HENRY CLAY:
KENTUCKY'S GREATEST
STATESMAN
Sponsor: Kentucky Humanities Council and
National Endowment for the Humanities
CLE Credit: 1.0
Thursday, June 18, 2015
2:35 p.m. - 3:35 p.m.
Thoroughbred 1-3
Lexington Convention Center
Lexington, Kentucky
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The materials included in this Kentucky Bar Association Continuing Legal
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disclaim liability therefore. Attorneys using these materials, or information otherwise
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research original and current sources of authority.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Presenter .................................................................................................................. i
Biographical Sketch......................................................................................................... 1
The Attorney ................................................................................................................... 3
The Statesman .............................................................................................................. 11
Henry Clay's Ten Most Significant Accomplishments .................................................... 13
THE PRESENTER
George J. McGee
Georgetown College
108 Forest Path
Georgetown, Kentucky 40324-9078
(859) 372-6670
George_mcgee@georgetowncollege.edu
GEORGE J. MCGEE is a professor of theatre at Georgetown College. He received his
B.F.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University and his M.F.A. from Florida Atlantic University.
He has worked in theatre, film, radio and television, including the Kennedy Center, The
Burt Reynolds Theater, the Palm Beach Children's Theatre, network television, and will
appear in the upcoming KET documentary on the Kentucky Humanities Council's
"Chatauqua" program. He also worked on the KET "Drama Tool Kit" and appeared in
the KET video as Kentucky painter Paul Sawyier. He recently portrayed Henry Clay for
the Witnessing History documentary, Henry Clay and the Struggle for the Union.
Professor McGee's short film, doc-doc, has been shown in film festivals in Ireland,
England and Wales. His play, A Fence for Martin Maher, received the Kentucky
Historical Society Commendation Award for Public Education, and was performed in
Kentucky, and in Kilkenny, Ireland, as part of the 2010 National Heritage Week.
i
ii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Dr. Thomas D. Clark
Courtesy of Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, Lexington, Kentucky
Reprinted with permission from http://henryclay.org/?page_id=367
On June 29, 1852, Henry Clay asked his son Thomas to come and sit by his bedside.
Just before the hour of noon, "The Great Compromiser" drew his last breath.
At that point his life became a completed major chapter in the political history of the
United States. Henry Clay had lived through and served in some political position for a
half a century. No single statement would adequately cover his active public life. Clay
claimed to have been cradled in the American Revolution, a claim which had some
substantial fact behind it. He was born the seventh son of nine children to Reverend
John and Elizabeth Hudson Clay on April 12, 1777. As a three-year-old he had seen the
British troops under the notorious raider Banastre Tarleton ransack his family home.
As a youth Clay had grown up in a rural slaveholding environment in Hanover County,
Virginia, a county which had spawned Patrick Henry and other Virginia political leaders.
In his political life Clay was to make some stout claim to having been a mill boy of the
Slashes. More importantly his widowed mother had married Captain Henry Watkins who
was able to get the adolescent Clay into Peter Tinsley's chancery office as a clerk. Clay
entered this public service in a lowly position with only a limited amount of formal
education. In Tinsley's office, and then as an amanuensis in Chancellor George Wythe's
office the young Clay developed a clear and precise angular style handwriting which
remained clear until almost the moment of his death. During more than half a century
Henry Clay was to produce literally thousands of handwritten letters, legal briefs, and
public documents.
Little could that youth of twenty years of age, and a newly licensed attorney to practice
his profession in Virginia, have imagined on that November morning, 1797, when he set
forth to find clients and fortune in Kentucky, that the expanding West would become so
vital a part of his life. In Lexington, Clay presented his Virginia license to the court and
was given one to practice in Kentucky. Almost immediately the young Virginian entered
into the public and social life of rapidly expanding central Kentucky. Within a decade he
established a reputation as a highly successful trial lawyer.
He made a successful marriage with Lucretia Hart, the daughter of one of Kentucky's
major pioneering land families. Almost by force of environmental and family
circumstances, Henry Clay was to become a major land owner, livestock breeder, and
farmer. For half a century Ashland was to become not only a family home to the Clays,
but also a focal agricultural center in Kentucky, and a national one in politics.
Henry Clay began his political career in 1803 when he was elected to the Kentucky
General Assembly. In that body his Jeffersonian views were pitted against the
conservative federalist one of Humphrey Marshall, a fact which resulted in a somewhat
comic opera duel. In 1806 Clay was employed to defend Aaron Burr, a ticklish task
which he abandoned when he was appointed to the United States Senate that year at
the very young age of twenty-nine years. On January 11, 1808, he was chosen Speaker
1
of the House of Representatives, and in January 1810 he was returned to the U.S.
Senate. However, in August of that year he was elected once again to the House of
Representatives and served as speaker in the Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth,
and Sixteenth Congresses. Clay's was to be a major voice in the troubled years in
American-British relations from 1808-1814. He served as commissioner to the joint
American-British peace negotiations in Ghent, Belgium in 1814.
Back home after 1815, Henry Clay became involved in nearly every national issue. He
opposed the Adams-D'Onis Treaty, and supported the independence of the Latin
American republics. The issues, however, which thrust him into the political limelight
were the Missouri Compromise, the banking issues, opposition to Andrew Jackson, and
promotion of his American System. No doubt the most important of these was the
negotiation of the Missouri Compromise which was fundamental in maintaining American
unity, providing some kind of workable sectional policy regarding slavery expansion, and
some kind of western policy. At heart Henry Clay favored the gradual abolition of
slavery as demonstrated in his strong support of the American Colonization Society
attempt.
There burned deeply in the Clay psyche a yearning to be President of the United States.
He made his first gamble for this office in 1824 with only a remote chance of winning. In
1832 he once again attempted to be elected president. He suffered his most
disappointing loss for the office in 1844.
At the moment Henry Clay lay dying in Washington, he must have looked back upon his
career as lawyer, state representative, United States Senator, Congressman, Speaker of
the House, a peace commissioner, Secretary of State, on the Missouri Compromise, the
compromise tariff bill revision in 1833, his American System, the Texas question, and
the Compromise of 1850, his greatest victory.
Through the bitter raw political years in American history, Henry Clay prevailed. Even in
the face of great family tragedy, he prevailed. Contemporaries branded him with
numerous political epithets, but these he survived. Few American politicians could claim
so many victories, or engage in so many gambles, and still claim an exalted place in
political history. Perhaps Henry Clay's greatest honor was the post mortem one he
received when a great majority of American historians honored him as having been one
of the greatest United States Senators. The name of Henry Clay was stamped deeply
on the American political scene during his lifetime. But perhaps his true greatness has
emerged since in the overflowing stream of impressive monographs and biographies of
his life and achievements. In his image is reflected that of a young republic undergoing
the trials and tribulations of becoming a mature, powerful nation.
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THE ATTORNEY
Courtesy of Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, Lexington, Kentucky
Reprinted with permission from http://henryclay.org/?page_id=372
On October 4, 1996, the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor, associate justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States, received the Henry Clay Medallion from the Henry
Clay Memorial Foundation in Lexington. Justice O'Connor now serves as a National
Advisor to the Henry Clay Center for Statesmanship. Previous medallion recipients
include former Speaker of the House Thomas S. Foley and historian Thomas D. Clark.
Justice O'Connor offered the following remarks at a dinner in her honor at the
Governor's Mansion in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Speech by U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor
I am so happy to be here to talk with you about Henry Clay, a man who
has had an incredible impact upon the history of our nation. In his fifty
years of public service, Clay served as a congressman, a diplomat, and a
senator – and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Clay himself is said to
have remarked, "Sir, I would rather be right than be President." As I look
back over his long and distinguished career, I am struck by the
observation that Clay did just about everything there is to do in
Washington except be president.
When I think of Henry Clay, I am reminded of occasional visits to a lake in
my youth. We have probably all tried our luck "skipping" flat stones across
the surface of a pond or lake. With luck, a stone will skip along the water
five or six times, creating rings of concentric circles that ripple out across
the water long after the stone itself sinks below the surface. But soon the
water surface returns to its original state – no better and no worse for the
assault by the stone. Indeed, there is a poem that is relevant.
Sometime, when you're feeling important,
Sometime, when your ego's in bloom,
Sometime, when you take it for granted,
You're the best qualified in the room;
Sometime when you feel that you're going,
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow this simple instruction,
And see how it humbles your soul.
Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to the wrist.
Pull it out, and the hole that's remaining,
Is a measure of how you'll be missed.
You may splash all you please when you enter,
You can stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you'll find in a minute,
That it looks quite the same as before.
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The moral in this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself, but remember,
There is no indispensable man.
Henry Clay is a person who defies the message of the poem. He was
certainly an indispensable man. His career skipped across the entire
surface of American political waters, and we still feel the ripples of his
actions today.
Following two brief appointed terms in the U.S. Senate, Clay's career in
national politics effectively touched down first in the House of
Representatives, where he was elected Speaker in 1811 by a two-to-one
margin at his first session. Before Clay's tenure, the Speaker's duties
were largely ministerial and had little influence over the course of House
politics. Clay, however, used his position as Speaker to appoint
committee chairs who saw eye-to-eye with him and who would implement
his political agenda. Thus, Clay was largely responsible for increasing the
responsibilities – and the accompanying – power of the position of
Speaker of the House.
Nor did the Kentuckian let this influence go to waste. As one of the socalled War Hawks, Clay pressured President James Madison to take a
stand against Britain, whose forces had conscripted American seamen
and had armed the Indian tribes along the American frontier. Clay's
pressure on the President led in large measure to the War of 1812. That
conflict, in turn, resoundingly established America's independence from
Britain. It also gave Andrew Jackson the chance to make a name for
himself. (Jackson, of course, later defeated Clay in Clay's second bid for
the presidency.) Not only was Clay instrumental in starting the war, he
also played a hand in ending it, serving as one of the five delegates
appointed by Madison to negotiate the peace treaty with Britain at Ghent,
Belgium.
As Speaker of the House, Clay also used his influence to push through
Congress the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which postponed for many
years the confrontation on the issue of slavery in the territories.
In 1825, Clay moved from the legislative to the executive branch of the
government to serve as secretary of state under President John Quincy
Adams. As secretary, Clay was responsible for drafting the instructions
for the American delegates dispatched to Panama for the Pan-American
Conference in 1826. These instructions advocated "equality of
commercial privileges" between the countries of the Western
Hemisphere, disparaged the formation of Latin American monarchies,
and encouraged the construction of a canal across the Panama isthmus.
Unfortunately, the Pan-American Conference adjourned before the
American delegates arrived! Nevertheless, Clay later considered these
instructions to be one of his greatest accomplishments while in the
president's cabinet.
4
In 1831, Clay moved back to the Congress as a senator. It is here that the
repercussions of Clay's actions are most evident, as he more than once
helped to avert confrontations that might have precipitated the Civil War
at a time when the Union was not strong enough to withstand the
secession of the Southern states.
The first confrontation arose in 1833, in response to the Tariff Acts of
1828 and 1832. The tariffs protected the manufacturing industries of the
northern and western states by assessing taxes on imported products;
the tariff-inflated prices of the imported goods made it easier for the
American manufacturers to compete in the marketplace, since their
products were inexpensive when compared to the imported goods.
However, the tariffs sparked the countries that exported goods to the
United States to impose tariffs of their own on American exports. Thus,
the tariffs that aided the infant manufacturing industries, at the same time
harmed the established exporters of tobacco and cotton in the South.
Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina argued that the tariffs were
unconstitutional and that individual states had the power to "nullify," or
ignore, unconstitutional federal laws. President Andrew Jackson
vigorously disagreed and threatened that he would not tolerate state
nullification and would suppress it, by force if necessary. Into this tense
situation stepped Henry Clay. Although he believed in the need for a
strong protective tariff, Clay introduced the Compromise Tariff of 1833,
which gradually decreased the tariff rate. His mediation mollified both
Jackson and Calhoun and averted the need for Jackson to resort to force.
