Henry clay biography summary form

Henry Clay of Kentucky enjoyed a distinguished political career, even though he never attained his greatest desire—the presidency. He was elected to the United States Senate ineven though he had not yet reached the constitutionally required age of Following two non-consecutive terms in the Senate, Clay was elected to the House of Representatives, where he quickly rose to become Speaker.

Jackson, stung by the defeat, blocked several foreign-policy initiatives put forth by Clay, including securing a trade agreement with Great Britain over the West Indies and sending delegates to a Pan American Congress in Panama.

Henry clay biography summary form: Clay was born in Hanover County,

The backlash against his support for Adams reached its apex when Congressman John Randolph challenged Clay to a duel. Neither man was hurt. InJackson captured the presidency from Adams. With Clay's National Republican Party coming apart at the seams—it would eventually become absorbed by the Whig Party—Clay retired from politics and returned to Kentucky.

But Clay was unable to stay away from Washington. Inhe came back to Washington, D. The following year he headed the National Republicans' bid to unseat Jackson. At the center of the presidential election was Clay's support for the renewal of the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, whose creation in Clay had fought hard for. But the issues around it proved to be Clay's undoing.

Jackson vehemently opposed the bank and the renewal of its charter. He alleged it was a corrupt institution and had helped steer the nation toward higher inflation. The voters sided with him. After the election Clay remained in the Senate, taking on Jackson and becoming the head of the Whig Party. The decade following his loss to Jackson for the presidency proved to be a frustrating period for Clay.

Inhe had every reason to expect to be nominated as the Whigs' candidate for the White House. He did little to hide his frustration when the party turned to General William Henry Harrisonwho selected John Tyler as his running mate. After Harrison's death just a month into his presidency, Clay tried to dominate Tyler and his administration, but his actions proved futile.

Inhe retired from the Senate and again returned to Kentucky. Two years later, however, he was back in Washington, when the Whig Party chose him, not Tyler, as its candidate for the presidential election. But like his run a decade earlier, the election centered around one issue and this time it was the annexation of Texas. Clay opposed the move, fearing it would provoke a war with Mexico and reignite the battle between pro-slavery and anti-slavery states.

His opponent, James K. Polkon the other hand, was an ardent supporter of making Texas a state, and the voters, smitten with the idea of Manifest Destiny, sided with him and delivered the White House to Polk. Almost right up until his last days, Clay still played a part in the nation's politics. When the British finally presented their initial peace offer, Clay was outraged by its terms, especially the British proposal for an Indian barrier state on the Great Lakes.

After a series of American military successes inthe British delegation made several concessions and offered a better peace deal. Partly due to Clay's hard-line stance, the Treaty of Ghent included relatively favorable terms for the United States, essentially re-establishing the status quo ante bellum between Britain and the U. The treaty was signed on December 24,bringing a close to the War of Clay returned to the United States in September ; despite his absence, he had been elected to another term in the House of Representatives.

Upon his return to Congress, Clay won election as Speaker of the House. With the help of John C. Calhoun and William LowndesClay passed the Tariff ofwhich served the dual purpose of raising revenue and protecting American manufacturing. To stabilize the currency, Clay and Treasury Secretary Alexander Dallas arranged passage of a bill establishing the Second Bank of the United States also known as the national bank.

Like Jefferson and George WashingtonPresident Madison decided to retire after two terms, leaving open the Democratic-Republican nomination for the presidential election. At the time, the Democratic-Republicans used a congressional nominating caucus to choose their presidential nominees, giving congressmen a powerful role in the presidential selection process.

Monroe and Secretary of War William Crawford emerged as the two main candidates for the Democratic-Republican nomination. Clay had a favorable opinion of both individuals, but he supported Monroe, who won the nomination and went on to defeat Federalist candidate Rufus King in the general election. In earlya dispute erupted over the proposed statehood of Missouri after New York Congressman James Tallmadge introduced a legislative amendment that would provide for the gradual emancipation of Missouri's slaves.

Clay helped assemble a coalition that passed the Missouri Compromiseas Thomas's proposal became known. In foreign policy, Clay was a leading American supporter of the independence movements and revolutions that broke out in Latin America beginning in Despite protests from Secretary of War Calhoun, Monroe and Adams decided to support Jackson's actions in the hope that they would convince Spain to sell Florida.

