Henry Clay Biography

Married Life

Personality

• In 1799, Clay married Lucretia Hart, and with her family's wealth and his own industry, eventually made it possible for him to purchase a large farm outside Lexington.
• Their farm was called Ashland, and they raised many different livestock. They even bought a thoroughbred horse for competition.
• They had an astounding eleven children. Five were boys and the rest were girls, however none of the girls survived past their youth.

• Clay maintained his youthful habits of gambling and drinking, despite being a pillar of the Lexington Community. This attitude landed him the nickname of "Prince Hal", a reference to William Shakespeare's portrait of the boozy Sir John Falstaff cavorting with the future Henry V.

Political Presence

• Clay had a baritone voice, the agility to speak extemporaneously, and a powerful presence.
• He had the ability to memorize long, persuasive, and hypnotic speeches/texts.
• In the late 1790s, he enthusiastically promoted the abolition of slavery in Kentucky, which was a distinctively unpopular and unsuccessful proposal.

Clay's Political Career

Political Career Cont.

• Clay’s values endeared him to Kentuckians, who elected him to seven terms.
• He was appointed to the Senate, but he didn’t enjoy the way they operated.
• He much preferred the style of The House of Representatives, and he joined them in 1811. There he became the youngest speaker of the house at that time. He transformed the position of the speaker into a political force.
• Clay helped secure a declaration of war against Great Britain in 1812, and he helped negotiate the treaty that ended the war of 1812.

Conclusion

• Clay became infuriated when president Monroe chose John Quincy Adams over him to head the state department. He also became an outspoken critic of Maj. Gen. Andrew Jackson for an unauthorized attack on Spanish forts, and the two remained enemies for the rest of their lives.
• People wrongly credited him with creating the Missouri Compromise, however he did create the second Missouri Compromise.
• He avoided confrontation over slavery which was a departure for him, and it would be years until he would regain his antislavery stance.

Another failed presidency

Early Life

Aaron Burr's Case

• In 1806, Clay defended shadowy adventurer and former vice president Aaron Burr before a grand jury that was investigating Burr’s plan to establish an empire in the southwest.
• Burr was later charged with treason, and Clay was very fortunate that this didn’t tarnish his reputation while it was just being established.

• He was unsuccessful in running for president, but he supported Adams and he won instead of Jackson. Clay became Adams’ secretary of state. In 1831, after Jackson became president, clay became Kentucky’s junior senator. The senate became Clay’s political home for the rest of his career. Clay, John C Calhoun, and Daniel Webster constituted “the Great Triumvirate”, it demonstrated the intellectual power of the senate in ways that may never be equaled. Jackson vetoed a bill that would’ve saved Clay’s bank, and this made it sure that Clay would not become president for the third time. Clay created and directed a political party called the Whig Party, and Clay returned to the Senate.

• Henry clay was born in Hanover County, Virginia in April 12, 1777 on a modest farm during the American Revolution.
• He was the fourth child among five siblings, and received a adequate education. His father died when he was 4, however his mother remarried so his youth was relatively comfortable.
• Family connections secured him a clerkship with Virginia jurist George Wythe.

George Wythe

Starting Career

• In the next election, William Henry Harrison was chosen to represent the Whigs instead of Clay, shortly after, Clay left the Senate and ran for president again this time the Whigs were on his side.
• Clay went into retirement after another defeat.
• His son, Henry Clay Jr., was killed in 1847, at the Battle of Buena Vista.
• Clay returned Briefly to the Senate where he proposed a bill, which was transformed into the Compromise of 1850 when he left for the last time. He was then killed by Tuberculosis, and he was laid in state in the Capitol rotunda.

• Wythe began to teach the law to Clay, and helped arrange his legal instruction under the former governor Robert Brooke.
• Shortly after, Clay moved with his family to Kentucky, where he established a thriving law practice in Lexington. He had a commanding courtroom presence which made him a formidable defense attorney.
• He was the first attorney to file an Amicus Curiae ("friend of the court") with the Supreme Court in 1821. He was also possibly the first attorney to save his client from the gallows with a plea of temporary insanity.

Henry Clay

The Great Compromiser/The Great Pacificator