Henry Clay Politics
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Transcript of Henry Clay Politics
Arnaldo PerezHistory of United StatesProf. Miguel Gonzalez
Personal Facts
NAME: Henry Clay
OCCUPATION: U.S.
Representative, lawyer
BIRTH DATE: April 12, 1777
DEATH DATE: June 29, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH: Hanover
County, Virginia
PLACE OF DEATH: Washington,
D.C.
FULL NAME: Henry Clay Sr.
"The Great Compromiser” and
"The Great Pacifier"
Early Years
Clay was raised with modest wealth, the seventh of nine children born to Reverend John and Elizabeth Hudson Clay.
His link to American history came at an early age. He was 3 years old when he watched the British troops ransack his family home.
After a minimal formal education, In 1797 moved to Kentucky at the age of 20 and settled in Lexington. Clay read law and gained admission to the bar in both Virginia and Kentucky in 1797. With great success, he got aided by his sharp wit and nimble mind.
He became a leading real estate and business lawyer in Frankfort, Kentucky and soon embarked on a career in politics.
Marriage
Lucretia Hart, the daughter
of a wealthy Lexington
businessman, in 1799. The
two remained married for
more than 50 years, having
11 children together.
Political Start
Clay was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1803 and served to 1806. Next, he served as Senator from Kentucky, from 1806 to 1807, and then returned to the State House of Representatives, from 1807 to 1809. In 1810 Clay returned to the Senate and served until 1811.
Democratic-Republican
National Republican
Whig
Jobs at Goverment
United States Senator from Kentucky
9th United States Secretary of State
8th, 10th and 13th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 3rd district
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 2nd district
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky's 5th district
Controversy in the
Constitution
In 1806, after a stint in
the Kentucky
legislature, he was
elected to fill the
unexpired term of a
U.S. senator who had
resigned. Clay took the
seat, although he was
four months younger
than the constitutional
age requirement of 30.
Treaty of
Ghent
1812-1814
Young Statesman
On other fronts, Clay took
head-on some of the
biggest issues of the day.
He pushed for
independence for several
Latin American republics,
advocated for a national
bank and, perhaps most
significantly, argued
strongly and successfully
for a negotiated
settlement between
slave-owning states and
the rest of the country
over its western policy.
The Missouri
CompromiseWas passed in 1820
between the pro-slavery
and anti-slavery factions
in the United States
Congress, involving
primarily the regulation of
slavery in the western
territories. It prohibited
slavery in the former
Louisiana Territory north
of the parallel 36°30′
north except within the
boundaries of the
proposed state of
Missouri.
Cont.
Clay earned the sobriquet "Great Compromiser" by crafting three major legislative compromises over the course of 30 years. Each time, he pulled the United States from the brink of civil war. In 1820 and 1821, he used his role as Speaker of the House to broker the Missouri Compromise, a series of brilliant resolutions he introduced to defuse the pitched battle as to whether Missouri would be admitted to the Union as a slave state or free state. Although he owned slaves himself, Clay anguished about slavery, which he called a "great evil." He believed slavery would become economically obsolete as a growing population reduced the cost of legitimate labor. Under Clay's compromise, Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state.
The United States in 1819 (the light orange and light green areas
were not then part of the United States). The Missouri
Compromise prohibited slavery in the unorganized territory of the
Great Plains (upper dark green) and permitted it in Missouri
(yellow) and the Arkansas Territory (lower blue area).
Election of 1824 “Corrupt Bargain”
Clay’s appointment as Secretary of State stirred controversy.
After the votes were counted in the U.S. presidential election
of 1824, no candidate had received a majority of the
Presidential Electoral votes, thereby putting the outcome in
the hands of the House of Representatives. To the surprise
of many, the House elected John Quincy Adams over rival
Andrew Jackson. It was widely believed that Henry Clay, the
Speaker of the House at the time, convinced Congress to
elect Adams, who then made Clay his Secretary of State.
Tarrif of 1828The Tariff of May 19, 1828, was a protective tariff passed by the U.S. Congress. It was the highest tariff in U.S. peacetime history up to that point, enacting a 62% tax on 92% of all imported goods. The goal of the tariff was to protect northern U.S. industries by placing a tax on low-priced imported goods, which had been driving northern industries out of business. Nevertheless, the South strongly resisted the Tariff of 1828 for several reasons.
Whig Party
One of the political parties that emerged from the demise
of the Democratic-Republican Party. Members of the
Whig Party believed in a strong federal government, tariff
protection, a strong national bank, and federally
sponsored communication projects. All of this together
was called the "National System," a focus on the
strengthening of the country as a whole through the
federal government, rather than through the state
governments, as was preferred by the newly formed
Democratic Party. Henry Clay and Daniel Webster were
important early members of the Whig Party.
Presidency
Clay ran for President, but was beaten. Again in 1832, just as the new party was formed, he ran a second time. Although he was beaten for the Presidency by Andrew Jackson, he was the life and soul of his party. It was his eloquence, the music of his words, that made men Whigs.
On one occasion, Clay spoke on the question of the Abolition of Slavery. Some one said that this might hurt his chances of being President. Clay replied: "I had rather be right than be President.”
Finally, in 1844, he was again the Whig candidate, but he was defeated for the third time. When the Whig party had a good chance of electing a President, they nominated somebody else. When they had a poor chance they nominated Henry Clay!
In 1850, with the question raised of whether California should become part of the U.S. as either a slave state or a free state, Clay stepped to the negotiating table once more. The compromise, Drafted by Whig Senator Henry Clay of Kentucky and brokered by Clay and Democrat Stephen Douglas, avoided secession or civil war and reduced sectional conflict for four years. In addition, the bill covered the settlement of the Texas boundary line, the fugitive slave law and the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia.
Influence in Abraham
Lincoln
Over the course of his long
career, Clay's skills
became renowned in
Washington, D.C., earning
him the nicknames The
Great Compromiser and
The Great Pacificator. His
influence was so strong
that he came to be
admired by a young
Abraham Lincoln, who
referred to Clay as "my
beau ideal of a statesman."
DeathClay died in 1852. Despite his brilliant service to the country and three separate campaigns, he never attained his greatest ambition–-the presidency. A man of immense political abilities and extraordinary charm, Clay won widespread admiration, even among his adversaries. John C. Calhoun, whom he had bested in the Compromise of 1850, once declared, "I don't like Clay. . . . I wouldn't speak to him, but, by God! I love him.”
“Sir, I would rather be right than to be President.”
“Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.”
“The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity”