HENRY CLAY: PART 2

Kentucky Studies 2012-2013

AGENDA: 11/26/12

Bellwork

Intro to paper assignment!

PPT/Notes: Henry Clay Part 2

Exit Slip

Learning Target: I will identify and describe

BELLWORK

Henry Clay once wrote: "I know of no South, no

North, no East, no West to which I owe my

allegiance. The Union is my country.“

What does this statement mean?

HENRY CLAY

Compromise of 1820

Compromise of 1833

Compromise of 1850

War Hawk; War of 1812 Negotiator

“Great Compromiser,” the “Great Pacificator.”

CLAY

After receiving a law license in his native Virginia, Clay

moved to Lexington, Kentucky to establish a practice.

He was a renowned criminal defense attorney and a

prosperous estate owner. Clay did not hesitate to voice his

social and political views, and he soon gained a reputation as a

skilled orator.

In 1803, he was elected to the Kentucky House of

Representatives and, five years later, he was chosen as speaker.

CLAY

In the early 19th century, American exports fell victim to economic

sparring between Britain and France. American vessels were seized

by the warring European nations and the British navy regularly

impressed (abducted) American sailors.

Clay and a group of strident young men known as the War Hawks

were outraged by these repeated violations of American neutrality.

The War Hawks were fed up with the plodding diplomatic tactics

of Jefferson and Madison and they were convinced that a

declaration of war against Britain was the only honorable response.

CLAY

Shortly after his arrival in the House, Clay was chosen

to be speaker. He played this supervisory role well,

although he frequently left the Speaker's chair to

participate in debates.

Clay, a consummate politician, also spent considerable

time developing new coalitions and ensuring that fellow

War Hawks chaired the key naval and foreign relations

committees.

CLAY

A Federalist politician once commented that

"Henry Clay was the man whose influence and power

more than that of any other produced the War of

1812."

CLAY

By 1814, even the radical War Hawk was ready for

the war to end.

Clay accepted a position on the five-member

American delegation sent to Europe to negotiate

peace. Although he did not always see eye-to-eye

with the other U.S. diplomats, Clay was a shrewd

and stubborn spokesman for the American position.

IN-CLASS ACTIVITY

You will complete the handout, “Henry Clay’s

accomplishments.”

Go from station to station and find the information

for each event (3 events); fill in the chart.

Turn in B1 when finished.

COMPROMISE OF 1820

1820

In the years leading up to the Missouri Compromise of 1820,

tensions began to rise between pro-slavery and anti-slavery

factions within the U.S. Congress and across the country. They

reached a boiling point after Missouri’s 1819 request for

admission to the Union as a slave state, which threatened to

upset the delicate balance between slave states and free states.

To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated a two-part

compromise, granting Missouri’s request but also admitting

Maine as a free state.

1820

It also passed an amendment that drew an

imaginary line across the former Louisiana Territory,

establishing a boundary between free and slave

regions that remained the law of the land until it was

negated by the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

1820

To keep the peace, Congress orchestrated a two-

part compromise, granting Missouri’s request but

also admitting Maine as a free state. It also passed

an amendment that drew an imaginary line across

the former Louisiana Territory, establishing a

boundary between free and slave regions that

remained the law of the land until it was negated by

the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854.

1820

"The Great Compromiser" proposed that Missouri be

admitted to the Union as a slave state, which was how the

state constitution was written by the Missouri convention.

To pacify the North, Clay proposed that the southern

boundary of Missouri be extended throughout the rest of

the western territory and that slavery would be forbidden

forever, north of that line. This became known as the

Missouri Compromise.

1833

On December 10, 1832, President Andrew Jackson issued a

proclamation to the people of South Carolina that disputed a

states' right to nullify a federal law. Jackson's proclamation

was written in response to an ordinance issued by a South

Carolina convention that declared that the tariff acts of 1828

and 1832 "are unauthorized by the constitution of the United

States, and violate the true meaning and intent thereof and

are null, void, and no law, nor binding upon this State."

1833

Led by John C. Calhoun, Jackson's vice president at

the time, the nullifiers felt that the tariff acts of 1828

and 1832 favored Northern-manufacturing interests

at the expense of Southern farmers. After Jackson

issued his proclamation, Congress passed the Force

Act that authorized the use of military force against

any state that resisted the tariff acts

1833

In 1833, Henry Clay helped broker a compromise

bill with Calhoun that slowly lowered tariffs over the

next decade. The Compromise Tariff of 1833 was

eventually accepted by South Carolina and ended

the nullification crisis.

1850

The Compromise of 1850 consists of five laws

passed in September of 1850 that dealt with the

issue of slavery. In 1849 California requested

permission to enter the Union as a free state,

potentially upsetting the balance between the free

and slave states in the U.S. Senate.

1850

Senator Henry Clay introduced a series of

resolutions on January 29, 1850, in an attempt to

seek a compromise and avert a crisis between North

and South. As part of the Compromise of 1850, the

Fugitive Slave Act was amended and the slave trade

in Washington, D.C., was abolished.

1850

Furthermore, California entered the union as a

free state and a territorial government was created

in Utah. Also, an act was passed settling a boundary

dispute between Texas and New Mexico that also

established a territorial government in New Mexico.

HOW GREAT OF A SPEAKER?

“I am far from surveying the vast maritime power of Great

Britain with the desponding eye with which other gentlemen

behold it. I cannot allow myself to be discouraged at the

prospect even of her thousand ships. This country only requires

resolution, and a proper exertion of its immense resources, to

command respect and to vindicate every essential right. If we

are not able to meet the wolves of the forest, shall we put up

with the barking of every petty fox that trips across our way?”

SPEAKER CLAY

“Mr. President, I have said that I want to know whether we are bound

together by a rope of sand or an effective capable government competent

to enforce the powers therein vested by the Constitution of the United

States. And what is this doctrine of Nullification, set up again, revived,

resuscitated, neither enlarged nor improved, nor expanded in this new

edition of it, that when a single state shall undertake to say that a law

passed by the twenty-nine states is unconstitutional and void, she may

raise the standards of resistance and defy the twenty-nine. Sir, I denied

that doctrine twenty years ago—I deny it now—I will die denying it. There

is no such principle. . . .”

SPEAKER CLAY

“The public attention has been drawn to the

approaching arrival of the Hornet, as the period

when the measures of our government would take a

decisive character, or rather their final cast. We are

among those who have attached to this event a high

degree of importance, and have therefore looked to

it with the utmost solicitude.”

SPEAKER CLAY

“Let war therefore be forthwith proclaimed against England.

With her there can be no motive for delay. Any further

discussion, any new attempt at negotiation, would be as

fruitless as it would be dishonorable. With France we shall still

be at liberty to pursue the course which circumstances may

require. The advance she has already made by the repeal of her

decrees; the manner of its reception by our government; and

the prospect which exists of an amicable accommodation,

entitle her to this preference…”

EXIT SLIP

Henry Clay was one of the greatest statesmen of

his time and in American history; yet he never

served as President of his country. Abraham Lincoln

regarded Henry Clay as the greatest statesman the

nation had ever produced, calling him “my beau

ideal of a statesman.”

Do you agree with Lincoln’s description of Clay?

Why? Why not? Provide details from your notes.