Henry Clay (1777-1852) was an American lawyer and statesman, one of the defining political figures of his age. Over the course of his several decades on the stage of national politics, Clay helped lead the United States into the War of 1812 (1812-1815), diffused several sectional crises over slavery, introduced an economic plan known as the 'American System', and founded the Whig Party in opposition to his rival Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). Clay served as the Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, and made three unsuccessful bids for the presidency. Known as the 'Great Compromiser' for his roles in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, Clay is recognized as part of the 'Great Triumvirate' of US Congressmen alongside John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) and Daniel Webster (1782-1852).
Early Life
Reflecting on his childhood, Clay would later say that he was "born a democrat – rocked in the cradle of the revolution" (quoted in Peterson, 8). He was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on 12 April 1777, less than a year after the United States had declared its independence from Great Britain. The seventh of nine children born to Reverend John Clay and his wife Elizabeth Hudson Clay, Henry's earliest years were suffused with tragedy – most of his older siblings died in childhood, and his father, a popular Baptist minister, died in 1781, when Henry was only four. That same year, the American Revolution came to Virginia. Clay would recall how his family homestead was raided by the British Legion under Banastre Tarleton and how the British dragoons stuck their swords into the grave of his father in the hopes of unearthing hidden treasure. The raid left the family in a dire financial situation, which was assuaged when Clay's mother remarried Captain Henry Watkins, a successful planter. Elizabeth would go on to have six more children with Watkins, who proved to be a kind stepfather and had a good relationship with Clay.
In 1791, Watkins moved the family to Kentucky, driven by rumors of good, fertile lands to be had out West. Clay declined to follow – already insatiably ambitious at 14 years old, he had obtained a position as deputy clerk for the Virginia Chancery Court in the capital of Richmond and was determined to see it through. As biographer Bernard Mayo put it, "Virginia's high courts and legislative halls were to be his preparatory school"; Clay, who had only received three years of formal education, developed his logical and oratorical skills by observing the lawyers and statesmen in the capital. Clay not only learned how to think like a Virginian lawyer but also how to party like one – much of his free time was spent attending lavish balls or risking his money at gambling taverns. Before long, he was reading law under the guidance of George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Clay was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1797 and, that same year, decided to follow his family to Kentucky to seek his fortune as a frontier lawyer.
Political Rise
Arriving in Lexington, Kentucky, in November 1797, Clay instantly felt he had come home. "I went as an orphan," he would recall, "who had never recognized a father's smile, nor felt his caresses…but scarce had I set my foot upon [Kentucky's] generous soil, when I was seized and embraced with a parental fondness, caressed as though I had been a favorite child" (quoted in Peterson, 8). Within three months, Clay had established a thriving legal practice. Though most of his cases dealt with land disputes, he built his reputation as a defense attorney in capital cases; it was said that none of the accused murderers he defended were ever sent to the gallows. He often rode the circuit of county courts, where he continued gambling and drinking – Clay was such an avid partier that he earned the nickname 'Prince Hal' in reference to the wayward prince from William Shakespeare's plays. On 11 April 1799, Clay married Lucretia Hart (1781-1864) after a brief courtship. The couple eventually settled on a 600-acre plantation outside Lexington that Clay named 'Ashland' due to its abundance of blue ash trees. Here, the Clays planted wheat, rye, and hemp, crops that were cultivated by enslaved workers – indeed, 122 people were enslaved at Ashland during Clay's lifetime.
As his legal star continued to rise, Clay involved himself in politics. In 1798, he gave his maiden speech in opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts, which he condemned as tyrannical. The following year, he advocated for several reforms to the Kentucky state constitution, including the direct popular election of public officials and the gradual emancipation of slavery in Kentucky; the first measure was successful, the second was not. In 1803, he won election to the state legislature, and, in 1806, he filled a three-month vacancy in the US Senate. That same year, he took on his highest-profile legal case when he defended former US vice president Aaron Burr (1756-1836), who had been indicted on charges of treason. Clay skillfully convinced a grand jury to throw out the indictment, though he later became convinced of Burr's guilt. In 1807, he became speaker of the Kentucky legislature, which brought him into conflict with a political rival, Humphrey Marshall. After Marshall publicly called him a liar, Clay challenged him to a duel, which took place on 19 January 1809 – each man was struck by the other's bullet, though both survived.
Speaker of the House
By 1810, Clay had built a strong enough base of support in Kentucky to allow him to run for US Congress; he decided to run for the House of Representatives, preferring the "turbulence" of that popular body to the "solemn stillness of the Senate chamber" (quoted in Peterson, 17). He was elected unopposed and, in 1811, traveled to Washington, D.C., to take his seat in the Twelfth Congress. At the time, war was brewing between the United States and the United Kingdom – the British had been impressing American sailors into the Royal Navy and supporting hostile Native American nations, acts that the US considered threatening to its sovereignty and national honor. Clay certainly thought as much and became one of the most outspoken 'War Hawks', as the clique of young, pro-war congressmen became known. He was elected Speaker of the House – at 34, he was the youngest speaker to that date – a position he used to help secure a declaration of war against Britain, sparking the War of 1812. He was also part of the American peace delegation that negotiated the Treaty of Ghent (24 December 1814), ending the conflict and restoring prewar borders.