Before the House chamber, he compared Jackson to military dictators of the past, telling his colleagues "that Greece had her AlexanderRome her CaesarEngland her CromwellFrance her Bonaparteand, that if we would escape the rock on which they split, we must avoid their errors. Byseveral members of the Democratic-Republican Party had begun exploring presidential bids to succeed Monroe, who planned to retire after two terms like his predecessors.

Having led the passage of the Tariff of and the General Survey ActClay campaigned on his American System of high tariffs and federal spending on infrastructure. Calhoun, appeared to be Clay's strongest henries clay biography summary form for the presidency. Bywith Crawford still in the race, Clay concluded that no candidate would win a majority of electoral votes; in that scenario, the House of Representatives would hold a contingent election to decide the election.

Under the terms of the Twelfth Amendmentthe top three electoral vote-getters would be eligible to be elected by the House. Clay was confident that he would prevail in a contingent held in the chamber he presided over, so long as he was eligible for election. For various reasons, supporters of all three candidates believed they had the best chance of winning Clay's backing, but Clay quickly settled on supporting Adams.

Jackson was outraged by the election, and he and his supporters accused Clay and Adams of having reached a " Corrupt Bargain. Clay served as secretary of state from to As secretary of state, he was the top foreign policy official in the Adams administration, but he also held several domestic duties, such as oversight of the patent office.

They developed a strong working relationship. Adams proposed an ambitious domestic program based in large part on Clay's American System, but Clay warned the president that many of his proposals held little chance of passage in the 19th Congress. Though Clay was not directly involved in these henries clay biography summary form, his failure to denounce them earned him the lifelong enmity of Jackson.

Clay was one of Adams's most important political advisers, but because of his myriad responsibilities as secretary of state, he was often unable to take part in campaigning. The election result represented not only the victory of a man Clay viewed as unqualified and unprincipled but also a rejection of Clay's domestic policies. Even with Clay out of office, President Jackson continued to see Clay as one of his major rivals, and Jackson at one point suspected Clay of being behind the Petticoat affaira controversy involving the wives of his Cabinet members.

With the defeat of Adams, Clay became the de facto leader of the National Republicans, and he began making preparations for a presidential campaign in the election. As the election approached, the debate over the re-authorization of the national bank emerged as the most important issue in the campaign. Jackson won of the electoral votes and The high rates of the Tariff of and the Tariff of angered many Southerners because they resulted in higher prices for imported goods.

Though Clay favored high tariff rates, he found Jackson's strong rhetoric against South Carolina distressing and sought to avoid a crisis that could end in civil war. Clay's compromise tariff won the backing of both manufacturers, who believed they would not receive a better deal, and Calhoun, who sought a way out of the crisis but refused to work with President Jackson's supporters on an alternative tariff bill.

Jackson simultaneously signed the tariff bill and the Force bill, and South Carolina leaders accepted the new tariff, effectively bringing the crisis to an end. Clay's role in resolving the crisis brought him renewed national stature in the wake of a crushing presidential election defeat, and some began referring to him as the "Great Compromiser.

Following the end of the Nullification Crisis in MarchJackson renewed his offensive against the national bank, despite some opposition from within his own Cabinet. The removal of deposits helped unite Jackson's opponents into one party for the first time, as National Republicans, Calhounites, former Democrats, and members of the Anti-Masonic Party coalesced into the Whig Party.

However, Whigs tended to favor a stronger legislature, a stronger federal government, a higher tariff, greater spending on infrastructure, re-authorization of the Second Bank of the United States, and publicly funded education. Conversely, Democrats tended to favor a stronger president, stronger state governments, lower tariffs, hard moneyand expansionism.

Neither party took a strong national stand on slavery. Partly due to grief over the death of his daughter, Anne, Clay chose not to run in the presidential electionand the Whigs were too disorganized to nominate a single candidate. By running multiple candidates, the Whigs hoped to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives. Clay personally preferred Webster, but he threw his backing behind Harrison who had the broadest appeal among voters.

Clay's decision not to endorse Webster opened a rift between the two Whig party leaders, and Webster would work against Clay in future presidential elections. Van Buren's presidency was affected badly by the Panic ofa major recession that badly damaged the Democratic Party. Though he was widely regarded as the most qualified Whig leader to serve as president, many Whigs questioned Clay's electability after two presidential election defeats.

