 1831. His return to the Senate after 20 years, 8 months, 7 days out of office, marks the fourth-longest absence in service to the chamber in history.

Clay became the National Republicans' de facto leader after his demise of Adams, and he began planning for a presidential bid in the 1832 election. Jackson made it clear that he would run for re-election in 1831, insisting that support or opposition to his presidency would be a central feature of the forthcoming campaign. Democrats in Jackson rallied behind his national bank's national bank, internal adjustments, Indian removal, and nullification, but Vice President John C. Calhoun retaliated against these measures, including Vice President John C. Calhoun. Clay, on the other hand, dismissed overtures from the fledgling Anti-Masonic Party and his efforts to convince Calhoun to serve as his running mate failed, causing the opposition to split among various factions. Clay's National Republican followers arranged a national convention that nominated Clay for president, influenced by the Anti-Masonic Party's national convention.

The debate over the re-authorization of the national bank became the most critical issue in the campaign as the 1832 election was approaching. The national bank had become the country's largest corporation by the early 1830s, and banknotes issued by the national bank served as the country's de facto legal tender. Jackson disliked the national bank due to a fear of both banks and paper money. Although the bank's charter did not expire until 1836, bank president Nicholas Biddle pleaded for re-charter in 1831, hoping that election year pressure and support from Treasury Secretary Louis McLane would inspire Jackson to allow it to re-charter. Biddle's application sparked the "Bank War"; Congress passed a bill to renew the national bank's charter, but Jackson vetoed it, deeming the bank unconstitutional. Clay had hoped that the national bank would return to his position, but Jackson's allies quickly seized on the issue, redefining the 1832 election as a vote between the president and a "monied oligarchy." Clay was ultimately unadvised to depose a popular sitting president. Jackson won 219 of the 286 electoral votes and 52% of the popular vote, winning almost every state outside of New England.

Many Southerners became enraged by the Tariff of 1828 and 1832 because they resulted in higher import prices. South Carolina held a state convention, declaring that the tariff rates for 1828 and 1832 would be nullified within the state, and that federal collection of import duties would be unlawful after January 1833. Jackson issued his Proclamation to the People of South Carolina, which firmly denied states' ability to nullify federal laws or secede. He begged Congress to pass the Force Bill, which will authorize the president to deploy federal troops against South Carolina if it wanted to nullify federal policy.

Although Clay favoured higher tariff rates, Jackson's scathing speech against South Carolina was concerning and avoided a crisis that could result in civil war. He suggested a compromise tariff bill that would lower tariff rates, but did so gradually, allowing industry groups time to adjust to lower tariff rates. Clay's compromise tariff received the support of both manufacturers, who believed they would not get a better deal, and Calhoun, who tried to find a way out of the crisis but refused to collaborate with President Jackson's supporters on a different tariff bill. Although most members of Clay's own National Republican Party opposed it, the Tariff of 1833 passed both houses of Congress. Jackson simultaneously signed the tariff bill and the Force bill, and South Carolina officials accepted the new tariff, effectively ending the crisis. Clay's role in resolving the crisis gave him renewed national esteem in the aftermath of a humiliating presidential election loss, and some have begun referring to him as the "Great Compromiser."

Despite some resistance from within his own Cabinet, Jackson renewed his assault against the national bank after the conclusion of the Nullification Crisis in March 1833. Jackson and Treasury Secretary Roger Taney initiated a program that barred all federal deposits from the national bank and placed them in state-chartered banks known as "pet banks." Since federal law mandated the president to place federal funds in the national bank as long as it was financially sound, many considered Jackson's behavior unlawful, and Clay led to the passage of a Senate motion censuring Jackson. However, the national bank's federal charter was expiring in 1836, and although the institution continued to function under a Pennsylvania charter, it never regained control it had at the start of Jackson's administration.

For the first time, the removal of deposits united Jackson's opposition into one party, as National Republicans, Calhounites, former Democrats, and members of the Anti-Masonic Party coalesced into the Whig Party. Clay's term "whig" derives from a speech he made in 1834, in which he compared opponents of Jackson to the Whigs, a British political party opposed to absolute monarchy. Neither the Whigs nor the Democrats were united geographically or ideologically. Whigs, on the other hand, favored a larger legislature, a more empowered federal government, a higher tariff, higher borrowing on infrastructure, re-authorization of the Second Bank of the United States, and publicly funded education. On the other hand, Democrats tended to favor a more powerful president, more state governments, lower tariffs, hard money, and expansionism. Neither group took a strong national stand against slavery. The Whig base of support included wealthy businessmen, professionals, the academic class, and major planters, while the Democratic base of support lay in immigrant Catholics and yeomen farmers, but each party argued across class lines.

Parts due to sadness over his daughter's death, Anne, Clay did not run in the 1836 presidential election, and the Whigs were too disorganized to nominate a single candidate. Against Van Buren, three Whig candidates ran: GM Henry Harrison, Senator Hugh Lawson White, and Senator Daniel Webster. The Whigs hoped to compel a contingent vote in the House of Representatives by running multiple candidates. Clay personally favored Webster, but he gave his vote to Harrison, who had the broadest appeal among voters. Clay's decision not to endorse Webster exposed a split between the two Whig party leaders, and Webster's vote against Clay in upcoming presidential elections. Despite the presence of multiple Whig candidates, Van Buren captured the 1836 election with 50.8 percent of the popular vote and 170 of the 294 electoral votes.