After returning from Europe in September 1815, Clay was again elected Speaker of the House. He worked to increase the power of that office by establishing new committees and filling them with political allies – as he tightened his grip on the House, his power was increased by the tendency of President James Madison (served 1809-1817) to defer to Congress. Clay was a big supporter of internal improvements, believing the Union would become more unified with better interstate infrastructure. He helped pass the Tariff of 1816, both to pay for these improvement projects and to protect domestic manufacturing, and sought to stabilize the national currency by passing the bill that established the Second Bank of the United States. Protective tariffs and infrastructure improvements supported by a national bank became hallmarks of Clay's signature economic plan, known as the 'American System'.
In 1817, Clay expected to be chosen as secretary of state for the incoming administration of President James Monroe (served 1817-1825) and was quite bitter when John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) was chosen instead. Consigned to his place in Congress, Clay used his influence to badger the Monroe administration about foreign policy, urging it to recognize the newly independent republics of Latin America. President Monroe was reluctant to do so, fearing that such recognition might jeopardize his efforts to acquire Spanish Florida. Clay also loudly criticized the conduct of Major General Andrew Jackson, whose actions in Florida included unauthorized attacks on Spanish forts and the illegal executions of two British prisoners. In one of his most memorable speeches, Clay warned his fellow congressmen not to sanction Jackson's behavior; "Remember," he said, "Greece had her Alexander, Rome her Caesar, England her Cromwell, France her Bonaparte, and that if we would escape the rock on which they split, we must avoid their errors" (quoted in Howe, 106). Jackson never forgave Clay for his words, beginning a lifelong rivalry that would shape the course of US political history.
In February 1819, Congress was considering an 'enabling bill' that would allow the Missouri Territory to apply for statehood when Rep. James Tallmadge, Jr. (1778-1853) introduced an amendment that would gradually abolish slavery in Missouri. The so-called 'Tallmadge Amendment' led to a sectional crisis over slavery between the 'free states' of the North and the 'slave states' of the South. Eventually, a compromise was suggested whereby Missouri would be admitted into the Union as a slave state in exchange for the admittance of Maine as a free state and the prohibition of slavery in all western territories north of the 36°30' parallel. Clay supported this solution, known as the Missouri Compromise, and played an instrumental role in guiding it through the House of Representatives in March 1820. Though Clay had not come up with the compromise himself, his involvement in its passage greatly enhanced his national reputation.
Rivalry with Jackson
In 1824, Clay emerged as a strong candidate for president; he was opposed, however, by four other candidates, including John Quincy Adams, John C. Calhoun, William H. Crawford, and, most surprisingly, Andrew Jackson. Though Jackson's candidacy was not taken seriously at first, his reputation as a military hero allowed him to quickly pick up support, particularly in the West, a region that Clay had been counting on. Clay's support continued to dwindle until the election, when he finished in fourth and last place (Calhoun had dropped out). Since none of the candidates received an electoral majority, the decision was handed off to the House of Representatives; fearing a Jackson presidency, Clay decided to withdraw from the race and throw his support behind Adams, whom he considered the most sympathetic toward his 'American System'. With Clay's support, Adams won the election and was inaugurated on 4 March 1825.
Adams chose Clay as his secretary of state, a powerful position that, at the time, was seen as a stepping-stone to the presidency. Jackson and his supporters, therefore, accused Adams and Clay of having struck a 'corrupt bargain', alleging that Clay had promised to support Adams in exchange for the State Department. Clay's fragile Southern honor was hurt by these accusations, leading him to fight a duel with the eccentric Virginian senator John Randolph of Roanoke (1773-1833); both men missed their shots and were reconciled. Clay worked closely with President Adams during the next four years to initiate major internal improvement projects; though most of their initiatives were defeated in Congress, they did have some successes, like the National Road and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. In foreign policy, Clay established commercial treaties with several Latin American republics, thereby tying them closer to the United States' sphere of influence and away from that of Europe. In 1828, Adams ran for reelection against Jackson, who made the issue of the 'corrupt bargain' a central feature of his campaign. Adams' supporters – called National Republicans – decided to fight fire with fire, attacking Jackson's character by accusing him and his wife, Rachel, of bigamy. When Rachel died of a heart attack in late 1828, Jackson blamed her death on his political enemies like Adams and Clay.