Nearly twenty years later, Clay helped avert the crisis over the admission
of California into the Union. California sought admission as a free state –
or a state without slavery – which would have upset the delicate balance
of power in Congress between free states and slave states. The Southern
states vehemently opposed California's admission, while the Northern
states argued that California should have the right to enter the Union as a
free state if it so desired. Once again, Clay emerged as the agent of
compromise. He introduced and promoted an omnibus bill that covered
the admission of California, the settlement of Texas's boundary fine, the
fugitive slave law, the abolition of the slave trade in the District of
Columbia, and the recognition of the principle of popular sovereignty in
territory acquired from Mexico. Although Clay's omnibus bill ultimately
failed, Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed – and Congress enacted –
five separate bills that accomplished the same goals. Even Douglas
acknowledged that his separate bills would be "collectively Mr[.] Clay's
compromise." Thus, the Compromise of 1850 came to be.
The accomplishments I have mentioned are the ones that earned Clay
the titles for which he is most well-known – as a "War Hawk" in his youth
and as "The Great Compromiser" in his middle and later years. But a
closer look at Clay's career reveals that he played a part in influencing
another branch of the American government particularly important to me,
the Supreme Court.
5
In one respect, I should not have been surprised. Clay was, after all, a
lawyer. Before his admission to the Virginia bar, Clay studied law under
George Wythe, who had also trained John Marshall. Having the same
teacher as one of the greatest United States chief justices could not have
hurt Clay's chances at making his mark there. And Clay used his training
to his advantage. He practiced briefly with Robert Brooke, a former
Virginia governor, before heading through the Cumberland Gap to hang
out his shingle in Lexington, Kentucky.
While in Kentucky, Clay twice represented his friend Aaron Burr before a
grand jury. In 1806, Attorney General Joseph Daveiss sought a subpoena
to compel Burr to appear before a grand jury. Daveiss claimed that Burr
had attempted to instigate war against the Spanish by organizing an
attack against Mexico and the Floridas. Upon learning of Daveiss' actions,
Burr immediately called upon Clay to represent him. Although the judge
had already denied Daveiss's request for a subpoena, Clay strode into
the courtroom and persuaded the judge to impanel a grand jury and then
to dismiss the jury when Daveiss could not provide evidence to
substantiate his claims.
When Daveiss asked the judge for a second subpoena, Burr once again
turned to Clay. By this time, however, Clay had been elected by the
Kentucky legislature to serve out an unexpired term in the U.S. Senate.
Clay expressed doubts about whether representing Burr might create a
conflict of interest. Clay only agreed to represent Burr after Burr had
written a letter assuring Clay that he was innocent of the charges. This
time, the grand jury heard evidence but refused to indict Burr.
Clay did not confine his practice to the Bluegrass State. He appeared
before the Supreme Court no fewer than four times prior to becoming
Speaker of the House in 1811. His years in Washington as a
representative, as secretary of state, and finally as a senator were
marked by numerous appearances before the High Court. He often
argued with – and against – Daniel Webster, another prominent
Washington lawyer and politician. The two of them came to be known as
"the Ajax and the Achilles of the Bar."
Some of the cases Clay argued continue to be cited as precedent today.
In Osborn v. United States, 34 U.S. 573 (1824) 1, Clay argued on behalf of
the Bank of the United States, which was a nationwide bank chartered by
Congress. Clay challenged the constitutionality of an Ohio tax levied upon
the bank and sought an injunction to force the state's auditor to return the
improperly seized taxes. The Supreme Court agreed with Clay and
ordered the auditor to return the taxes. In doing so, the Court found that
the Eleventh Amendment – which bars lawsuits against the states – did
not apply to the state auditor. Osborn is still relevant today: It has been
cited twenty-six times since I took the bench in 1981, and was cited just
1
Osborn v. Bank of the United States, 22 U.S. 738 (1824).
6
last term by Justice David Souter in a dissent. (See Seminole Tribe. 2) Nor
is Osborn the only case argued by Clay to be cited in recent times. Clay
also argued on behalf of a Kentucky creditor who sought to collect a debt
from a person who declared bankruptcy under New York law. In that
case, Ogden v. Saunders, 25 U.S. 213 (1827), the Court concluded that
the New York bankruptcy law was constitutional, so that the debtor was
no longer liable to the Kentucky creditor. The case has been cited eightysix times since it was decided, three times since I came on the bench.
