Henry Clay

Henry Clay (born April 12, 1777, Hanover county, Virginia, U.S.—died June 29, 1852, Washington, D.C.) was an American statesman, U.S. congressman (1811–14, 1815–21, 1823–25), and U.S. senator (1806–07, 1810–11, 1831–42, 1849–52) who was noted for his American System (which integrated a national bank, the tariff, and internal improvements to promote economic stability and prosperity) and was a major promoter of the Missouri Compromise (1820) and the Compromise of 1850, both efforts to shield the American union from sectional discord over slavery. Clay was an unsuccessful candidate for president in three general elections, running first in 1824, then as a National Republican (1832), and finally as a Whig (1844).

Early years

Clay was born on a modest farm in Virginia during the American Revolution. He was the fourth of five surviving siblings. His father, a tobacco farmer and Baptist minister, died when Clay was four years old, but his mother remarried, and Clay’s youth was relatively comfortable. Campaign biographies later portrayed him as rising from poverty, but that depiction ignored an adequate education and family connections that landed him a clerkship under the celebrated Virginia jurist George Wythe, the judge of the state chancery court in Richmond. Wythe introduced Clay to the law and arranged for his legal instruction under state attorney general and former governor Robert Brooke. Clay proved a quick study and was admitted to the bar in 1797. The glut of lawyers in Richmond persuaded him to follow his family to Kentucky, where they had moved in 1791. Clay settled in Lexington in 1797 and soon had a thriving law practice.

In addition to handling lucrative cases dealing with disputed land titles, Clay developed a commanding courtroom presence that made him a formidable defense attorney. In 1821 he was the first attorney to file an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief with the U.S. Supreme Court. He was also possibly the first attorney to use a successful plea of temporary insanity to save from the gallows a client accused of murder. Those strategies were among the innovations that marked him as a legal pioneer.

As a new resident of Lexington, Clay joined leading citizens to promote civic improvements and support Transylvania University, a prestigious institution where he taught law. He soon became a pillar of the Lexington community, but he also maintained his youthful habits of drinking and gambling that had earned him the nickname “Prince Hal,” a reference to William Shakespeare’s portrait of the future Henry V cavorting with the boozy Sir John Falstaff.

In 1799 Clay married Lucretia Hart, whose family’s wealth, along with Clay’s own industry, eventually made it possible for him to purchase a large farm outside Lexington. He named the farm Ashland after its many blue ash trees (Fraxinus quadrangulata). There he cultivated a variety of grains and bred sheep, blooded (entirely or largely purebred) cattle, and extraordinary race horses. He was a member of one of the first syndicates in the United States to purchase a Thoroughbred stallion for competition and stud service.

Because Clay seemed eager for social advancement and Hart was apparently a plain woman, their marriage has been described as a cold arrangement to save her from spinsterhood while providing him social status and economic security. Traces of Prince Hal’s exuberance remained part of Clay’s personality into his old age, but time and Lucretia Clay’s influence gradually steadied and tempered him. If others thought their marriage devoid of passion, they could have disagreed. They had 11 children. Five were boys, but Henry Clay especially doted on his daughters. To his and Lucretia Clay’s heartbreak, two of the girls did not survive infancy, another died as a child, and the three others passed away in relative youth. Those losses made the parents closer in grief.

The law was a natural path to politics. Clay had a powerful presence, a rich baritone voice, and the agility to speak extemporaneously. He could also memorize long texts for speeches that were persuasive as well as hypnotic. His talent saved him from occasional missteps that could have stalled a lesser man’s career. He enthusiastically promoted the abolition of slavery in Kentucky in the late 1790s, a distinctly unpopular and unsuccessful proposal. Clay defended former vice president and shadowy adventurer Aaron Burr in 1806 before a grand jury that was investigating Burr’s plan to establish an empire in the Southwest. When Burr was later charged with treason, Clay was fortunate that his ties to Burr did not tarnish his national reputation just as it was being established. Also, at some risk, Clay passionately opposed Federalist efforts designed to curb immigration and silence Republican dissent with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.

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