He also faced opposition in the North due to his ownership of slaves and lingering association with the Freemasons, and in the South from Whigs who distrusted his moderate stance on slavery. President-elect Harrison asked Clay to serve another term as Secretary of State, but Clay chose to remain in Congress. Webster was instead chosen as Secretary of State, while John J.

Crittendena close ally of Clay, was chosen as Attorney General.

Henry clay biography summary form: Henry Clay Sr. (April

Clay and his congressional allies attempted to craft a national bank bill acceptable to Tyler, but Tyler vetoed two separate bills to re-establish the national bank, showing that he in fact had no will to reach a solution for the party's issues. Clay and other Whig leaders were now outraged not only by Tyler's rejection of the Whig party platform but also because they felt that Tyler had purposely misled them into thinking that he would sign the bills.

After the second veto, congressional Whigs voted to expel Tyler from the party, and on Clay's request, every Cabinet member except for Webster, who wanted to continue negotiating the Webster-Ashburton Treaty with Great Britain about the border to Canada, resigned from office. President Tyler's break with the Whig Party, combined with Webster's continuing affiliation with Tyler, positioned Clay as the leading contender for the Whig nomination in the presidential election.

Calhoun and pursued the annexation of the Republic of Texaswhich would add another slave state to the union. The same day that Clay published a letter opposing the annexation of Texas, [ g ] Van Buren also came out against annexation, citing similar reasons as Clay, so that slavery and especially expansionism seemed to play no role in the next election.

Polk of Tennessee, who favored annexation, but in order to calm anti-expansionists, promised to just run for a single term. Clay was surprised by Van Buren's defeat but remained confident of his chances in the election. Birney of the Liberty Party. Polk narrowly won the election, taking After the election, Clay returned to his career as an attorney.

Inthe Mexican—American War broke out after American and Mexican forces clashed at the disputed border region between Mexico and Texas. Initially, Clay did not publicly oppose the war, but privately he saw it as an immoral war that risked producing "some military chieftain who will conquer us all. Months after the speech, the Senate ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgoin which Mexico ceded hundreds of thousands of square miles of territory known as the Mexican Cession.

ByGeneral Zachary Taylorwho commanded the American forces at Buena Vista, had emerged as a contender for the Whig nomination in the presidential election. Crittenden, was Taylor's de facto campaign manager. Partially in an attempt to please the Clay wing of the party, the convention nominated Millard Fillmore as Taylor's running mate. Nonetheless, Taylor won the election, taking Increasingly worried about the sectional tensions arising over the issue of "henry clay biography summary form" in newly acquired territories, Clay accepted election to the Senate in President Taylor, who favored the immediate admission of California and New Mexico as free states without any attached conditions, opposed the plan, and Clay openly broke with the president in May Douglas took charge of pro-compromise forces.

By the end of SeptemberClay's proposal, which became known as the Compromise ofhad been enacted. Though contemporaries credited Fillmore, Douglas, and Webster for their role in passing the Compromise ofClay was widely regarded as the key figure in ending a major sectional crisis. In Decemberat the age of 74, with his health declining, Clay announced that he would resign from the Senate the following September.

He eventually died of tuberculosis aged 75 in his room at the National Hotel in Washington, D. Hymn writer Fanny Crosby penned this line of lament on Clay's death:. Sleep on, oh, statesman, sleep Within thy hallowed tomb, Where pearly streamlets glide, And summer roses bloom. Throughout most of his political life, Clay promoted his American System as both an economic program and a means for unifying the country.

Clay's American System rejected strict constructionism in favor of an activist government that would promote industry and commerce. The American System had four key tenets: high tariffs, a stable financial system, federal investment in internal improvements, and a public land sale policy designed to raise revenue and provide for carefully managed expansion into the American frontier.

Clay inherited slaves as a young child, [ 5 ] and he continued to own slaves throughout his life. In the s, he adopted anti-slavery views under the influence of his mentor, Founding Father George Wythewho emancipated his own human property. InClay helped establish the American Colonization Societya group that wanted to establish a colony for free American blacks in Africa.

The group was made up of abolitionists who wanted to end slavery and slaveholders who henry clay biography summary form to deport free blacks. At that time, they were to work for three years in order to finance their own importation. During this period, enslavers could still sell or mortgage their human property. He objected to the three years when the enslaved were in jeopardy as they were still held as property.