Other cases Clay argued are just as important for what they did not
decide. For example, in Groves v. Slaughter, 40 U.S. 449 (1841), a
Mississippi resident bought slaves from a trader but refused to pay him.
The resident claimed that Mississippi's constitution prohibited 'all slave
trading after May 1, 1833,' and that he had purchased the slaves after
that date. The Mississippi constitution, he concluded, rendered the
trader's claim unenforceable. Clay disagreed with the resident, claiming
that the state constitutional provision at issue lacked the force of law until
the Mississippi legislature enacted implementing legislation. The
Supreme Court agreed with Clay.
What I find most interesting about this case is what the Court did not
decide. The Court did not hold that slaves were property that could be
transported and traded in any state or territory without regard to an
individual state's constitutional provisions. In fact, this is what the Court
would decide sixteen years later in the infamous Dred Scott 3 decision, a
decision that is thought to have hastened the Civil War. By not reaching
this issue in Groves, the Court provided the nation with a reprieve from
the consequences of its unhappy decision in Dred Scott.
Clay's advocacy before the Court also launched a new chapter in the
Court's decision-making process in Green v. Biddle, 21 U.S. 1 (1823).
When Green, a Kentucky landowner, sued to remove Biddle, a
trespasser, from his land, Biddle invoked two Kentucky laws that would
have required Green to pay Biddle for certain improvements he had made
to the land. Green responded that the state laws were unconstitutional.
Green noted that under an interstate compact between Kentucky and
Virginia, the Bluegrass State had promised to follow Virginia land law.
Virginia land law did not give trespassers like Biddle the right to
compensation for improvements; Green claimed that the Kentucky laws
invoked by Biddle conflicted with Virginia law and were therefore
unconstitutional. Biddle's attorneys did not appear to argue his case, and
the Supreme Court found in Green's favor.
Henry Clay, as amicus curiae – which is Latin for "friend of the Court" –
asked the Supreme Court to rehear the case so that Biddle could have
his day in court. The Supreme Court granted Clay's request. On Biddle's
behalf, Clay argued that Virginia could not dictate which laws Kentucky
2
Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida, 517 U.S. 44 (1996).
3
Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857).
7
enacted and that the Kentucky laws were therefore constitutional. In a
split decision the Court reaffirmed its original decision and again struck
down the Kentucky laws.
Even though he did not prevail in Green v. Biddle, Clay was the very first
person to appear as amicus curiae before the Supreme Court. Such
"friends of the Court" appear in most of the cases our Court hears today,
although they no longer ask the Court to rehear cases. The "friends" who
appear today usually file briefs calling our attention to points of law, policy
considerations, or other points of view that the parties themselves have
not discussed. These amicus briefs invaluably aid our decision-making
process and often influence either the result or the reasoning of our
opinions. As a result of his appearance in Green, Clay was largely
responsible for inaugurating an institution that has since shaped much of
this Court's jurisprudence.
Yet, Henry Clay's contributions to the Supreme Court ripple far beyond
his skills as an advocate. As a senator, Clay had a great influence in
selecting the Court's personnel. In 1836, Clay fought strenuously to have
the Senate reject President Jackson's nomination of Roger Taney for the
position of chief justice. Taney and Clay had clashed a few years earlier.
In 1833, Jackson had ordered his Secretary of the Treasury, Wilham
Duane, to withdraw the government deposits from the Bank of the United
States in the hope that the bank would collapse without the government
monies. When Duane refused to follow Jackson's orders, the president
fired him and appointed Taney to the position. Taney carried out
Jackson's wishes without question. Clay, a strong advocate of the bank,
was so incensed by Jackson's – and Taney's actions – that he persuaded
the Senate to enter into its official journal a censure of Jackson. Clay's ire
over this incident carried over into Taney's confirmation hearings but did
not prevent the nominee's confirmation. Two decades later Taney would
pen the Dred Scott decision. Despite his failure to keep Taney from the
Court, Clay's influence over the confirmation process was very strong.