The Panic of 1837, a significant financial crisis that seriously damaged the Democratic Party, affected Van Buren's presidency. Clay and other Whigs argued that Jackson's plans, which included the use of pet banks, fuelled rumors and sparked fear. President Barack Obama praised the American System as a means of economic recovery, but President Van Buren's response centered on "strict economy and frugality." Many believed that the Whigs would take over the presidency due to the continuing economic crisis. Clay originally regarded Webster as his biggest adversary, but Clay, Harrison, and General Winfield Scott emerged as the leading candidates at the 1839 Whig National Convention.

Despite being widely regarded as the most qualified Whig leader to serve as president, several Whigs doubted Clay's election after two presidential election losses. He also faced resistance in the North due to slave ownership and lingering links with the Freemasons, as well as in South from Whigs who questioned his moderate stance on slavery. Clay gained plurality on the first ballot of the Whig National Convention, but with the help of Thurlow Weed and others backers, Harrison consolidated support on subsequent ballots and gained the Whig presidential nomination on the fifth ballot of the convention. The convention sought to please Clay's supporters and to balance the ticket geographically, the convention selected former Virginia Governor and Senator John Tyler, a personal friend of Clay, whose political service had practically come to an end, as the vice president candidate. Clay was dissatisfied with the result, but he continued Harrison's win by giving several speeches. Clay saw the forthcoming 27th Congress as a referendum for the Whig Party, which also gained control of Congress in the 1840 elections, as a symbol of the party's undisputed leadership of the country's largest political party.

President-elect Harrison invited Clay to serve another term as Secretary of State, but Clay declined to remain in Congress. Instead, Webster was named Secretary of State, while Attorney General John J. Crittenden, a close ally of Clay, was chosen as Attorney General. Clay and Harrison debated the Whig Party's leadership as Harrison prepared to take power, with Harrison concerned that he would answer to Clay. Harrison died of an illness a month into his presidency and was replaced by Vice President John Tyler. Tyler retained Harrison's Cabinet, but the late Democrat and avid follower of both Jefferson and Jackson's philosophy soon revealed that he had reservations about establishing a national bank, a top priority of Clay's. Clay however expected that Tyler would accept the measures introduced by the Whig-controlled Congress; among his goals were the revival of the national bank, higher tariff rates, a national bankruptcy statute, and an act to divide the proceeds of land sales to the states for improvements in infrastructure and education. Clay and his legislative allies attempted to craft a national bank bill that was acceptable to Tyler, but Tyler vetoed two separate bills to re-establish the national bank, proving that he had no desire to find a solution to the party's problems. Clay and other Whig Party figures had been outraged not only because Tyler's denial of the Whig party website, but also because Tyler had intentionally deceived them into thinking that he would sign the bills.

Following Tyler's second veto, congressional Whigs voted to exclude Tyler from the party, and Clay's request, except for Webster, who wanted to continue negotiating the Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Great Britain over the border to Canada, resigned from office. Tyler moved closer to his former Democratic Party, and Clay emerged as the ardent leader of the Whig Party with Webster still serving in Tyler. Clay resigned from the Senate in early 1842 after arranging for Crittenden to replace him. Despite having vetoed other Whig bills, Tyler did sign two Whig priorities into legislation, including the Preemption Act of 1841, which distributed the proceeds of land sales to the states, and the Bankruptcy Act of 1841, which was the first law in the United States that allowed for voluntary bankruptcy. Tyler, who was facing a large budget deficit, signed the Tariff of 1842, which restored the 1832 tarifff's protective rates, but ended the distribution policy that had been enacted with the Preemption Act of 1841.

President Tyler's break with the Whig Party, as well as Webster's continuing association with Tyler, positioned Clay as the top candidate for the Whig nomination in the 1844 presidential election. Most observers expected Clay to face Van Buren in the 1844 presidential election, but the founders predicted a second term, while the founders' tradition held that Clay would have been a second term. President Tyler formed an alliance with John C. Calhoun and ordered the annexation of the Republic of Texas, which would bring another slave state to the union. Clay declared his opposition to annexation after President Tyler signed an annexation deal with Texas. The country, he said, needs "union, stability, and patience," and annexation will bring tensions over slavery and war with Mexico. Van Buren ruled against annexation on the same day Clay released a letter condemning the annexation of Texas, citing similar reasons as Clay, so slavery and especially expansionism did not play a part in the forthcoming election. Clay unanimously won the presidential nomination at the 1844 Whig National Convention, but a minority of modern Southern Democrats, encouraged by Tyler's imaginative outline, blocked Van Buren's nomination at the 1844 Democratic National Convention, leaving the party's unexpected compromise nominee: former Speaker James K. Polk of Tennessee, who favored annexation, in order to calm anti-expansionists, has promised to run for a single term. Tyler stalled his pro-annexation campaign for president after being nominated by a Democrat.