The date of would lead to family separations as those born before would remain enslaved and those born after were subjected to a mandatory importation. Those gathered first applauded at the mention of Clay; however, once Douglass made these points, those gathered change their response to hisses and cries of shame. Nonetheless, he consistently defended the right of abolitionists to send materials through the mail and opposed the gag rulewhich limited congressional debate on slavery.

On his acre plantation, there were slaves held over the course of his life. During a visit to Indiana in the s, Clay was confronted at a political meeting by a Quaker abolitionist, Hiram Mendenhall, who presented Clay with a petition calling on him to free his slaves. Clay dismissed Mendenhall out of hand, stating that the petition was no different from if it demanded he give up his farm.

Birneybelieved that Clay's home state of Kentucky had the laws most permissive to slaves of any slave state. Clay considered himself to be a "good" master. Biographer James C. Klotter concludes that Clay took actions, such as keeping families together, to mitigate the harshness of slavery; however, showing the opposite is his treatment of the family of Lewis Hayden.

Others state quite the contrary of his punitive and sexual practices. InClay's wife discovered that he was having relations with the "yellow girl that attended his poultry and fowls". The young woman and her children were then sent to Louisiana to be sold. When he was in Washington, she resided with Clay in his Washington home and bore him two children.

After he emancipated her, she moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Regarding keeping families together, Clay applied the opposite to the family of Lewis Hayden. Clay had an enslaved mother, Esther Harvey, and her son, sold South. They were the family of Lewis Haydena waiter at the upscale Phoenix Hotel. The Haydens became residents of AmherstburgOntario, Canada.

Also during February, Fairbank was sentenced to 15 years. However, he was imprisoned again in and served 12 years for aiding in another escape. Another example is Lewis Richardson, Clay's self-emancipated slave. He gave a speech that belies Clay's self-portrayal as a "good master". Richardson had been enslaved at Ashland for 20 years, and after a beating escaped via the Underground Railroad in January, By May of that year, Richardson was also living in Amherstburg, Ontario.

In a speech he gave at Union Chapel there, he told not only of continual sparse food and lack of warm clothing but of lashes from overseer Ambrose Brice for the offense of being an hour late returning from a visit to his wife. Clay was away on business when this occurred. InCharlotte Dupuywho was enslaved by Clay, sued for her freedom while visiting relatives in Maryland.

Dupuy's attorney gained an order from the court for her to remain in Washington until the case was settled, and she worked for wages for 18 months for Martin Van BurenClay's successor as secretary of state. After winning the case, Clay sent Dupuy to New Orleanscausing her to be away from her own family, but he later freed Dupuy and two of her children.

Aaron Dupuy, Charlotte's husband, was ordered by Clay to be whipped, at the behest of Clay's wife, Lucretia. Dupuy's infraction was a late return as Lucretia's carriage driver. The overseer attempted the whipping, but Dupuy managed to wrest the whip away and began beating the overseer. Aaron Dupuy was an exception. Clay also stipulated that several of those slaves were bequeathed to his son, John.

Clay's Whig Party collapsed four years after his death, but Clay cast a long shadow over the generation of political leaders that presided over the Civil War. Mississippi Senator Henry S. Foote stated his opinion that "had there been one such man in the Congress of the United States as Henry Clay in — there would, I feel sure, have been no civil war".

Crittenden attempted to keep the Union together with the formation of the Constitutional Union Party and the proposed Crittenden Compromise. Though Crittenden's efforts were unsuccessful, Kentucky remained in the Union during the Civil War, reflecting in part Clay's continuing influence. Lincoln wholeheartedly supported Clay's economic programs; prior to the Civil War, he also held similar stances about slavery and the Union.

Clay is generally regarded as one of the important political figures of his era. Miller and historian Ken Owen ranked Clay as one of the four most influential American politicians who never served as president, alongside Alexander HamiltonWilliam Jennings Bryanand Calhoun. Many monuments, memorials, and even high schools have been erected and named in honor of Clay.

Henry clay biography summary form: He was born the

Clay's estate of Ashland is a National Historic Landmark. Due to his involvement in the American Colonization Society, a town in the newly formed Liberia in West Africa was named Clay-Ashland after Henry Clay and to where the freed slaves from Kentucky emigrated. Clay is also one of the "famous five" senators honored with their portraits in the Senate Reception Room.

Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikisource Wikidata item. American politician — For other people named Henry Clay, see Henry Clay disambiguation. Lucretia Hart. Early life [ edit ]. Clay had condemned the initiation of the war but supported it once it got under way.

