Clay, Henry (1777-1852), was a leading American statesman for nearly 50 years. Clay became known as the Great Compromiser because he repeatedly helped settle bitter disputes over slavery between the Northern and Southern states. His compromises did much to hold the nation together during the first half of the 1800’s. Clay’s charm, generosity, and eloquent speeches made him one of the most idolized figures of his time.
Clay served as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, a U.S. senator, and a U.S. secretary of state. He campaigned for president unsuccessfully five times. Through the years, Clay showed great devotion to principle. Once, after taking a controversial stand on slavery, he said, “I had rather be right than be president.”
Early career.
Clay, the son of a Baptist minister, was born on April 12, 1777, in Hanover County, Virginia. He received little formal schooling, but he had a sharp mind and liked to read. Clay studied law and, at the age of 20, set up a successful law practice in Lexington, Kentucky.
In 1803, Clay was elected to Kentucky’s state legislature. The legislature greatly admired Clay and elected him to fill an unexpired term in the U.S. Senate in 1806. At that time, state legislatures elected U.S. senators. Clay was not quite 30 years old, the minimum age required by the Constitution of the United States. But the Senate did not investigate Clay’s age. From 1810 to 1811, Clay filled another unexpired term in the U.S. Senate.
National leader.
Clay was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1811. He had become known as an outstanding leader and was chosen speaker of the House on the first day of the session. Clay was reelected to the House and to the office of speaker five more times. He became head of the “War Hawks,” a group that helped influence Congress to declare war against the United Kingdom in 1812. But Clay also helped negotiate peace with the United Kingdom and was a signer of the Treaty of Ghent. See War of 1812.
After the war, Clay proposed a national economic plan called “the American System.” The plan included a protective tariff to aid American manufacturers, a national bank, and government support of improvements in transportation. Clay became the most important leader of the National Republican Party, which endorsed his economic program.
The Missouri Compromise.
In 1820, Clay helped settle a dispute between the North and South over the expansion of slavery. He helped win congressional approval of a plan that became known as the Missouri Compromise. The compromise permitted slavery in the new state of Missouri and banned it in the new state of Maine. The compromise also prohibited slavery in most of the Louisiana Territory, a huge area west of the Mississippi River. See Missouri Compromise.
Clay also played a key role in settling a dispute over the federal tariff. The dispute arose in 1832, when South Carolina nullified (declared unconstitutional) two U.S. tariff laws. South Carolina threatened to secede (withdraw) from the United States if the federal government tried to enforce the tariff in the state. But in 1833, Clay persuaded Congress to pass a compromise bill that gradually lowered the tariff. His measure helped preserve the supremacy of the federal government over the states.
Candidate for president.
Clay ran for the presidency five times, but never won. In the presidential election of 1824, Clay’s first attempt, no candidate received a majority of the votes in the Electoral College. As a result, the U.S. House of Representatives had to choose the president from among the three candidates who received the most electoral votes. Clay had come in fourth in the voting, behind Andrew Jackson, John Quincy Adams, and William H. Crawford. He gave his support to Adams, who was then elected president. Clay served as Adams’s secretary of state from 1825 to 1829.
In 1832, Clay ran as the candidate of the National Republican Party. He opposed President Andrew Jackson, the Democratic-Republican candidate. Jackson won easily, partly because Clay supported efforts to renew the charter of the unpopular Bank of the United States. Clay and other National Republicans helped form the Whig Party in 1834. Clay ran for president again in 1840 as a Whig, but he dropped out of the race when the Whig Party made William Henry Harrison its nominee.
Clay became the Whig Party’s presidential candidate in 1844. He opposed James K. Polk of the Democratic Party. Annexation of the then-independent Republic of Texas became a major campaign issue. Clay opposed annexation and warned that it would provoke war with Mexico and reawaken the controversy over slavery in the United States. Polk favored annexation and narrowly won the election. Clay’s warnings came true. A border dispute led to the Mexican War (1846-1848), and the North and South later clashed over the question of extending slavery into the territory gained from the war. Clay sought the presidency again in 1848. He ended his campaign when the Whigs nominated Zachary Taylor, a general who had become a hero in the Mexican War.
The Compromise of 1850.
Clay retired to Ashland, his plantation in Lexington, in 1848. In 1849, the Kentucky legislature again elected him to the U.S. Senate. Clay helped settle another dispute between Northern free states and Southern slave states, sponsoring a plan known as the Compromise of 1850. Parts of this plan allowed slavery in the New Mexico and Utah territories and prohibited it in California. The Compromise of 1850 helped delay the American Civil War for 11 years. See Compromise of 1850.
Personal life.
In 1799, Clay married Lucretia Hart, the daughter of a wealthy Lexington land speculator and merchant. The Clays suffered several tragedies in their home life. Their oldest son, Theodore, was confined to a mental institution. Their six daughters died young, and their son Henry was killed during the Mexican War.
Clay died in Washington, D.C., on June 29, 1852, and was buried in Lexington. A marker by his grave has a quotation from one of his speeches: “I know no North—no South—no East—no West.” In 1929, Kentucky placed a statue of Clay in Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