Clay was shocked by Van Buren's loss but remained optimistic about his prospects in the 1844 election. Polk was the first "dark horse" presidential nominee in the United States, and Whigs mocked him as a "fourth-rate politician" and branded him as a "fourth rate jerk." Despite his apparent national insignificance, Polk was a good candidate for unifying the factions of the Democratic Party and winning the loyalty of Southerners who had been reluctant to help Van Buren. Both the North and South were alienated by Clay's position on slavery. Southerners flocked to Polk, Alabama, although many Northern abolitionists, who tended to align with the Whig Party, favoured James G. Birney of the Liberty Party. Clay's resistance to annexation harmed his campaign in the South, as Democrats argued that he worked in unison with Northerners to prevent slavery from spreading. Clay wrote two letters in July in which he tried to clarify his position on Texas's annexation, and Democrats reacted angrily.

Polk won the election, receiving 49.5% of the popular vote and 170 of the 275 electoral votes. Birney gained several thousand anti-annexation votes in New York, and his presence in the campaign may have cost Clay the election. The majority of Clay's contemporaries agreed that annexation was the deciding factor in the contest, but Polk's savvy campaign on the tariff may have been pivotal, winning pro-tariff Pennsylvania after downplaying his anti-tariff sentiments. Texas was annexed by Congress after Polk's win and Tyler's final indirect success, and Texas gained statehood in late 1845.

Clay returned to his practice as an attorney following the 1844 election. Despite being no longer a member of Congress, he was nonetheless deeply involved in national politics. The Mexican–American War broke out in 1846, when American and Mexican forces clashed at the contested border zone between Mexico and Texas. Clay did not publicly condemn the war, but privately he saw it as an immoral war that might produce "some military chieftain who will conquer us all." Henry Clay Jr., his son, died at the Battle of Buena Vista in 1847 after he suffered a personal blow. Clay re-emerged on the political stage in November 1847 with a speech that was vehemently dismissive of the Mexican–American War and President Polk. Polk sluggishly criticized Polk for promoting the conflict with Mexico and urged the prohibition of any treaty that would have established new slave territories in the United States. The Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ceded hundreds of thousands of square miles of territory known as the Mexican Cession just over a month after the address.

By 1847, General Zachary Taylor, who commanded the American forces at Buena Vista, had emerged as a candidate for the Whig nomination in the 1848 presidential election. Despite Taylor's generally unpopular political views, many Whigs regarded him as the party's top candidate due to his martial accomplishments in the Mexican–American War. John J. Crittenden, one of Clay's most trusted allies and advisors, was Taylor's de facto campaign manager. Clay had told his allies that he would not run in the 1848 presidential race, but he was unable to help Taylor, a "mere military man." He declared his candidacy for the Whig nomination on April 10, 1848. Despite that Webster and Winfield Scott each had a small base of support in the organization, Taylor and Clay saw the other as their lone major contender for the Whig nomination. Clay concentrated his efforts on courting Northern Whigs, highlighting his opposition to the Mexican American War and his lifelong support for slave emancipation in Kentucky as Taylor commanded the support of most Southern Whigs. Clay posed a serious challenge to Taylor at the 1848 Whig National Convention, but Taylor gained the presidential nomination on the fourth ballot. The convention nominated Millard Fillmore as Taylor's running mate, partially in an effort to please the Clay Wing of the party. Clay was enraged by his absence at the convention, but he did not campaign for Taylor. Despite this, Taylor won the election, winning 47.3 percent of the popular vote and 163 of 290 electoral votes.

Clay accepted the nomination to the Senate in 1849, becoming more concerned about the secular tensions surrounding the issue of slavery in newly acquired territories. Clay played no part in the creation of Taylor's Cabinet or in establishing the new administration's policies, despite refusing to campaign for Taylor. Clay suggested in January 1850, with Congress still deadlocked on the status of the Mexican Cession, and address other issues that contributed to sectional tensions. The admission of California as a free state, the forfeiture of certain of the state's northern and western territorial claims in exchange for debt relief, the establishment of New Mexico and Utah territories, a ban on slave importation into the District of Columbia for sale, and a more stringent fugitive slave statute were included in his legislative package. Despite being met with resistance from Southern militants like Calhoun and Northern abolitionists like William Seward, Clay's plan received the support of many Southern and Northern leaders.

President Taylor, who favored immediate admission of California and New Mexico as free states without having attached conditions, opposed the proposal, and Clay openly broke with President Joseph in May 1850. When Taylor unexpectedly died of an illness, he continued debate over Clay's plan into July. President Fillmore, who advocated Clay's compromise bill, consults with Clay in naming a new Cabinet following Taylor's death. Clay took a leave of absence shortly after Taylor's death, but Fillmore, Webster, and Democratic Senator Stephen A. Douglas took over pro-compromise forces, being exhausted by the Senate's debate. Clay's plan, which was then known as the Compromise of 1850, was complete by the end of September 1850. Despite the fact that contemporaries lauded Fillmore, Douglas, and Webster for their contribution in passing the Compromise of 1850, Clay was widely regarded as the key figure in settling a large sectional disaster.

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