After Clay lost the Whig Party presidential nomination to William Henry
Harrison in 1840, he was relieved to see Harrison prevail over Martin Van
Buren and the Whigs gain control of the White House. The victory was
short-lived, however, once Vice-President John Tyler ascended to the
presidency following Harrison's death. Tyler's repeated vetoes of
congressional attempts to charter a national bank effectively alienated
him from the Whigs. So disgusted was Clay by Tyler's actions that he
resigned from the Senate in 1842. Clay's absence, however, did not
prevent the Senate from blocking Tyler's efforts to fill four out of the five
Supreme Court vacancies that arose during his presidency.
Clay also came close to serving as an associate justice. On August 25,
1828, while President Adams was in the midst of a bitter presidential
campaign against Andrew Jackson, Justice Robert Trimble died. In an
effort to fill the position while he still had the authority to do so, Adams
first offered it to Charles Hammond, an Ohio lawyer. When Hammond
declined, Adams turned to Clay. Clay also declined and urged Adams to
nominate his long-time friend and fellow Kentuckian John J. Crittenden for
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the position. In the ensuing months, Crittenden became a pawn in the
political battle between Jackson and Adams; the Jacksonians in
Congress managed to table Crittenden's confirmation until the
presidential election. When Jackson won, Crittenden lost all chance of
confirmation. It is difficult to say whether Clay declined Adams's offer
because he feared his nomination might reach the same fate as
Crittenden's or whether he felt he had other ambitions to pursue. In either
case, Henry Clay never became Justice Clay.
But that is not to say that Clay's personality, or his name, did not have a
profound impact on presidents, members of this Court, or their ancestors.
Abraham Lincoln was one of Clay's greatest admirers. The young Lincoln
campaigned for Clay during Clay's second bid for the presidency in 1832.
Lincoln's respect for Clay lasted long after Clay's death in 1852. During
the summer of 1858, when Lincoln campaigned against and debated with
Stephen Douglas in a race for the Senate, Lincoln described Clay as his
"beau-ideal of a statesman." Justice John Marshall Harlan also deeply
respected Clay. Justice Harlan served on the Court nearly forty years,
from 1877 until his death in 1911. The Kentuckian is best known for his
dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson4, where he stated that "our Constitution is
color-blind." Justice Harlan's father was one of Clay's best friends, and
Justice Harlan named one of his sons after Clay. Even my own family tree
is not immune from Clay's powerful influence. My grandfather was born in
Vermont in 1844. His name? Henry Clay Day.
Given all of these accomplishments and accolades, Clay's career truly did
dance across the waters of American history, and the impacts he made in
the institutions he touched were many and profound. Their ripples are still
felt today.
During his last term as a senator, just two years before his death in 1852,
Clay said: "The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for
the generation that then existed, but for posterity-unlimited, undefined,
endless, perpetual posterity." Henry Clay did not act solely for his
generation. Without Henry Clay there might not have been any amicus
appearances in the United States, nor a Compromise Tariff, nor a
Compromise of 1850; the Civil War might have started earlier and the
outcome of that war might have been different. Henry Clay acted for
posterity's sake. And for that, I am grateful.
Reprinted from The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, Vol. 4, No. 4, Autumn,
1996
4
163 U.S. 537 (1896).
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10
THE STATESMAN
Courtesy of Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, Lexington, Kentucky
Reprinted with permission from http://henryclay.org/page_id=371
From the birth of the American Republic in 1789, deep differences between two of its
regions, North and South, coupled with westward expansion, nearly plunged the nation
into civil war on three separate occasions before guns actually opened up upon Fort
Sumter on April 12, 1861. Each time, one man – one statesman – forged a compromise.
That man – that statesman – was Henry Clay of Kentucky.
Early in his life, Henry Clay came to Kentucky and was elected to Congress. A "War
Hawk," Clay evolved into a diplomat, negotiating the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of
1812. Clay was soon thereafter elected to the United States House of Representatives.
With the petitioned statehood of Missouri in 1820, the nation faced its first crisis over
whether to admit a state from the Louisiana Purchase as a free state or slave state.