Jackson won the election and was inaugurated as president on 4 March 1829. Even with Clay out of office, Jackson continued to view him as a major rival, and the two men often butted heads – Clay fiercely opposed the Indian Removal Act, a central component of Jackson's administration, while the new president vetoed the construction of the Maysville Road, an internal improvement project that Clay had supported. In 1831, Clay was elected to the US Senate, where he continued to spearhead the opposition to Jackson's presidency. When Jackson decided to destroy the Second Bank of the United States – an episode known as the Bank War – Clay fought to recharter the bank. In 1832, Clay once again ran for president on a platform opposing Indian Removal and the Bank War. He was again defeated, and Jackson was re-elected. Jackson would always consider Clay a thorn in his side; years later, on his deathbed, Jackson would claim that one of his only regrets was that he had not shot Henry Clay.
Party Founder
Clay was now at the height of his career. Alongside his fellow senators John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster, he was recognized as part of the 'Great Triumvirate', or 'Immortal Trio', of US congressmen that shaped the destiny of the nation. In 1833, South Carolina attempted to nullify the federally implemented Tariff of 1828 – also known as the 'Tariff of Abominations' – on the grounds that it unfairly raised prices on imported goods. Viewing this as an assault on the Union itself, President Jackson denied that a state had the right to nullify a federal law and asked Congress to pass the Force Bill, which would allow him to send soldiers to South Carolina. Though protective tariffs were essential to the American System, Clay feared civil war and brokered a compromise whereby tariff rates would be gradually lowered over the course of the next decade. With this, Clay helped avert the Nullification Crisis and was soon referred to as the 'Great Compromiser'.
In the meantime, Jackson was continuing his assault on the national bank; with the help of Secretary of the Treasury Roger B. Taney (1777-1864), Jackson began removing all federal deposits from the bank and placing them in state-chartered 'pet banks' that were loyal to his administration. This was regarded as illegal, and Clay led the passage of a Senate motion that censured Jackson. After this, a coalition of anti-Jacksonian factions began to rally around Clay's leadership, referring to themselves as the Whig Party. Aside from their disdain for Jackson, the Whigs did not have a central political platform and were often divided along sectional lines. Nevertheless, the Whig candidate William Henry Harrison (1773-1841) managed to defeat Jackson's chosen successor, Martin Van Buren (1782-1862), in the US presidential election of 1840, a major success for the party. However, this victory would be short-lived. Harrison died a month into his presidency, and his successor, John Tyler (served 1841-1845), refused to support Clay's agenda; when Clay guided a bill through Congress that would re-establish the Bank of the United States, Tyler vetoed it twice.
After Tyler's second veto, congressional Whigs voted to expel him from the party. Clay, now the clear party leader, resigned from the Senate in 1842 to begin laying the groundwork for another presidential campaign. Though he was unanimously nominated at the 1844 Whig National Convention, his campaign suffered disadvantages. His stance on slavery – that slaves should be gradually emancipated and relocated to Liberia – angered both Southerners, who viewed him as an enemy of their 'peculiar institution', and Northerners, who viewed him as a hypocrite since he owned slaves himself. Additionally, Clay was opposed to the annexation of Texas, which further hurt his chances in the South. In the end, he lost the election to the dark-horse Democratic candidate James K. Polk (1795-1849), ending Clay's last real chance of winning the presidency.
Final Years
After his defeat, Clay returned to Kentucky to resume his legal practice. In 1846, President Polk guided the nation into the Mexican-American War (1846-1848); while Clay did not publicly oppose the war at first, he later became one of its most outspoken critics after his favorite son, Henry Clay Jr., was killed at the Battle of Buena Vista (22-23 February 1847). In 1849, after the US victory in the war, Clay returned to the Senate, just in time for the question of slavery to once again bubble to the surface of national politics; disagreement over whether slavery should be allowed to expand into the territories seized from Mexico had precipitated another sectional crisis between the free states of the North and the slave states of the South. On 29 January 1850, Clay took the Senate floor to offer eight resolutions he hoped would end the dispute. These included admitting California into the Union as a free state and strengthening existing laws that allowed slaveholders to retrieve their runaway slaves across state lines.
Clay's attempts to shepherd these resolutions through Congress met with defeat in July 1850. Frustrated and exhausted from his ongoing battle with tuberculosis, Clay left Congress to recuperate in Newport, Rhode Island; the resolutions were repackaged by Senator Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) of Illinois, who succeeded in getting them passed, thereby averting the crisis. The Compromise of 1850 would prove to be Clay's last contribution to national politics. Wrecked by tuberculosis, his health continued to deteriorate until his death on 29 June 1852, at the age of 75. He was the first American to lay in state in the Capitol rotunda in Washington, and, when his body was borne by train and steamboat to its final resting place in Lexington, tens of thousands of people turned out to watch the procession. In recognition of his nationalist and unionist career, his headstone reads: "I know no North – no South – no East – no West".
