View source for Henry Clay

{{PersonInfoBox
|imagename=LifeAndSpeechesOfHenryClay1843Clay.jpg
|name=Henry Clay
|1stoffice=United States Senator from Kentucky
|1stofficedates=March 5, 1849 &ndash; June 29, 1852<br />November 10, 1831 &ndash; March 4, 1811<br />January 4, 1810 &ndash; March 31, 1842<br />March 4, 1825 &ndash; March 4, 1829
|2ndoffice=Ninth United States Secretary of State
|2ndofficedates=March 4, 1825 &ndash; March 4, 1829
|2ndofficepreceded=John Quincy Adams
|2ndofficesucceeded=Martin Van Buren
|borndate=April 12, 1777
|bornplace=Hanover County, Virginia
|dieddate=June 29, 1852 (aged 75)
|diedplace=Washington, D.C.
|education=Legal amanuensis for [[George Wythe]]
|almamater=
|profession=Statesman<br />Lawyer
|spouse=Lucretia Hart Clay
|knownfor=The Missouri Compromise<br />The Compromise of 1850
|signature=
}}Henry Clay was born in Hannover County, Virginia in 1777.<ref>''Encyclopædia Britannica Online'', s. v. "[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/120696/Henry-Clay Henry Clay]," accessed April 07, 2014.</ref> He received little formal education as a youth. When he was sixteen, Clay "began a four-year stint as private secretary to the most learned jurist in the state"<ref>Robert V. Remini, "Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union", ''W.W. Nation'' (1991), pp. 9-10.</ref> of Virginia&ndash; George Wythe. Clay gained admission to both the Virginia and Kentucky bars in 1797 at the age of twenty-two,<ref>Ibid.</ref> and became a well-respected real estate and business lawyer in Frankfort, Kentucky.<ref>U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian website, s.v. "[http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/clay-henry Biographies of the Secretaries of State: Henry Clay]," accessed April 7, 2014.</ref><br />
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Clay’s political career began only five years after he gained admission to the bar.<ref>''Encyclopædia Britannica Online'', s. v. "Henry Clay."</ref> He was elected to the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1803 and served until 1806, when he was elected to fill the unexpired term of a United States senator who had resigned.<ref>United States Senate website, s.v. "[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/artifact/Painting_32_00007.htm Henry Clay]," accessed April 7, 2014.</ref> Clay took the position despite the fact that he was four months younger than the constitutionally required age of thirty.<ref>Ibid.</ref> He served as senator from Kentucky until the term expired in 1807, and then returned to the State House of Representatives where he served as Speaker of the House from 1807 to 1809. He returned to the Senate in 1810-111.<ref>U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian website, s.v. "Biographies of the Secretaries of State: Henry Clay."</ref><br />
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Clay served as a U.S. Representative from 1811 to 1825. He was elected to serve as Speaker of the House on his first day in office and held the Speaker position for a majority of the years that he spent in the House of Representatives.<ref>United States Senate website, s.v. "Henry Clay."</ref> In the House, Clay became a leader of an anti-British group of congressman known as the War Hawks.<ref>U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian website, s.v. "Biographies of the Secretaries of State: Henry Clay."</ref> Clay’s role as a leader of the War Hawks ultimately contributed to the commencement of the War of 1812.<ref>United States Senate website, s.v. "Henry Clay."</ref> Clay served on the Peace Commission that negotiated the Treaty of Ghent with Great Britain in 1814.<ref>''Encyclopædia Britannica Online'', s. v. "Henry Clay."</ref><br />
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In 1825, after a failed presidential campaign, Clay was appointed Secretary of State under John Quincy Adams.<ref>United States Senate website, s.v. "Henry Clay."</ref> He served in that position for four years before being elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served from 1831 to 1842, and again from 1849 to 1852.<ref>Ibid.</ref> Clay earned the moniker “The Great Compromiser” during this period due to his role in crafting three major legislative compromises.<ref>Ibid.</ref><br />
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The Missouri Compromise came about as a result of the tension between whether or not Missouri would be admitted to the union as a slave state or a free state.<ref>Ibid.</ref><br /> The tension almost brought about a civil war, but Clay worked to broker a compromise where Missouri would be admitted as a slave state, and Maine as a free state.<ref>Ibid.</ref><br />
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In 1833 South Carolina passed an ordinance that nullified a federally instituted protective tariff.<ref>Ibid.</ref> President Jackson threatened to use military troops against South Carolina if they did not enforce the tariff.<ref>Ibid.</ref> Once again the country was on the brink of civil war, but Clay stepped in and facilitated a compromise where South Carolina would collect the tariff in exchange for the tariffs automatic repeal in seven years.<ref>Ibid.</ref><br />
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The Compromise of 1850, authored by Clay, was designed to settle how slavery would be dealt with in the territory ceded to the United States after the conclusion of the Mexican-American War.<ref>Ibid.</ref> This was Clay’s third legislative act that likely averted a civil war.<ref>Ibid.</ref><br />
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Clay died in 1852 at age seventy-five.<ref>Ibid.</ref> His dedication to the maintenance of the union was summed up later by Senator Henry S. Foote of Mississippi who suggested that, "Had there been one such man in the Congress in the United States as Henry Clay in 1860-’61 there would, I feel sure, have been no civil war."<ref>Robert Vincent Remini, ''Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union'' (New York: W.W. Norton, 1991), 761-762.</ref> Clay was admired by those who agreed with him, and respected by his opponents. John C. Calhoun, whom Clay 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."<ref>Ibid., 578.</ref>

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[[Category:Wythe's Students]]