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Henry Clay: The Great Compromiser

Henry Clay (1777-1852) was an American lawyer and statesman, one of the defining political figures of his age. Over the course of his several decades on the stage of national politics, Clay helped lead the United States into the War of 1812 (1812-1815), diffused several sectional crises over slavery, introduced an economic plan known as the 'American System', and founded the Whig Party in opposition to his rival Andrew Jackson (1767-1845). Clay served as the Speaker of the House, Secretary of State, and made three unsuccessful bids for the presidency. Known as the 'Great Compromiser' for his roles in the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850, Clay is recognized as part of the 'Great Triumvirate' of US Congressmen alongside John C. Calhoun (1782-1850) and Daniel Webster (1782-1852).

Early Life

Reflecting on his childhood, Clay would later say that he was "born a democrat – rocked in the cradle of the revolution" (quoted in Peterson, 8). He was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on 12 April 1777, less than a year after the United States had declared its independence from Great Britain. The seventh of nine children born to Reverend John Clay and his wife Elizabeth Hudson Clay, Henry's earliest years were suffused with tragedy – most of his older siblings died in childhood, and his father, a popular Baptist minister, died in 1781, when Henry was only four. That same year, the American Revolution came to Virginia. Clay would recall how his family homestead was raided by the British Legion under Banastre Tarleton and how the British dragoons stuck their swords into the grave of his father in the hopes of unearthing hidden treasure. The raid left the family in a dire financial situation, which was assuaged when Clay's mother remarried Captain Henry Watkins, a successful planter. Elizabeth would go on to have six more children with Watkins, who proved to be a kind stepfather and had a good relationship with Clay.

In 1791, Watkins moved the family to Kentucky, driven by rumors of good, fertile lands to be had out West. Clay declined to follow – already insatiably ambitious at 14 years old, he had obtained a position as deputy clerk for the Virginia Chancery Court in the capital of Richmond and was determined to see it through. As biographer Bernard Mayo put it, "Virginia's high courts and legislative halls were to be his preparatory school"; Clay, who had only received three years of formal education, developed his logical and oratorical skills by observing the lawyers and statesmen in the capital. Clay not only learned how to think like a Virginian lawyer but also how to party like one – much of his free time was spent attending lavish balls or risking his money at gambling taverns. Before long, he was reading law under the guidance of George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Clay was admitted to the Virginia bar in 1797 and, that same year, decided to follow his family to Kentucky to seek his fortune as a frontier lawyer.

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