The fruits of that war brought on another sectional crisis, with threats to dissolve the Union. Clay returned to the Senate in poor health and led in working out the Compromise of This series of measures admitted California as a free state, organized the new territories without reference to slavery, assumed the public debt of Texas while restricting its area, abolished the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and enacted a fugitive slave law which denied due process and equal protection of the laws to African Americans living in the North.

Thus was the rupture of the Union delayed for a decade. Clay died in Washington on June 29, The definitive edition of Clay's writings is James B. Hopkins, ed. The best biography of Clay, comprehensive and temperate in interpretation, is Glyndon G. An excellent brief study is Clement Eaton, Henry Clay and the Art of American Politicswhich has a useful bibliographical essay.

The best 19th-century biography, and still very valuable, is Carl SchurzLife of Henry Clay 2 vols. Norton, Fiery southern lawmaker, Speaker of the House, and secretary of state Henry Clay played a pivotal role in preserving the Union during the early and middle years of the nineteenth century. Clay rose from modest origins to become a well-known politician.

During his lifetime, the self-educated leader was known as the Great Compromiser and the Great Pacifier, epithets earned for his ability to find the necessary middle ground between the federal government and the states over issues such as slavery, tariffs, and the admittance of new states to the Union. Argumentative, eloquent, and quick to propose a duel if insulted, he helped forge the missouri compromise of during a career that included five bids for the presidency.

His contributions to federal policy ranged from trade and finance to foreign affairs in the administration of President john quincy adams. He moved to Lexington, Kentucky, where he entered private practice while keeping an eye open for an entry to politics. Frontier life suited him. He especially liked gambling and drinking, pursuits that only exacerbated his hot temper.

But he flourished as an attorney. His sharp oratory brought him prominence and while not yet thirty he represented former vice president aaron burr in grand jury proceedings involving Burr's real estate dealings. InClay married the socially prominent Lucretia Hart. Clay and his wife eventually had eleven children, and great tragedy. All six daughters and one son died at a young age.

Clay rose quickly through Kentucky politics. He used his opposition to the repressive alien and sedition acts of as a springboard into the state legislature inwhere he ultimately served seven terms. Immensely popular with his fellow lawmakers, Clay was their choice to fill an expired term in the U. Senate in —despite his not having reached the constitutionally mandated minimum age of thirty.

Inhe assumed a vacant seat in the Senate for a one-year period. Two ironies emerged from Clay's early political career. Both would bear on his future course as a national leader. First, he opposed slavery and favored emancipation, an unusual and unpopular position in nineteenth-century southern politics. Clay saw slavery as evil. He was not, however, ultimately interested in African Americans sharing in U.

Second, Clay's sensitivity to insult and his hair-trigger temper landed him in personal crises that would continue throughout his career. He fought his first duel with a fellow Kentucky lawmaker inand by the time he became secretary of state, he would be dueling with a U. From toand tohe was elected to the House of Representatives as a Democratic-Republican.

He served as Speaker of the House for all but two of those years. Clay advocated a national economic policy that he called the American System, an ambitious attempt to link the East and West through transportation reforms, protectionism in the form of tariffs to boost U. Calling for war with Britain inhe became nationally prominent as a leading member of the so-called War Hawks.

Inhe acted as a representative to the Ghent Peace Commission, which ended the war of Strong stands were his trademark: inopposing General Andrew Jackson 's invasion of Florida, he resigned as Speaker of the House. In Clay helped bring about the Missouri Compromise. This was a federal response to a bitter controversy over new slave states' joining the Union, which came to a head when the slave-owning Missouri Territory applied for admission in Northerners objected to the entry of more slave states.

Southerners protested when the House considered a measure that would block further slavery in Missouri. Thomas Jefferson declared the Missouri issue—and in particular questions of constitutional authority—to be part of a Federalist conspiracy to destroy the Union. Clay drafted a compromise, persuading northern lawmakers to drop the slavery restriction, while southern lawmakers agreed to limit the geographic boundaries of slavery.

In he secured a second compromise in the form of a resolution that prohibited Missouri from discriminating against citizens from other states. Clay won wide praise for his work, although the compromise would be undone in time by the Supreme Court and the question of slavery would be ultimately decided by the Civil War. As a candidate of the whig party, Clay made his first of five bids for the White House in He never succeeded, but the first failure bore fruit.