Speaker of the House Henry Clay defused the crisis, deemed by former president
Thomas Jefferson as a "firebell in the night," by crafting the Missouri Compromise.
A second time, sectional strife flared up as the post-War of 1812 Tariff brought cries of
"nullification" and even "secession" from South Carolina in the early 1830s. After months
of rising threats of civil war, Senator Henry Clay introduced the Compromise of 1833,
averting disunion and bloodshed.
Then, nearly twenty years later, the admission of California as a slave or free state was
at stake. At no time in its history had the American Republic been brought so close to
civil war, facing a situation seemingly beyond compromise. For a third time, Senator
Henry Clay skillfully fashioned a compromise – the Compromise of 1850 – staving off a
bloody civil war for more than a decade. Henry Clay was, indeed, the "Great
Compromiser," the "Great Pacificator."
Abraham Lincoln regarded Henry Clay as the greatest statesman the nation had ever
produced, calling him "my beau ideal of a statesman." Without question, Henry Clay's
ideals of statesmanship and compromise continue to be relevant and necessary in
today's increasingly turbulent and divided world.
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12
HENRY CLAY'S 10 MOST SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Courtesy of Ashland, The Henry Clay Estate, Lexington, Kentucky
Reprinted with permission from http://henryclay.org/?page_id=3
1.
Henry Clay was "The Great Compromiser." As a statesman for the Union, his
skills of negotiation and compromise proved invaluable in helping to hold the
country together for the first half of the 19th century. His compromises quelled
regionalism and balanced states' rights and national interests. As a result, the
Civil War was averted until it could not be avoided and the nation could survive it.
2.
Henry Clay actively encouraged United States participation in the War of 1812.
However, he later served as a member of the treaty delegation that negotiated
the Treaty of Ghent, playing an important role in helping to end the war and
protect American interests. As a result, the United States emerged as a nation of
importance and influence in the world.
3.
Henry Clay changed the role of Speaker of the House and made it the powerful
position it is today. Henry Clay held that office longer than anyone in the history
of the House of Representatives, other than Sam Rayburn.
4.
Henry Clay's support of the emerging South American republics played a
significant role in helping a number of them survive the process of becoming
independent nations. He became as popular a figure in parts of South America
as Simon Bolivar.
5.
Henry Clay argued many times before the U.S. Supreme Court. In so doing, he
introduced the concept of the Amicus Brief to Supreme Court jurisprudence.
Henry Clay's cases continue to be cited on a regular basis today. On a visit to
Ashland in 1996, Sandra Day O'Connor noted two cases which had been cited
twenty-eight times since her joining the bench in 1981. O'Connor also noted one
of the cases had been cited eighty-six times overall.
6.
As an attorney, Henry Clay was one of the most successful of his era. He won far
more cases than he lost, becoming prominent enough to represent the likes of
Aaron Burr and Cassius Clay.
7.
As a farmer, Henry Clay became one of the most respected breeders and
scientific farmers in the country. He introduced Hereford Cattle to the United
States and became one of the most successful providers of mules to the South.
8.
As a horseman and lover of racing, Henry Clay played a major role in Lexington,
Kentucky becoming "The Horse Capital of the World." His prominence as a
political figure combined with his love of attending races, made it socially "in
vogue" to attend. His success as a breeder drew the attention and admiration of
the best horsemen in the country at that time. The blood of his horses still runs in
the best Thoroughbreds today. He owned the first syndicated Thoroughbred
stallion in America.
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9.
Henry Clay influenced a great many future political leaders with his ideology and
style. Abraham Lincoln said of Clay that he was "my beau ideal of a statesman"
and adopted much of his political ideology himself.
10.
Henry Clay gave his country nearly half a century of service as a Representative,
Senator and Secretary of State. In so doing, Henry Clay became one of the most
important political figures of his era. In fact, Henry Clay continues to be one of
the most influential of Americans. In the 1950s, Clay was named by a panel of
historians and Senate leaders as one of the five greatest senators of all time.
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