Henry Clay

Henry Clay, Sr. (April 12, 1777 – June 29, 1852) was a nineteenth-century American statesman and orator who represented Kentucky in both the senate and the House of Representatives, where he served as speaker. He also served as secretary of state from 1825 to 1829.

He was a dominant figure in both the first and second party systems. As a leading war hawk, he favored war with Britain and played a significant role in leading the nation to war in 1812. He was a major supporter of the American system, fighting for an increase in tariffs to foster industry in the United States, the use of federal funding to build and maintain infrastructure, and a strong national bank. Dubbed the "great compromiser," he brokered important compromises during the nullification crisis and on the slavery issue, especially in 1820 and 1850, during which he was part of the "great triumvirate" or "immortal trio," along with his colleagues Daniel Webster and John C. Calhoun. He was viewed as the primary representative of western interests in this group, and was given the names "Henry of the west" and "the western star." In 1957; a senate committee chaired by Sen. John F. Kennedy named Clay as one of the five greatest senators in U.S. history. In his early involvement in Illinois politics and as a fellow Kentucky native, Abraham Lincoln was a great admirer of Clay.

Early political career

State legislator

In 1803 Clay was elected to serve as the representative of Fayette County in the Kentucky general assembly. As a legislator, Clay advocated a liberal interpretation of the state's constitution and initially the gradual emancipation of slavery in Kentucky, although the political realities of the time forced him to abandon that position. Clay also advocated moving the state capitol from Frankfort to Lexington. He also worked diligently to defend the Kentucky insurance company, which he saved from an attempt in 1804 by Felix Grady to repeal its monopolistic charter. However, Clay's most famous deed in the assembly was the part he played in the passage of the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, which expressed opposition to the alien and sedition acts that were viewed as tyrannical.

First senate appointment and eligibility

Clay's influence in Kentucky state politics was great enough for him to be elected by the Kentucky legislature for the senate seat to which John Breckinridge had initially been elected; Breckinridge resigned to become attorney general of the United States, and at first John Adair was chosen to complete Breckinridge's term, but Adair had to resign his seat for his alleged part in the burr conspiracy. Clay became a senator on December 29, 1806 and served for one year.

Clay was below the constitutionally appointed age of thirty when elected. However, this age discrepancy apparently was not noticed by any other senator, and perhaps not even by Clay himself. Three months and seventeen days into his senate service, he reached the age of eligibility. Such a thing has happened to only two other U.S. senators.

Speaker of the state house and duel with Humphrey Marshall

When he returned home in 1807, he was elected the speaker of the Kentucky House of Representatives. on January 3, 1809, Clay introduced to the Kentucky general assembly a resolution requiring members to wear homespun suits rather than British broadcloth. only two members voted against the patriotic measure. one of them was Humphrey Marshall, an "aristocratic lawyer who possessed a sarcastic tongue," who had been hostile toward Clay in 1806 during the trial of Aaron burr. Clay and Marshall nearly came to blows on the assembly floor and Clay challenged Marshall to a duel. The duel took place on January 9 in Shippingport, Indiana. They each had three turns. Clay grazed Marshall once, just below the chest. Marshall hit Clay once in the thigh.

Second senate appointment

In 1810, United States senator Buckner Thruston resigned to serve as a judge on the United States circuit court and Clay was again appointed to fill his seat.

Speaker of the house

Early years

In the summer of 1811 Clay was elected to the United States House of Representatives. he was chosen speaker of the house on the first day of his first session, something never done before or since. 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 of the United States. He immediately appointed members of the war hawk faction (of which he was the "guiding spirit") to all the important committees, effectively giving him control of the house, quite a maneuver for a 34-year-old house freshman. The war hawks, mostly from the south and the west, resented British violation of U.S. maritime rights and treatment of U.S. sailors. They advocated for a declaration of war against the British.

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. Also during his early house service, he strongly opposed the creation of a national bank, in part because of his personal ownership in several small banks in his hometown of Lexington. Later he changed his position and gave strong support for the second national bank when he was seeking the presidency.

Henry Clay helped establish the American colonization society, a group that wanted to send freed African American slaves to Africa and that founded Monrovia in Liberia for that purpose. on the amalgamation of the black and white races, Clay said that "the god of nature, by the differences of color and physical constitution, has decreed against it." Clay presided at the founding meeting of the ACS on December 21, 1816; at the Davis hotel in Washington, D.C. attendees also included Robert Finley, James Monroe, Bushrod Washington, Andrew Jackson, Francis Scott Key, and Daniel Webster.

The "American system"

Main article: American system (economic plan)

Henry 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 through the creation of tariffs.

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.

Clay's American system ran into strong opposition from President Jackson's administration. One of the most important points of contention between the two men was over the Maysville road. Jackson vetoed a bill which would authorize federal funding for a project to construct a road linking Lexington and the Ohio River, the entirety of which would be in the state of Kentucky, because he felt that it did not constitute interstate commerce, as specified in the commerce clause of the United States constitution.

Foreign policy

In foreign policy, Clay was the leading American supporter of independence movements and revolutions in Latin America after 1817. Between 1821 and 1826, the U.S. recognized all the new countries, except Uruguay (whose independence was debated and recognized only later). When in 1826 the U.S. was invited to attend the Columbia conference of new nations, opposition emerged, and the American 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 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 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 included 11 free and 11 slave states), and it forbade slavery north of 36o 30' (the northern boundary of Arkansas) except in Missouri.

Death and estate

Clay continued to serve both the union he loved and his home state of Kentucky until June 29, 1852, when he died of tuberculosis in Washington, D.C., 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, who ran as Clay's vice-presidential candidate in the election of 1844. Clay's headstone reads simply: "I know no North — no South — no East — no West." the 1852 novel life at the south; or, "uncle tom's cabin" as it is by W.L.G. Smith is dedicated to Clay's memory.

Ashland, named for the many ash trees on the property, was his plantation and mansion for many years. He owned as many as 60 slaves at once. It was there he introduced the Hereford livestock breed to the United States.

Rebuilt and remodeled by his heirs, Ashland is now a museum. The museum includes 17 acres (6.9 ha) 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 (1866–1878), the mansion was used as a residence for the regent of Kentucky University, forerunner of the University of Kentucky and present-day Transylvania University.

Henry Clay is credited with introducing the mint julep drink to Washington, D.C., at the Willard hotel during his residence as a senator in the city.