Henry Clay

Henry Clay

“The greatest Senator in the country’s history” was the title given to Henry Clay by John F. Kennedy and the members of a Senate committee. Though he was not technically at the required minimum age of thirty, Henry Clay was sworn into Senate in 1806. A year later he became the speaker of the House of Representatives, forever changing the position’s role. Clay, along with Daniel Webster, formed the Whig party, setting the precedent for what is now known as the Republican Party. Though he ran and lost for president three times, he is famously quoted as saying “I would rather be right than president.” Though Clay never got the glory of being president, he has done a great deal to shape America nonetheless. Clay was a big supporter of the war of 1812 and was a War Hawk, but was also member delegating the Treaty of Ghent. As the president of the American Colonization Society Clay wanted to gradually emancipate the slaves. However, clay owned many slaves himself, though he emancipated many before his death. Henry Clay had a very good standing with Latin America and fought to defend the rights to their land for the “Five Civilized Tribes of Indians”, ideas seen as progressive at the time. These opposing ideas though led many to believe Clay straddled the line for political gain. As the father of the American System, Clay mapped out a government sponsored program whose goals’ were to bring together and balance the commerce, agriculture and industry of the nation. Seen as Andrew Jackson’s rival however, caused many to view the system as Anti-Jackson opposition. The Great Pacificator and the Great Compromiser were both nicknames given to Clay because of his contributions to the three big compromises. Henry Clay spent almost fifty years serving and shaping the nation as a whole.

Born on April 12, 1777 in Virginia, Henry Clay was exposed to law at a young age. He got a job working as a secretary for the chancellor of the Virginia Court. The chancellor took Clay under his wing and aided him in furthering his law career. Clay got admitted to the bar in 1797. He then moved to Kentucky to further his legal career. A few years later clay went on to marry Lucretia Hart. They had eleven children, seven of which passes before Clay. His budding legal career took off and Clay soon owned his own plantation, which he dubbed “Ashland”. Clay had played a big part in advocating for the War of 1812, labeled one of the War Hawks. Though not technically old enough to be elected, Clay became a state legislator in 1803 as a representative of Kentucky. Only three years later Clay was elected to have a seat in the Senate, still not technically old enough because he was not thirty. Before could turn thirty Clay’s term as a Senator had ended. Henry Clay became the speaker of the House of Representatives in 1809. This position was forever changed when Clay turned it from a position that upheld the rules and mediated to a position of great political power nearing the President’s. Clay would go on to spend a lot of time serving between the House and Senate, three terms in the prior and four in the former. Though he put lots of political pressure for the War of 1812, Henry Clay was one of five delegates that helped negotiate the peace treaty with Britain, known as the Treaty of Ghent. Clay tackled many controversial issues at the time, like independence for Latin America, slavery, western expansion, a national bank and most significantly trying to prevent the breakup of America. Throughout this time Clay formed the Missouri Compromise, the Compromise Tariff of 1833 and the Compromise of 1850. This is where he earned his nicknames as the Great Compromiser and the Great Pacificator. Clay decided that he wanted the presidency, but was thwarted by both his support for John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson’s lose, and later win. This led to the growing rivalry with Jackson, who blocked many of Clay’s policies in retaliation for his siding with Adams. Jackson eventually became President and Clay retired and returned to Kentucky. It however did not take long for Clay to return in an attempt to unseat Jackson. He however failed in his efforts, though he remained in the Senate and later formed the Whig party. He tried to run again years later against James K. Polk, losing again because of support for an unpopular issue. Clay still played a part in politics till his dying day. Henry Clay passed on June 29, 1852 from tuberculosis.

Named by Abraham Lincoln as “[his] beau ideal of a statesman”, Henry Clay formed and shaped so much of the Nation in his almost fifty years in both the House and Senate. After only being on the Senate for a short time, in 1807 Henry Clay became speaker of the House of Representatives. This was a position he held longer than anyone else in the nineteenth century, and one he forever shaped. A position that before Clay did not play that big of a partisan role or hold much power was revamped after Clay took on the role. Henry Clay did not sit back and just be a mediator, he took his new found position to a level of power. He used his position to further his own political agenda and pass things that he supported.

Henry Clay played a big part in putting a lot of political pressure on declaring the War of 1812. A ‘War Hawk’, Clay believed that the War of 1812 was necessary to protect and preserve the American market overseas and would be beneficial to the United States. The war helped the United States settle residual problems left from the Revolutionary War and no territory was lost on either side. Clay’s push for the War of 1812 brought on the Era of Good Feelings and a higher sense of nationalism. However, though Clay used his position to push for war, he was one of the members at the Ghent Peace Conference, negotiating the terms to end the war. Clay worked hard after this to try to mend fences between the United States and Great Britain and reconcile. As speaker of the House Clay also used his position to pass many laws that related to his idea of an ‘American System’, many of which Andrew Jackson took and applied to his own political view. Henry Clay also played a big role in the decision for who became president. When the election had to go the