In a runoff between Jackson and Adams that was decided in the House, Clay gave his "henry clay biography summary form" to Adams, who won. Clay's reward was the job of secretary of state, one he had long coveted. For years, Democrats bitterly scorned the obvious deal, and the criticism wounded Clay. Byhe became the target of a particularly venomous attack by Senator John Randolphan old opponent, who compared Clay to one of the scoundrels from Henry Fielding 's novel Tom Jones in a series of blasts at Clay's competence and ethics as secretary.

Clay promptly challenged Randolph to a little-celebrated pistol duel—a series of bad aims and misfires in which neither man could hit anything and the two ended up shaking hands. In Clay was elected to the Senate. He represented Kentucky for an eleven-year stretch, to which he added another term from to Two of his achievements were significant.

One was the Compromise Tariff ofwhich eased the situation caused by South Carolina 's nullification policy—a political doctrine under which a state held that it could reject any federal law that it deemed unconstitutional. Upset over federal tariffs that it found discriminatory, South Carolina had refused to allow tariffs to be collected in its state and had threatened to secede from the Union.

This refusal brought the first test of a state's decision to invoke nullification, and the reaction was swift: President Jackson, declaring that the state had no right to nullify a federal law, threatened to send troops. Clay's compromise called for a gradually declining tariff, which pleased South Carolina, averting further trouble. But, like the Missouri Compromiseit was a temporary balm to the aggravations between the North and the South.

Clay's greatest achievement occurred at the end of his long career. Inas the question of slavery threatened to split the nation, he formulated a plan that fairly decided the admission of California and the New Mexico and Utah territories as free or slave states. Again, a compromise of his averted civil war. Clay died two years later, on June 29,in Washington, D.

The war he had helped forestall came less than a decade after his death. Remini, Robert V. Henry Clay: Statesman for the Union. New York : Norton. Early Years. The seventh of eight children, his parents John and Elizabeth had ties to the earliest settlers but were of modest means. He was licensed within a year and moved to Lexington, Kentucky.

In he married Lucretia Hart, and the two had eleven children. He outlived six daughters and one son. In Clay was elected to the House of Representatives and was chosen Speaker. He returned to Congress after completing the treaty and pushed his American System, passing several key portions, including a new bank charter, a protective tariff, and an internal improvements bill.

Clay believed that his experience and talent qualified him to be president, but his ambition went unfulfilled. In he ran for the office but polled fourth of four candidates. As Speaker of the House, Clay influenced the outcome of the election by throwing his support to John Quincy Adams instead of the more popular Andrew Jacksoncontrary to the instructions of his constituents.

He proposed the rechartering of the bank four years ahead of schedule in order to make the bank an issue in the election, when he challenged Jackson for the presidency as the candidate of the nascent Whig Party and lost again. Union Whig. He was disappointed by the Whig decision to run a Democratic-style campaign replete with a war hero, William Henry Harrisonas candidate.

Clay resigned from the Senate inbut eager for another run at the presidency, he accepted the Whig nomination in His opposition to expansion cost him his best chance at victory, and he lost to James K. Polk, who vigorously favored adding Texas to the Union. Clay returned to the Senate inhoping to end sectional conflict over the Mexican Cession.

In his last great attempt at compromise initially failed later to be revived by Stephen Douglasand he left Washington to recover his health. He died on 29 June Robert V. Henry Clay was one of the leading American statesmen in the first half of the nineteenth century. Senate and also as secretary of state. He ran for the presidency five times and lost each time.

Although Clay was a slave owner and often supported the Southhe helped craft the compromise that kept slavery out of new U. Henry Clay was born on April 12,the son of a Baptist minister. His father died inand Clay's formal education was cut short when his mother remarried and the family moved to Richmond, Virginia. There, Clay began working as a store clerk at his stepfather's recommendation.

From toClay worked as secretary to a judge, copying and transcribing records. Inhe took up the study of law. At age twenty, he moved to Kentuckywhere he began a practice as a defense attorney. He married into a leading family and prospered, eventually owning a six-hundred-acre estate. Clay became well known for his skill as an orator. He lived the life of a frontiersman in Kentucky and was prone to drinking and gambling.

Clay eventually became involved in politics, and in he was elected to the Kentucky legislature. He briefly served in the U. Senate from November to March and January to Marchfilling vacancies following resignations. House of Representatives in and was immediately chosen to be Speaker of the House presiding officera position he held six times during his tenure in the House, which lasted until From tohe served as secretary of state for President John Quincy Adams —; served — Senate again inserving until He was not always pro-war, however.

He later opposed the Mexican-American War —48but he supported the government nonetheless, losing one of his sons to the war. Clay was a lifetime supporter of business interests and championed protectionism, an economic policy that protects U. He also pushed for federal support of roads and canals. It was Clay's intention to unite the commercial and manufacturing interests of the East henry clay biography summary form the agricultural and small business interests of the West.

He also called for centralizing the country's economy in a federal bank. Clay's protectionism reached its peak in the so-called tariff of abominations inan act that placed an extremely high tax on goods coming into the United States from other countries. By making foreign goods less competitive, the act raised demand for goods produced within the country.

Southerners strongly objected to the tariff of because it protected only goods manufactured in the industrial North and damaged the European market for the agricultural goods of the South. Clay was divided in his attitudes about slavery, on the one hand defending the Southern states and owning slaves himself, but on the other hand working hard for slavery's abolition.

Clay took part in the failed attempt by the Kentucky constitutional convention to abolish slavery in the new state. Inhe founded the American Colonization Society ACSan organization that advocated freeing slaves and sending them to live in an African colony. Clay was an expansionist, one who believed in broadening the nation's borders, so he worked for the addition of states and territories to the Union.

He strongly believed in preserving the Union. Both of these henries clay biography summary form put him at odds with other Southerners, who feared that adding new states would tip the balance of free states states that did not allow slavery and slave states. The free state—slave state controversy came to a head when the territory of Missouri applied for admission to the Union as a slave state early in Clay, earning his nickname as the Great Compromiser, supported a plan known as the Missouri Compromise.

This compromise allowed Missouri to enter the Union as a slave state while at the same time admitting Maine as a free state, thus preserving the balance of free and slave states. It also prevented slavery in states north of the present-day southern border of Missouri. To ensure that free blacks would be allowed to enter Missouri, Clay personally acquired the assurance of the Missouri legislature that it would not pass any laws that would restrict the rights and privileges of U.

Inaligned with statesman Daniel Webster —Clay advocated the Compromise ofa series of proposals that admitted California to the Union as a free state, abolished slavery in Washington, D. The Compromise of is credited with postponing the American Civil War —65 for a decade. Clay was a fearless fighter for his political ideas. He died in Washington, D.

An Enduring Career. Despite losing five presidential races, Henry Clay played a central role in Western — and national — politics for more than four decades. As Speaker of the House of Representatives from to and from tolonger than anyone else in the nineteenth century, Clay emerged as the outstanding Western leader of the period. A Pioneer Nationalist.

Although one of the most prominent leaders to come out of the West, Clay was first and foremost a nationalist. After the War of Clay introduced plans for an integrated system of protective tariffs, a national bank, and subsidized internal improvements known as the American System. Although Clay intended this program to foster economic development and integrate the regions of the United States politically, many of its provisions joined the North and West, yet isolated the South.

The American System. The American System had direct bearing on westward expansion. Under this scheme the federal government sold public land in the West rather than give it away to settlers, with the proceeds benefiting transportation projects and schools. The American System became central to the political beliefs of Whigs, who arose in opposition to Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party.

A Great Compromiser.

Henry clay biography summary form: Henry Clay, (born April 12, ,

Clay was also known as the Great Compromiser for his leading role in two watershed legislative compromises: the Missouri Compromise of and the Compromise of Though Clay intended these compromises to relieve sectional tensions, neither was able to prevent Southern secession and Civil War. This process, consisting of soaking paper strips in thin starchbased paste and applying them to a surface to form a shape upon hardening, is now used primarily for decorative objects.

When first introduced, it was also used to create trays, moldings, and other objects. People History U. History: Biographies Henry Clay. Clay, Henry gale. Shaping of America, Reference Library. Learn more about citation styles Citation styles Encyclopedia. Henry Clay gale. Speaker of the House, politician H enry Clay was one of the most important U.

A young Kentucky lawyer Up to this point in his life, Clay had still not acquired much formal education, but Wythe encouraged him to use his library to augment his learning. Beginning a public service career In Clay was elected to Kentucky's state legislature, where he established himself as a Democratic Republican like President Thomas Jefferson